Discourse markers in Italian. Functions and positions

Abstract

This paper investigates the positions that discourse markers may occupy according to their functions by analyzing a corpus of oral texts and a corpus of written texts produced in the field of cultural heritage. The units considered to examine the position of discourse markers were defined based on intonational criteria and syntactic criteria. The distribution of the occurrences in different positions was then analyzed with respect to the functions, aiming at observing correlations or preferences. A complex picture emerges from the results. Some correlations between functions and positions already described in literature are confirmed, but, most interestingly, in the observed data, the assumed general preference for peripheries is not confirmed at all. Comparing our data with previous studies on other speech styles, we can conclude that the character of monologicity vs. dialogicity is a crucial parameter in shaping the relationship between functions and positions of discourse markers. With regard to co-occurrences of multiple discourse markers, our data highlight that combinations of markers carrying out different functions (cumuli) occur in initial and independent positions more frequently than those of markers all performing the same function (catene). The latter tend to be placed in intraclausal positions instead.