Social Niceties III: Discourse Markers

This is inevitably going to be a very incomplete post. Though I'm excited finally to be collecting and documenting the words and phrases that help manage the flow and structure of discourse, this has got to be one of the most fluid and least prescribed areas of any language; I'm sure I've left out a great amount of what would be considered basic social fluency in a competent speaker of Koa. This is one of the places where Koa development is seriously impaired by its extremely small community of speakers (i.e. only me), and therefore the fact that discoveries via conversation are kind of...imaginary.

Regardless, there's a lot here, and I've done my best to sort everything out into the broad Maschler categories described by the Wikipedia article. Many of these expressions could use a whole post unto themselves to fully explore their use, so this should be regarded mainly as an inventory. Note: some expressions appear in more than one category, where senses overlap.

7. Interpersonal Discourse Markers

First, the so-called affective particles: sounds that communicate the speaker or hearer's emotion in the context of the discourse.

aa understanding (surprise)
ee uncertainty, reluctance, hedging ("ummmm, wellll...")

ei calling attention ("hey! oh! hang on!")

eu disgust ("ew, ick")

ii pain, dislike or nervousness ("ow, yikes, ugh")

oi request for repetition or confirmation ("Huh? What's that?; Isn't that right?")

oo understanding (synthesis)

ui regret, commiseration ("oy, oh man, aww")

uu excitement, pleasure ("oooh, eeeee, yay")

Requests for repetition, confirmation or understanding checks:

tasi(a)?; nóia? tási nóia? "What was that? Come again? Beg pardon?"

ai? tag question
ainá? tag question in positive sentences ("isn't it?" n'est-ce pas?)
aiá "Oh yes? Indeed?" Also: tag question, negative sentences ("is it?")

ai eso/tota? "is that so? really?"

ai mao? "are you sure?"
tule/tei/pea "go on!"

io is one of the most common discourse markers, and extremely difficult to translate. An extension of its translative meaning -- marking that pragmatically relevant change has occurred -- io shows a shift in topic, "now then..."; or agreement, acceptance, comprehension, or mustering of thought or courage, "m'hm, okay, aha, I see, sure, got it, so..."; or readiness or completion "there we go, that's it." It may appear in various lengths, from short, chopped off by a final glottal stop; or drawn out to ioo. Very few conversations of any length will take place without a liberal sprinkling of ios.

In this meaning, io appears in a number of frequent constructions. It conveys greater immediacy, or finality, or emphasizes the transition to this new state from whatever preceded it, compared to the forms without it:

io ika "okay, that's fine"

io koa "okay, great"
io iha "fantastic, awesome, wonderful"

io cuti "lovely"

io kica "clearly; got it"
io sao "that's right; for sure; no kidding"

io pakoma "understood"

The opposite of io, ca "still" indicates pragmatically relevant lack of change, and conveys reassurance, support, conciliation, deescalation, or bashfulness:

ca, caa "aww, mmmmmm; there there; now now; shucks"

Following another expression, io adds sharpness: tule io "come on!" kulu io "listen up!" ika io! "FINE!" By contrast, ca adds softness: tule ca "come along now," ika ca "that's just fine; it's okay, hon," tei ca "go right ahead."

A frequent way of showing engagement with the discourse uses the information status markers ku "old/expected" and ho "new/unexpected" to announce the listener's relationship to the status of the information being conveyed. They both function like English "m'hm," showing up in similar circumstances.

ku, kuu, kukuku "yeah, totally, naturally, of course"

ho, hoo, hohoho "oh my, yes?? oooh! you don't say. no!"

The evidentials and viridicals provide additional means for listeners to react to information, this time showing their relationship to the origin or reliability of the information:

pu "so they say, apparently, that's what I heard"
li "must be, stands to reason, you'd figure"
vu "I guess, suppose so, if you say so"

A large number of expressions convey more complex emotional orientation to the discourse, from positive to negative; here is a sampling of the most common:

eso "really! right! yeah! exactly!"

voho "wow!"
lele "oh my, oh my goodness"

nóia "oh my, my goodness" lit. "please"

oo válani "my God"

hoia X "what a X"

leki "not quite; as if!"

iti! "unlikely! as if!"

pono "that's right! as it should be! damn straight!"

levi/kupo "uncool! not okay!"

su/lue/luvu/lahe "no way/come on now/get out" (shock or mock disbelief)

alo "can't be helped, it is what it is"

memi "oh well" lit. "sigh"

ave "too bad, it's a shame"

As with many other expressions, these often appear with io or ca as described above: ave ca "aww, well, that's the way it goes"; nóia caa "well well, good heavens"; io pono "now that's what I'm talking about!"; luvu io "seriously, stop."

8. Referential Discourse Markers

These expressions connect the discourse in terms of sequence, causality and the like:

laa "so" (therefore, consequently, for that reason)

nii "so" (then, in that case, that being so)

sii "then, next" (subsequently)

loko "because..."

eko "also"
eta "and, but, meanwhile, on the other hand" (balancing, drawing comparison: Slavic a, Latin autem, Greek μεν...δε)

iati "that aside, besides"

ala "but, however"

hotai... "actually"
sili... "at least"

hio/male "on the contrary, just the opposite"

meno "anyway, regardless"

caene "what's more"
cahaa vela "yet again"

e tei motoa, etm. = etomó "and so on, et cetera"

molala "for example"

9. Structural Discourse Markers

Introducing information to the discourse, and indicating its perceived importance to the speaker:

io "so...; now:" (introducing something)
veama "first of all, to start with"
velopu "finally, lastly"
io poa "that's it, that's all"

kulu "look, see here; here, check this out" lit. "hear/listen"

huo "see here; check this out" (emphatic) lit. "notice"

soko "here, consider this, how about this" lit. "take this"

10. Cognitive Discourse Markers

Revealing the speaker's thought process:

ee uncertainty; filler ("um, uh, er")
nou "well, so, hmm..."
ilo/mue "y'know" lit. "know/remember"

moko/sema "like...I mean..."

In the fourth and final installment we'll finish up with a more dedicated discussion of respectful (and disrespectful) address, including a very first treatment of obscenity.