A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

(34) English discourse marker and at both local and global levels
TOPIC 1 (global)
and EVENT (local)
and EVENT… (local)
and TOPIC 2 (global)
and EVENT (local)
and EVENT… (local)
This structure is exemplified by an example given in Schiffrin 1987 which shows and
working on both local and global levels within the same discourse. For convenience, the
topics are underlined, and the event structures indented. All occurrences of and are in
bold type. This is shown below.
(35) Example from Schiffrin 1987:140
[Do either of your daughter in laws work?]
a. No but they did.
b. Both my daughters in laws worked.
c. Uh: my older daughter in law worked for four years while my son was in school.
d. And she didn’t become uh pregnant until he graduated.
e. And uh: she feels that once her children are in school, she’d like to go back.
f. And my younger daughter in law, uh: they got married when she was eighteen.
g. And she uh: was just starting Beaver.
h. She took up that pre nursery school?
i. For two years?
j. Y’know that get set program?
[continues with discussion of school program]
In (35b), the phrase both my daughters in laws establishes the speaker’s daughters-in-law
as the two discourse topics. Each discourse topic (i.e. global level) is then expanded into
event structures, i.e. local units, such as events within general support, and within specific
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