Identifier

etd-04082016-110841

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Foreign Languages and Literatures

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

This thesis addresses the question of discourse marker usage and function among a group of Honduran Spanish speakers who reside in Louisiana in an environment of English language contact. It seeks to descriptively outline the pragmatic functions of the consecutive connector markers entonces, así and pues, and to identify the meanings underlying these functions in informal conversation. As the first linguistic study of Hondurans in Baton Rouge, this thesis gives new insight to Spanish discourse marker usage in the United States. 19 Honduran speakers residing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana were interviewed, and their spontaneous speech was transcribed and analyzed for discourse marker usage and function. I found five different functions of the consecutive connector entonces which comprised three separate meanings, three functions of así with two semantic meanings, and finally two consecutive functions of pues with one shared meaning. I also have observed potential effects of English discourse marker borrowings on the usage of Spanish markers among this corpus. This thesis reveals interesting implications of the usage of consecutive connectors in a sample of Honduran speech in a situation of English contact, and opens the doors for further research on discourse markers in the United States.

Date

2016

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

King, Jeremy

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.35

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