Una classificazione dei segnali discorsivi in italiano

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to the description of discourse markers (DMs) which is based on the studies (from semantic and syntactic perspectives) on the material of different languages. A classification of DMs elaborated during this work based on semantic and syntactic criteria is presented and illustrated, in the article, by Italian examples. The following DMs are described : davvero, veramente, dico ; diciamo (It.) - disons (Fr.) ; tu vois (Fr.). Each subclass (independently of the individual semantics of the word) accomplishes a particular task in the discourse and is characterised by general semantic and syntactic features. Moreover, the form of the DM can often indicate to which subclass it belongs. This kind of classification can give necessary cues for contrastive analysis, it can explain as well how to distinguish DMs of the same function and help in the acquisition of DMs (L2) and in translation. The advantages of a similar approach are illustrated by several examples from Italian and French.