Polysemy and polyfunctionality: A two-dimensional account of discourse markers

Crible, Ludivine [UCL] Degand, Liesbeth [UCL]

Combining theoretical and methodological considerations, we propose a corpus-based annotation scheme for (spoken) discourse markers, where their functional spectrum is seen as the interface between two independent dimensions, namely a domain and a function (Crible & Degand in press). Our four domains (viz. ideational, rhetorical, sequential and interpersonal) are rooted in the tradition of cognitive models of discourse structure (e.g. Redeker 1990; Sweetser 1990; Sanders 1997) and correspond to different layers of discourse which speakers (or writers) can address: content relations (ideational), subjective and metalinguistic meanings (rhetorical), discourse structure (sequential) and speaker-hearer relationship (interpersonal). Functions, on the other hand, are more specific interpretations of the type of operation which a discourse marker is performing in a given context (fifteen types, e.g. causal relation, topic-shift, turn-taking, face-saving, etc.).