Nevertheless, still and yet: Concessive cancellative discourse markers

Using an 8 million-word corpus together with introspected examples, this paper examines the concessive cancellative discourse markers nevertheless,1, still and yet. In a sequence P – DMcancellative – Q, a cancellative marker provides an instruction as to what aspect of information in the form of a derivable assumption from the prior discourse, P, either globally or locally, is to be canceled by the current message Q. In a concessive relationship, this assumption is a potential consequence derivable from the prior discourse. A concessive cancellative marker both concedes the truth of the prior discourse and signals the cancellation of the potential consequence derivable from the prior discourse segment. The corpus yielded 254 tokens of nevertheless/nonetheless, 802 tokens of discourse marker yet and 262 tokens of discourse marker still.2 These markers are distinguished according to three interconnected criteria: variability of scope, speaker perspective, and degree of concession. Variability of scope refers to the range to which a marker signals the hearer/analyst to search the previous discourse for a consequence of P that is canceled in Q. Nevertheless, still and yet constitute a cline of scope with nevertheless having the most limited scope and yet having the largest scope. Speaker perspective refers to whether the speaker perceives P from the perspective of Q, or Q from the perspective of P. The point of view of a speaker who uses still is located in Q, that of a speaker who uses yet is located in P, and the point of view of a user of nevertheless is neutral, neither located in P nor in Q. With regard to the degree of concession, nevertheless, still and yet are again considered in terms of a cline with nevertheless signaling the strongest degree of concession and yet the weakest. It is no coincidence that the clines of scope and concession are inversely related: the more vague the instruction carried by a concessive marker, the greater its ability to operate globally and conversely, the more detailed the instruction, the less its ability to operate globally.