Forms and Functions of Meta-Discourse: The Case of Comment Clauses in Present-Day Italian

Maria Cristina Lo Baido

Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2024

Forms and Functions of Meta-Discourse

The Case of Comment Clauses in Present-Day Italian

Maria Cristina Lo Baido

Volume 381 in the series Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110799859

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book constitutes the first systematic analysis of meta-discourse in the spoken domain, addressing the question of how, why, and when speakers switch from discourse to meta-discourse by means of comment clauses (e.g., ‘I think’). The case of Present-day Italian is considered, exploring the internal properties of comment clauses (e.g., morphosyntax and semantics of the verb), their relations with the surrounding discourse (e.g., position of comment clause), and their prosodic profiles.

This study shows that speakers recur to meta-discourse to convey a non-random set of functions, having mainly to do with the online process of reference construction (e.g., approximation and reformulation) and with the degree of speaker’s commitment (e.g., epistemicity and emphasis). Comment clauses are also used as attention-getting or topic-resuming devices, though less frequently. One of the most interesting results of this study is the identification of a close relation between meta-discourse and stance-taking in spoken domain, with speakers recurring to comment clauses to convey their attitude.

Finally, meta-discourse turns out to be highly influenced, if not constrained, by universal properties of the spoken domain (i.e., non-linearity).

Author / Editor information

Maria Cristina Lo Baido, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
Index of Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	XVII
Index of Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	XIX
1 Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: Meta-discourse, spoken discourse, stance-taking
2 Meta-discourse: definitions, strategies and functions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
3 The epistemological value of the investigation of spoken discourse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
Part II: Methodological considerations
4 Subject of analysis, corpus, and annotation scheme Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
Part III: Meta-discourse in spoken Italian
5 Meta-discourse and speaker-oriented domain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
6 Meta-discourse and textual domain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
7 Meta-discourse and interpersonal domain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
8 Summary and conclusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: General Linguists, Discourse Analysts, Scholars and Students interested in a General Theory of Language Use
Pages
- Front matter: 20
- Main content: 276
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 4
- Coloured Illustrations: 12
- Tables: 49
Keywords: Meta-Discourse; Spoken Discourse; Italian; Comment Clauses

eBook

Published: July 1, 2024
ISBN: 9783110799859

Hardcover

Published: July 1, 2024
ISBN: 9783110799828