A discourse marker is a

word A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consen ...

or a phrase that plays a role in managing the flow and structure of discourse. Since their main function is at the level of discourse (sequences of utterances) rather than at the level of utterances or sentences, discourse markers are relatively

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...

-independent and usually do not change the truth conditional meaning of the sentence. Examples of discourse markers include the particles ''oh'', ''well'', ''now'', ''then'', ''you know'', and ''I mean'', and the discourse connectives ''so'', ''because'', ''and'', ''but'', and ''or''. The term ''discourse marker'' was popularized by Deborah Schiffrin in her 1987 book ''Discourse Markers''.

Usage in English

Common discourse markers used in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to t ...

include "you know", "actually", "basically", " like", "I mean", "okay" and "so". Data shows that discourse markers often come from different word classes, such as adverbs ("well") or prepositional phrases ("in fact"). The process that leads from a free construction to a discourse marker can be traced back through grammaticalisation studies and resources. Traditionally, some of the words or phrases that were considered discourse markers were treated as " fillers" or "

expletive Expletive may refer to: * Expletive (linguistics), a word or phrase that is not needed to express the basic meaning of the sentence *Expletive pronoun, a pronoun used as subject or other verb argument that is meaningless but syntactically required ...

s": words or phrases that had no function at all. Now they are assigned functions in different levels of analysis: topic changes, reformulations, discourse planning, stressing, hedging, or backchanneling. Yael Maschler divided discourse markers into four broad categories: interpersonal, referential, structural, and cognitive. * Interpersonal markers are used to indicate the relationship between the speaker and the listener. ** Perception: "look", "believe me" ** Agreement: "exactly", or disagreement: "I'm not sure" ** Amazement: "wow" * Referential markers, usually

conjunctions Conjunction may refer to: * Conjunction (grammar), a part of speech * Logical conjunction, a mathematical operator ** Conjunction introduction, a rule of inference of propositional logic * Conjunction (astronomy) In astronomy, a conjunction occ ...

, are used to indicate the sequence, causality, and coordination between statements. ** Sequence: "now", "then" ** Causality: "because" ** Coordination: "and", or non-coordination: "but" * Structural markers indicate the hierarchy of conversational actions at the time in which they are spoken. These markers indicate which statements the speaker believes to be most or least important. ** Organization: "first of all" ** Introduction: "so" ** Summarization: "in the end" * Cognitive markers reveal the speaker's thought process ** Processing information: "uhh" ** Realization: "oh!" ** Rephrasing: "I mean"

Examples in other languages

Another example of an interpersonal discourse marker is the

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a v ...

marker ''nu'', also used in

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the He ...

and other languages, often to convey impatience or to urge the listener to act (cf. German cognate ''nun'', meaning "now" in the sense of "at the moment being discussed," but contrast

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

etymological cognate ''nunc'', meaning "now" in the sense of "at the moment in which discussion is occurring"; Latin used ''iam'' for "at the moment being discussed" (and many other meanings) and German uses ''jetzt'' for "at the moment in which discussion is occurring").Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2009)
Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns
In ''Journal of Language Contact'', Varia 2: 40–67, p. 50.

Usage in English

Examples in other languages

See also

Notes

Further reading