Query on italian DM

[Celso Alvarez Caccamo]

Anna,

This may interest you. I'm including the abstract from a web
page presenting the volume (http://www.udc.es/dep/lx/cac/c-s).


Oesch Serra, Cecilia. 1998. "Discourse connectives in bilingual
conversation: The case of an emerging Italian-French mixed code".
In _Code-Switching in Conversation. Language, Interaction and
Identity_, ed. by Peter Auer. London: Routledge, 101-122.

"The study I am presenting analyses an interactive pattern
which appears very frequently in the speech of Italian
migrants in French speaking Switzerland. The speakers construct
an original argumentative system on the basis of two monolingual
systems, which is not identical to either of them.

In such a system there are three adversative connectives rather
than two in monolingual Italian: ma (‘but’), però (‘but, however,
yet’) or one in monolingual French, mais (‘but’). The system uses
the adversative connectives in order to organize argumentative
patterns with their own ru les for application. The patterns are
variable, ranging from the most simple: the connection with a
single mais or a single ma, to the most complex: the connection
with the three connectives ma + mais + però. Moreover, each pattern
pre-supposes the existence of the others and is in a relation of
intensity with them. A tendency is therefore revealed which sees
the specialisation of the single ma as a speech marker and that
of the single mais as an argumentative connective.

Conversational analysis of these occurrences reveals, however,
that various factors -- such as the discursive function, the
importance of the argument they introduce or the base language
used at this point in speech -- may play an important role in
their respective choice. Despite their difference, the isolated
or joint use of connectives reveal common conversational
functions. The organization of this argumentative structure,
its frequency and its regularity provide additional arguments
supporting the emergence of a mixed-code, which has no equivalent
in the source languages."

--
Celso Alvarez Cáccamo              Tel. +34 981 167000 ext. 1888
Linguística Geral, Faculdade de Filologia     FAX +34 981 167151
Universidade da Corunha                          lxalvarz at udc.es
15071 A Corunha, Galiza (Espanha)  http://www.udc.es/dep/lx/cac/