http://www.metafilter.com/tags/discoursemarkers Posts tagged with 'discoursemarkers' at MetaFilter. Wed, 15 May 2002 07:48:43 -0800 Wed, 15 May 2002 07:48:43 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/17153/ <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/education/newsid_1868000/1868591.stm">They might actually be, you know, be useful.</a> This year, a student in Nebraska won $1000 for finding the worst example of overuse of the phrase 'you know,' by an athlete who said it 30 times in a 135 second interview. But are they really that terrible? Known as discourse markers, phrases such as 'you know' and 'I mean' are <a href="http://review.ucsc.edu/winter.97/fox_tree.html">thought to be essential</a> in conveying information in conversation and helping us understand each other. Discourse markers also exist in <a href="http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/lingdept/Current/colloquia/abstracts/fleischman1999.html">many other languages</a> and possibly even ancient languages. tag:metafilter.com,2002:site.17153 Wed, 15 May 2002 07:48:43 -0800 discourse discoursemarkers grammar language linguistics phrases slang usage adrianhon