Ou seja vs. O sea : formal identity or functional diversity

Abstract

This paper aims at fulfilling a twofold objective: to highlight the functional differences between Portuguese ou seja and Spanish o sea and to do so by making use of a model of discourse segmentation, namely, the one developed in Briz and GrupoVal.Es.Co. (2003). The results have shown that OSS share most of their functions and differ in the wider range of functions of o sea, which has modal functions that are not shared by ou seja

Keywords

• o sea/ou seja
• discourse markers
• pragmatic functions
• model of discourse segmentation
• synchronic contrastive description