[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 1-19
Abbreviation: KASELL
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print)
Received 13 Jan 2020 Revised 01 Mar 2020 Accepted 15 Mar 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.20..202003.1
Signaling an Additory Marker: Implications of the Discourse Marker by the way for Discourse Analysis
Jungyull Lee
Chodang University
Copyright 2020 KASELL This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The purpose of this article is to study the concept that the discourse marker (DM) by the way presents disparate pragmatic functions, which for interlocutors were discovered in the functions of additory, digressive, resumptive, and self-corrective markers. With reference to the matter of disproportion in the use of the DM by the way, the additory marker of by the way was preponderantly found in both monologic and interactive speech, in contrast to the other markers. From a pragmatic-analytic aspect, by the way signals expectation to carry on speakersʼ utterances, hold, or take the floor for longer in order to provide listeners with more information or in-depth details. Throughout the analysis, it is surmised that independent use of by the way never occurs in spoken discourse since the DM by the way does not seem to mark closure or abandonment of an ongoing theme in terms of obstructing or evading conditions. The findings show that there can be an intimate connection between the additory marker and independent use of the DM by the way.