The Sequencing of Contrastive Discourse Markers in English

Abstract

This paper examines an understudied area of pragmatic research, namely, the sequencing of Discourse Markers (DMs). Looking only at the sequencing of Contrastive Discourse Markers (CDMs), thereby excluding both Elaborative and Inferential Discourse Markers, it is shown that only “but” may occur as the first with all of the other CDMs, e.g., “But, on the other hand…,” with “yet” occurring first with a small subset. The rest of the CDMs are relegated to second place in a sequence with the exception of “however.” The sequencing of CDMs adds support to the claim that “but” has more than a single use, the evidence showing both a direct contrast use and a contradiction and elimination use, depending on which CDM it is paired with.