Special Distribution of Discourse Markers Determined by Genre-Specific Scientific Discourse

Abstract

The article is concerned with the role of discourse markers in denoting the genre of some text or utterance. The analysis is based on proper scientific discourse, including such genres as a monograph, article, lecture and discussion. In this case, discourse markers are defined as linguistic and nonverbal elements that signal relations between units of talk by virtue of their syntactic and semantic properties. Regarding the mentioned typology of discourse markers and classifying features of the above mentioned scientific genres, the author studies some fragments taken from English and Russian monographs, articles, lectures and discussions. The analysis of discourse markers and their functional characteristics within scientific philological texts and presentations shows that these language units indicate genrerelated structures in scientific communication and fulfill their key functions. The author concludes that discourse markers serve as indicators of the above referenced scientific genres, and encourage these results to be adopted into the existing education programs on stylistics and oral communication.

Keywords

• scientific discourse
• genre-specific discourse
• discourse markers
• typology of discourse markers
• scientific monograph
• scientific article
• scientific lecture
• scientific discussion