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There is a recurrent structure for discourse markers found across Spanish and Catalan which has rarely been studied. I name these y+ and i+ final discourse markers. These forms have a copulative conjunction as their first element, which is followed by other components that discursively operate as one and that are placed at the end of a unit of talk. In this dissertation, I focus on y ya está, in Spanish, and i ja està, in Catalan, which have never been studied in depth. I explore these discourse markers through spoken data of informal conversations in both languages via the methodologies proposed by Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics.
These y+ and i+ discourse markers can be further divided into exhaustive and non-exhaustive. Exhaustive y+ or i+ discourse markers convey conclusion of what is said before. Only a handful of studies mention y+ and i+ discourse markers such as y punto and y nada más (Fuentes Rodríguez 2009; Cuenca and Marín 2009; Montañez Mesas 2015), none of them analyzed in detail. Non-exhaustive discourse markers, which convey vagueness (Domínguez Mujica 2005; Montañez Mesas 2008) have been examined more often. In this dissertation, I focus on the less-studied subgroup of y+ and i+ particles by comprehensively investigating the uses of y ya está and i ja està as exhaustive, final discourse markers.
In doing so, two contexts arise for these forms. In the first, which follows in the structure of [1 element + y ya está/i ja està], the speaker utters the discourse marker to terminate the possibility of adding more items to what is said. Locally, each combination of the element plus the discourse marker conveys action in context (Drew 2013; Enfield and Sidnell 2017). Following the categorical approach of CouperKuhlen (2014), I have found that [1 element + y ya está/i ja està] is regularly implemented in Spanish and Catalan interaction to convey Criticism*, Description*, Explanation*, Instruction*, or Justification*.
The second context in which y ya está and i ja està are mostly found is after the juxtaposition of one or more items belonging to a similar class, that is, concluding an enumeration. In those situations, [+1 element + y ya está/i ja està] may convey Criticism*, Explanation*, Instruction*, Justification* or Agreement* with the interlocutor via the co-construction of the enumeration. Besides the contextualized social action conveyed by the construction, my results are in line with previous findings regarding the potential universality for the three-partedness of enumerations (Lerner 1992; Cortés-Rodríguez 2005; Selting 2007). Indeed, in both Spanish and Catalan, when using y ya está or i ja està as generalized list completers (Jefferson 1990), it is most common to find two elements preceding the discourse marker.
This dissertation provides the first extensive analyses of y ya está and i ja està as exhaustive, final y+ and i+ discourse markers. In here, I lay the foundation for further studies of said category of final particles, as well as for more research on enumerations, their composition, and their implementation in interaction.