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Article published In:
Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 11:1 (2020) ► pp.1–23

Discourse markers as indicators of connectedness between expositive illocutionary acts

| Tokyo University of Science

There has been consistent interest in discourse makers over the past couple of decades, and various proposals have been put forth regarding their functions. The present paper analyzes discourse markers in general as indicators of types of connectedness between expositive illocutionary acts (Austin [1962]1975), which bring about illocutionary effects in discourse. The discourse marker well in particular indicates a gap between the preceding expositive illocutionary act and the present one, signaling the present expositive illocutionary act is of a non-committal type. This gap is analyzed, depending on the types of the preceding and present expositive illocutionary acts, as divergence, hesitancy, a transition from one expositive illocutionary act to another, or a boundary between them.

Keywords: discourse markers, well , expositives, discursive illocutionary acts, J. L. Austin, speech act theory
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discursive illocutionary acts
    • 2.1Expositive illocutionary acts (Austin 1975)
    • 2.2The characterizations of expositive illocutionary act types
  • 3.Discourse markers as indicators of the connectedness between the preceding expositive illocutionary act and the present one
    • 3.1The discourse marker but
    • 3.2The functions of the discourse marker well
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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Published online: 30 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.17028.ois
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