Co-occurrence of discourse markers in Catalan and Spanish oral narrative

The analysis of oral narratives in Catalan and Spanish highlights the frequency, variety and importance of co-occurring discourse markers. A detailed study of the formal aspects of co-occurrences leads to differentiating three degrees of integration of markers: juxtaposition, addition and composition. These types can be related to dominant category patterns, positions in the narrative and also functional domains (namely, propositional, structural and modal). The analysis and extensive exemplification suggests that co-occurrences based on the addition and composition of markers behave and contribute to discourse cohesion in a special way.