Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Forms

106b

Discourse markers are a lexical rather than a grammatical category, but their

classification in terms of the conventional major word classes (noun, verb,

adjective, adverb) is problematic since they stand outside of phrase and clause

structures, and they are best considered as a class in their own right. 

Phrases as discourse markers

A variety of types of word and phrase commonly function as discourse markers.

Most typically, certain words otherwise classed as adverbs and adjectives

Û

539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms

From discourse to social contexts | 209

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frequently function as markers (anyway, good, well, right) and some (e.g. right,

well

) function more frequently as markers than as adjectives or adverbs. Other

items can also function as discourse markers, for example phrases (at the end of

the day

, in other words), clauses (you see, you know, to put it another way, look,

listen

, there you go) and miscellaneous other items (okay, cos, no, now then, so,

yes/yeah

). Many of these are exemplified below.