Combinations of discourse markers with repairs and repetitions in English, French and Spanish
Open accessAbstract
Abstract Discourse markers have a central role in planning and repairing processes of speech production. They relate with fluency and disfluency phenomena such as pauses, repetitions and reformulations. Their polyfunctionality is challenging and few form-function mappings are stable cross-linguistically. This study combines a functional and a structural approach to discourse markers and their combination with and within repetitions and self-repairs in native English, French and Spanish, in order to establish the inter-relation between these three fluency-related devices and to find potentially universal patterns of use. Qualitative coding and quantitative analyses of categories of markers and repairs allowed us to identify discourse markers which are specific to repair sequences and others which are much more pervasive. Combinations with repetitions vary across languages and repair types. Our findings fill a gap in cross-linguistic fluency research, disentangle the overlap between discourse markers, repairs and repetitions, and can be integrated into pedagogical materials.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Cites
The Preference for Self-Correction in the Organization of Repair in Conversation
Schegloff, E. A., Jefferson, G., & Sacks, H. (1977) · Language · doi:10.2307/413107 · Cited by 5,150 · see citing works
Speaking: from intention to articulation
(1989) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.27-1947 · Cited by 5,016 · see citing works
Speaking. From Intention to Articulation
Caplan, D. N. (1990) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/0166-2236(90)90151-y · Cited by 4,036 · see citing works
Monitoring and self-repair in speech.
Levelt, W. (1983) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/0010-0277(83)90026-4 · Cited by 1,676 · see citing works
Language transfer: cross-linguistic influence in language learning
(1990) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.27-4349 · Cited by 1,124 · see citing works
The Handbook of Discourse Analysis
Tannen, D. 1., Hamilton, H. E., & Schiffrin, D. 1. (2015) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781118584194 · Cited by 663 · see citing works
Learner English on computer. Ed. by Sylviane Granger. London: Longman, 1998. Pp. xxii, 228.
McCreary, D. R. (1999) · Language · doi:10.2307/417774 · Cited by 559 · see citing works
Approaches to Discourse Particles
Fischer, K. (2006) · BRILL eBooks · doi:10.1163/9780080461588 · Cited by 535 · see citing works
Computer Learner Corpora, Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Teaching
(2002) · Language learning and language teaching · doi:10.1075/lllt.6 · Cited by 460 · see citing works
Repeating Words in Spontaneous Speech
Clark, H. H., & Wasow, T. (1998) · Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1006/cogp.1998.0693 · Cited by 445 · see citing works
Tree, J. E. F. (1995) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1006/jmla.1995.1032 · Cited by 400 · see citing works
Ideational and pragmatic markers of discourse structure
Redeker, G. (1990) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(90)90095-u · Cited by 395 · see citing works
Developing Pragmatic Fluency in English as a Foreign Language: Routines and Metapragmatic Awareness
House, J. (1996) · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · doi:10.1017/s0272263100014893 · Cited by 389 · see citing works
Discourse Markers and Spoken English: Native and Learner Use in Pedagogic Settings
Fung, L., & Carter, R. (2007) · Applied Linguistics · doi:10.1093/applin/amm030 · Cited by 376 · see citing works
Discourse Markers: Language, Meaning, and Context
Schiffrin, D. (2005) · doi:10.1002/9780470753460.ch4 · Cited by 373 · see citing works
The Oxford Handbook of Corpus Phonology
Durand, J., Laks, B., & Lyche, C. (2014) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199571932.001.0001 · Cited by 360 · see citing works
Fluency in Native and Nonnative English Speech
Götz, S. (2013) · Studies in corpus linguistics · doi:10.1075/scl.53 · Cited by 308 · see citing works
Nelson, G., Wallis, S., & Aarts, B. (2002) · Cited by 275 · see citing works
Conversational coherence : form, structure, and strategy
Craig, R. T., & Tracy, K. (1983) · Cited by 243 · see citing works
The pragmatic fossilization of discourse markers in non-native speakers of English
Romero‐Trillo, J. (2002) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/s0378-2166(02)00022-x · Cited by 233 · see citing works
Aijmer, K., & Simon‐Vandenbergen, A. (2011) · Handbook of pragmatics highlights · doi:10.1075/hoph.8.13aij · Cited by 214 · see citing works
Schourup, L. (2001) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/s0378-2166(00)00053-9 · Cited by 206 · see citing works
House, J. (2013) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2013.03.001 · Cited by 153 · see citing works
Two ways to reformulate: a contrastive analysis of reformulation markers
Cuenca, M. J. (2003) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/s0378-2166(03)00004-3 · Cited by 145 · see citing works
So as a multifunctional discourse marker in native and learner speech
Buysse, L. (2012) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2012.08.012 · Cited by 141 · see citing works
Methods in discourse variation analysis: Reflections on the way forward1
Pichler, H. (2010) · Journal of Sociolinguistics · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9841.2010.00455.x · Cited by 134 · see citing works
An automated approach to the phrasicon of EFL learners
Cock, S. D., Granger, S., Leech, G., et al. (1998) · Digital Access to Libraries (Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), l'Université de Namur (UNamur) and the Université Saint-Louis (USL-B)) · doi:10.4324/9781315841342-17 · Cited by 131 · see citing works
Contrasting the form and use of reformulation markers
Cuenca, M. J., & Bach, C. (2007) · Discourse Studies · doi:10.1177/1461445607075347 · Cited by 125 · see citing works
Co., G. V. E. (2014) · Estudios de Lingüística del Español · doi:10.36950/elies.2014.35.8709 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
The juggling act of oral fluency: a psycho-sociolinguistic metaphor
Ejzenberg, R. (2000) · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Cited by 115 · see citing works
Fischer, K. (2006) · BRILL eBooks · doi:10.1163/9780080461588_002 · Cited by 115 · see citing works
Well I’m not sure I think… The use of well by non-native speakers
Aijmer, K. (2011) · International Journal of Corpus Linguistics · doi:10.1075/ijcl.16.2.04aij · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Zienkowski, J. (2011) · Handbook of pragmatics highlights · doi:10.1075/hoph.8.01zie · Cited by 104 · see citing works
The fuzzy boundaries between discourse marking and modal marking
Cuenca, M. J. (2013) · Pragmatics & beyond. New series · doi:10.1075/pbns.234.08cue · Cited by 103 · see citing works
Hansen, M. M. (2006) · BRILL eBooks · doi:10.1163/9780080461588_003 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Learner corpora and language testing
Hasselgreen, A. (2002) · Language learning and language teaching · doi:10.1075/lllt.6.11has · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Variety in Contemporary English
O'Donnell, W. R., & Todd, L. (1980) · Taylor & Francis eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203308288 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Pragmatic markers in contrast: The case of well
Cuenca, M. J. (2008) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2008.02.013 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Multifunctionality in dialogue
(2010) · Trinity's Access to Research Output (TARA) (Trinity College Dublin) · doi:10.1016/j.csl.2010.04.006 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Pragmatic markers and discourse coherence relations in English and Catalan oral narrative
González, M. (2005) · Discourse Studies · doi:10.1177/1461445605048767 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Language in Use: Cognitive and Discourse Perspectives on Language and Language Learning
Tyler, A., Takada, M., Kim, Y., et al. (2005) · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Another look at, well, you know…
Crystal, D. S. (1988) · English Today · doi:10.1017/s0266078400003321 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Metalanguage in interaction : Hebrew discourse markers
Maschler, Y. (2009) · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Metalanguage in Interaction: Hebrew Discourse Markers
Ariel, M. (2010) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2010.07.030 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Fluency and Disfluency across Languages and Language Varieties.
Degand, L., Gilquin, G., Meurant, L., et al. (2019) · Digital Access to Libraries · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Not all disfluencies are are equal: The effects of disfluent repetitions on language comprehension
MacGregor, L. J., Corley, M. M. B., & Donaldson, D. I. (2009) · Brain and Language · doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2009.07.003 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Auer, P., & Pfänder, S. (2007) · Cahiers de praxématique · doi:10.4000/praxematique.758 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Unidades,marcadores discursivos y posición.
Gómez, A. B., & Bordería, S. P. (2010) · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Discourse Markers and (Dis)Fluency: Forms and Functions Across Languages and Registers
Crible, L. (2018) · Pragmatics & beyond. New series · doi:10.1075/pbns.286 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Self-citationGilquin, G. (2008) · BRILL eBooks · doi:10.1163/9789401206204_002 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Language transfer. Cross-linguistic influence in language learning
Ringbom, H. (1990) · System · doi:10.1016/0346-251x(90)90015-w · Cited by 34 · see citing works
'So very fast very fast then' Discourse markers at left and right periphery in spoken French.
Degand, L. (2014) · Digital Access to Libraries · Cited by 32 · see citing works
‘Well it's not very ideal …’ The pragmatic marker well in learner English
Buysse, L. (2015) · Intercultural Pragmatics · doi:10.1515/ip-2015-0003 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
The Pragmatic Functions of Repetition in TV Discourse
Rabab'ah, G. A., & AbuSeileek, A. F. (2012) · Research in Language · doi:10.2478/v10015-012-0004-x · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Pragmatic markers as constructions. The case of anyway
Aijmer, K. (2016) · Studies in language companion series · doi:10.1075/slcs.178.02aij · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Dister, A., Francard, M., Hambye, P., et al. (2009) · Cited by 21 · see citing works
A Study on the Pragmatic Fossilization of Discourse Markers among Chinese English Learners
Zhao, H. (2013) · Journal of Language Teaching and Research · doi:10.4304/jltr.4.4.707-714 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Discourse markers in L2 English: From classroom to naturalistic input
Gilquin, G. (2016) · Digital Access to Libraries (Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), l'Université de Namur (UNamur) and the Université Saint-Louis (USL-B)) · doi:10.1075/slcs.177.09gil · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Beeching, K. (2010) · Languages in Contrast · doi:10.1075/lic.10.2.03bee · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Pragmatic Markers and Pragmaticalization: Lessons from false friends
Lauwers, P. 1., Vanderbauwhede, G. 1., & Verleyen, S. 1. (2010) · Languages in Contrast · doi:10.1075/lic.10.2 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
The Communicative Role of Self-repetition in a Specialised Corpus of Business Discourse
Fung, L. (2007) · Language Awareness · doi:10.2167/la459.0 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Min, L. I., & Yan, X. (2012) · International Journal of English Linguistics · doi:10.5539/ijel.v2n5p65 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
New Approaches to English Linguistics
Schneider, G., & Grigonytė, G. (2016) · Studies in language companion series · doi:10.1075/slcs.177 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Semantic change. Evidence from false friends.
Beeching, K. (2010) · UWE Research Repository (UWE Bristol) · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Spoken discourse segmentation and the paradox of discourse markers.
Degand, L. (2016) · DIAL (Catholic University of Leuven) · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Aliaga, E. P. (2018) · ELUA Estudios de Lingüística Universidad de Alicante · doi:10.14198/elua2018.anexo4.04 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
3 of the 69 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Crible, 2019, Discourse and pragmatic markers in speech and sign: introduction, J. Pragmat.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The dual status of filled pauses: Evidence from genre, proficiency and co-occurrence
Kosmala, L., & Crible, L. (2021) · Language and Speech · doi:10.1177/00238309211010862 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
“…she found that markers expressing the “reformulation,” “punctuation,” or “monitoring” functions tended to be rather disruptive and disfluent, whereas discourse markers performing a “sequential” function were more associated with discourse structure and fluency (see also Crible & Pascual, 2020).”
BackgroundSelf-citationThe pragmatics of audiovisual translation: Voices from within in film subtitling
Guillot, M. (2020) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2020.09.015 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Meyer, A. S. (2023) · Journal of Cognition · doi:10.5334/joc.268 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Introduction: Discourse-pragmatic markers in speech and sign
Crible, L., & Blackwell, S. E. (2019) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2019.09.002 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Self-citationCossavella, F., & Cevasco, J. (2021) · Journal of Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1080/20445911.2021.1893325 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
“Other studies should examine the interplay between the presence of other disfluencies (such as false starts and repetitions, Crible & Pascual, 2020; Fox Tree, 1995; MacGregor et al., 2009) and the establishment of other connections that have been proposed to play a role in discourse comprehension…”
BackgroundBordería, S. P., & Fischer, K. (2021) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2020.11.021 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
The Pausing Strategies in Chinese Preschool Children's Narratives
Liu, J., Yu, F., Feng, C., & Li, S. (2023) · Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research · doi:10.1044/2022_jslhr-21-00542 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Bordería, S. P., & Aliaga, E. P. (2021) · Russian Journal of Linguistics · doi:10.22363/2687-0088-2021-25-2-478-506 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“…label of the These variables stay in close relationship with the goals of a annotation process like the one performed in segmentation process involves a) placing and b) c) bounding subacts; on the other 10 For the relationship between this category and the concept disfluency , see Pascual (2020).”
Clin, É., & Kissine, M. (2023) · Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research · doi:10.1044/2023_jslhr-23-00002 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Tibau, M., Siqueira, S. W. M., & Nunes, B. P. (2022) · ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media (HT) · doi:10.1145/3511095.3531272 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“, terms like “uh-huh” or “mmhm”) [12], we considered it a period of non-verbalization.”
BackgroundEaton, C. T., & Burrowes, L. (2021) · Aphasiology · doi:10.1080/02687038.2021.1966375 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“…MacWhinney, 2000) such as well . . . or so . . . are more difficult to identify because they are less defined in the literature and may be included in other familiar language subtypes such as phrasal interjections, speech formulas, or even pause fillers (e.g., Crible & Pascual, 2020; Fuller, 2000).”
BackgroundEffects of experience and directionality on cognitive load in dialogue interpreting
Adler, A. (2024) · Translation Cognition & Behavior · doi:10.1075/tcb.24005.adl · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Discourse markers in relation tonon-verbal behavior
Mlakar, I., Rojc, M., Majhenič, S., et al. (2021) · Gesture · doi:10.1075/gest.20018.mla · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Pragmatic markers and verba dicendi: An investigation of Mauritian Creole
Paoli, S., & Davidson, H. (2023) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2023.06.011 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Gender Influence on Student Teams' Online Communication in Software Engineering EducationPreprint
Garcia, R., & Treude, C. (2025) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.5151249 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
L2 discourse marker use in interaction: The case of pues in Spanish
Dickerson, S., & Czerwionka, L. (2024) · Foreign Language Annals · doi:10.1111/flan.12779 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Rapport in police interviews with victims: a linguistic comparison between UK and Spain
Gomez-Bedoya, M. (2024) · Journal of Criminal Psychology · doi:10.1108/jcp-08-2024-0082 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
The discourse markers indeed, in fact, really and actually and their Spanish equivalents in economy
Almeida, F. A., & Álvarez-Gil, F. J. (2021) · Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas · doi:10.4995/rlyla.2020.14397 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Yakut, İ., & YUVAYAPAN, F. (2022) · Topics in Linguistics · doi:10.2478/topling-2022-0007 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Functional Variation of German Also across Registers and Speaker Groups
Labrenz, A. (2023) · Contrastive Pragmatics · doi:10.1163/26660393-bja10077 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Social indexicality and pragmatic change in the late 20th century
Ghezzi, C. (2024) · Pragmatics & beyond. New series · doi:10.1075/pbns.340.05ghe · Cited by 1 · see citing works
A case study of gender and online team communication in Software Engineering Education
Garcia, R., & Treude, C. (2025) · Journal of Systems and Software · doi:10.1016/j.jss.2025.112644 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Williams, S. (2022) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-12488-4_1 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
What do we know about the mechanisms of response planning in dialog?
(2023) · The Psychology of learning and motivation/The psychology of learning and motivation · doi:10.1016/bs.plm.2023.02.002 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Tilburghs, B., Ciglič, B. P., & Casteele, A. V. (2023) · Cultura Lenguaje y Representación · doi:10.6035/clr.6865 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Thai EFL learners’ use of the discourse marker like in discourse marker combinations
Pan, Z. (2025) · Ampersand · doi:10.1016/j.amper.2025.100222 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Trivedi, S. K., Yadav, S. S., Awasthi, K., & Singh, S. (2025) · Smart and Sustainable Built Environment · doi:10.1108/sasbe-09-2024-0393 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
The discourse markeralein Bislama oral narratives
Alvanoudi, A., & Guérin, V. (2021) · Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages · doi:10.1075/jpcl.00076.alv · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Investigation and Analysis of Domestic and Foreign Studies on “Repair”
周, 星. (2022) · Modern Linguistics · doi:10.12677/ml.2022.108228
Maíz-Arévalo, C. (2022) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2022.08.015
Structural repetitions and discourse relations in English-Turkish translations of TED talks
Bartan, Ö. Ş. (2022) · The Literacy Trek · doi:10.47216/literacytrek.1119118
Use of English Pragmatic Marker Combinations by Asian Learners of EnglishPreprint
Pan, Z. (2023) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4567005
Handley, Z. L., Andringa, S. J., & Wang, H. (2024) · Journal of the European Second Language Association · doi:10.22599/jesla.124 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Investigating EFL Learners' Use of Pragmatic Marker Combinations
Pan, Z. (2025) · Forum for Linguistic Studies · doi:10.30564/fls.v7i5.9326
“The present research included the PM uh / um following the recent studies of this PM and filled pauses that considered both L1 English speakers and EFL learners [6,12,19,26,27] .”
InfluentialMoi, marqueur discursif : une émergence en diachronie
Feltgen, Q. (2025) · Discours · doi:10.4000/14a63
Self-repair in Chinese, Russian, and Czech narrative discourse
Chui, K., Yeh, H.-L., & Lin, M. S.-H. (2026) · Chinese Language and Discourse An International and Interdisciplinary Journal · doi:10.1075/cld.00057.chu
- Authors
- Crible, L., & Pascual, E.
- Affiliations
- Universitat de València (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Crible, Ludivine
- Venue
- Journal of Pragmatics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-01
- Volume
- 156
- Pages
- 54-67
- ISSN
- 0378-2166 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2946185075
- Semantic Scholar
- d8d7d0fe30ae958704d8a837c344ebb4a688a7ab
- Cited by
- 38
- References
- 69
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 21.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Pragmatics (publishedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Digital Access to Libraries (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (FFI2016-75249-P, FPU14/06378)
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
- European Cooperation in Science and Technology (IS1312)
- European Regional Development Fund
- Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Linguistics and Discourse Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Linguistic Studies and Language Acquisition
- Keywords
- discourse markers, self-healing, repetition, reformulation, speech production, fluency, disfluency, cross-linguistic comparison, English language, French language, Spanish language, Romance languages, form-function mapping
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
