The combining of Discourse Markers – A beginning

While Discourse Markers (DMs) have been studied as individual markers (e.g., but, so, instead), little work has been done on their ability to combine. In this paper I explore what combinations of Contrastive Discourse Markers (CDM) occur in English (e.g., but, on the other hand), what combinations of Implicative Discourse Markers (IDM) occur (e.g., so, as a result), and what combinations occur when one member is taken from each class (e.g., but, as a result; so, instead). Whereas the combinations of CDMs are permitted relatively often, combinations of IDMs are fewer, and cross-class combinations of CDM-IDM and IDM–CDM still fewer. No satisfactory explanation is available yet for why certain DMs combine while others do not. In addition, there is the possibility that different genres, social dialects and styles may further muddy the waters.