The development of discourse markers in Spanish: Interjections

• Published in: Journal of pragmatics Vol. 31; no. 10; pp. 1289 - 1319
• Main Author: Montes, Rosa Graciela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.10.1999; North-Holland Pub. Co
• ISSN: 0378-2166; 1879-1387
• DOI: 10.1016/S0378-2166(98)00106-4

The present study examines the emergence of seven Spanish interjections ( ah, oh, uh, ay, oy, uy, and eh) in the speech of a young child acquiring Spanish as a native language. These are analyzed as ‘information management markers’ (Schiffrin, 1987), and, following Wilkins (1995), we will consider them as deictics or indexicals that point to a referent which may be contextual or textual, and thus function to bring that element into the focus of attention. Ah, oh, and uh are called ‘projective’ because they seem to point the interlocutor's attention to an external referent (an object or event in the context, an utterance in discourse). Ay, oy, and uy are called ‘subjective’ since they focus on the internal reaction of affectedness of the speaker with respect to the referent. Eh functions as both a hesitation marker and an intensifier. The study traces the development of these interjections longitudinally in the speech of one child (from age 1;7 to 3;0). Although most of the interjections are already being used by the child at the first period of observation, we see in the child a development from the more literal, contextual uses to the more elaborated discursive functions which emerge later.