Parallel corpus as a tool for semantic analysis: The Russian discourse marker stalo byt' (‘consequently’)

What is it about?

The article examines the semantics of the Russian discourse marker stalo byt’, using the data obtained by analyzing translational correspondences extracted from parallel corpora of the Russian National Corpus (RNC). Typically, this discourse marker is an indicator of inferential evidentiality, by which the speaker marks the fact that the given statement is a conclusion made by the speaker on the basis of the information they received and accepted as true by default. In addition, stalo byt’ has two secondary types of usage – “rhetorical” and “narrative” – where the basic semantics of this discourse marker is subject to certain modifications. One of the key points of analysis is the reconstruction of semantic mechanisms providing the actual semantics of stalo byt’.

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