Discourse Markers in Selected English Editorials: A Communicative Aspect Between Text Producers and Receivers

Abstract

Discourse markers (DMs) are those elements which show the writer’s linguistic and rhetorical manifestation for the information that used in the text. The aim of this paper is to show the importance of discourse markers (DMs) in editorial texts of two English newspapers, the Guardian and the New York Times. To fulfill the goals of the study, the function of these DMs in editorials will be analyzed according to their qualitative contributions. The results and findings of this research show that the function of these DMs are different. A great variety of occurrence of DMs can be seen between textual and interpersonal genres. Interpersonal DMs achieve certain goals or roles in the study. This leads to a conclusion that though the function of DMs is different, a similar aspect in which how text producers try to instruct their readers in a way that their attitudes and discourses can be easily understood leads to fulfill the tenor of communication.

Keywords

• interpersonal function, textual function, metadiscourse markers, code glosses