A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

interpersonal discourse markers can be multifunctional. Recall that the Schiffrin example
above in (9) characterized the discourse marker but (a textual marker because it organizes
chunks of text) as being ‘multifunctional’ because its ability to anchor an utterance to
four planes of talk, i.e. it prefaced an idea unit (a proposition), displayed a participation
framework (nonalignment with a prior proposition), realized an action (a rebuttal during
an argument), and sought to establish the speaker as a current speaker in an exchange
(opens a turn at talk). Schiffrin also showed that the marker well (an interpersonal
marker because it contributes an attitude toward a proposition) may be multifunctional,
since it may “convey the fulfillment of a conversational obligation, for example, an
answer to a question [displaying a participation framework], at the same time that it
conveys speaker attitude, for example, distance from a proposition [realizing an action)”
(Schiffrin 2003:459, Schiffrin 1987). In other words, interpersonal marker well too may
anchor an utterance to various planes of discourse. The question here then becomes: Can
a discourse marker be both textual and interpersonal simultaneously? The answer is
apparently yes. For example, Schwenter showed that the Spanish discourse marker o sea
may serve both a textual and interpersonal function simultaneously, since it may connect
upcoming talk to prior discourse (i.e. in the form of explanations, reformulations, setting
off background information from foregrounded information) while at the same time
serving as a command softener, thereby decreasing the illocutionary force of the
command “to something more along the lines of advice that should be followed”
(Schwenter 1996:862). This is shown by the example below with the discourse marker
cluster o sea que.
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