discourse marker

English

Noun

discourse marker (plural discourse markers)

1. (linguistics) A word or phrase that marks a boundary in a discourse, typically as part of a dialogue. Discourse markers often signal topic changes, reformulations, discourse planning, stressing, hedging, or backchanneling.

Usage notes

• Common discourse markers used in the English language include "you know", "well", "or whatever", "actually", "basically", "like", "I mean" and "OK".
• In various dialects of British English, most notably Multicultural London English, "innit" is used as the default discourse marker.

Translations

word or phrase that marks a boundary in a discourse

• Finnish: diskurssimerkitsin
• German: Diskurspartikel n, Diskursmarker m
• Romanian: marcator de discurs m

See also

• connective
• filler
• interjection