Measuring the polyfunctionality of discourse markers experimentally: eye-tracking and visual attention as cognitive-processing indicators. Peninsular Spanish o sea

Abstract

Discourse markers (DMs) are generally described as polyfunctional. There are different approaches to polyfunctionality (homonymy, monosemy, polysemy), which have been widely explored theoretically; however, there are not many experimental approaches showing how polyfunctionality works (i.e., how it is assimilated by speakers or readers when it emerges in various real communicative contexts). This paper presents results on experimental polyfunctionality in DMs through eye-tracking methods applied to the Spanish marker o sea ‘I mean’. The main question addressed is how polyfunctionality is understood in terms of ocular behavior: specifically, if processing results reveal a monosemic or a polysemic pattern for this marker.

Keywords

• discourse markers
• polyfunctionality
• experimental pragmatics
• eye-tracker
• peninsular spanish