Building on the first volume in the Studies in Pragmatics series which clearly set out the differences and similarities in approaches to discourse markers, Pragmatic Markers in Contrast continues the debate through offering a unique and thorough examination of the methods and theories for studying pragmatic markers cross-linguistically. As a result of internationalisation and new developments in linguistics there has been an increasing interest in cross-linguistic studies. Aijmer and Simon-Vandenbergen have assembled experts in this field to explore the comparison of pragmatic...

The multifaceted and heterogeneous category of common ground is central to theories of pragmatics, sociolinguistics, discourse and context. This book addresses current approaches to common ground from the novel perspective of lexical markers. The edited volume falls in two parts. The first part addresses the relationship between mechanisms of grounding and reference to common ground. The second part examines different types of common ground. It is shown that the investigation of lexical markers provides a novel perspective for investigating the relationship between grounding, common ground...

The studies collected in this volume deal with pragmatic factors involved in the evolution of grammatical or lexical forms or in the emergence of complex syntactic structures in various languages (Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian and Spanish). They are set against the theoretical framework of grammaticalization. The main methodological tools are cross-linguistic contrastive analysis and diachronic perspective. The two main issues that emerge from these studies are the place of pragmatic factors in language change (input, output or setting/frame of the process) and the...