An Investigation of the Function of Discourse Markers in a YouTube Video of a Teenager

Abstract

YouTube is the preferred online platform for today’s teenagers. As such, this article aims to explore the audio-visual discourse in the form of a YouTube video and analyse the role and functions of discourse markers. Since they are communicative tools guiding, organizing, and assessing the ideas in the discourse, the use of these linguistic components is related to the communicative purpose of the text. Also, the present research strives to provide a basis for looking at spokenness implied into the discourse markers’ usage. For the purpose of this study five particular discourse markers have been chosen to be analysed: oh, I mean, yeah, so, okay. Knowing more about this topic can help and benefit the correct interpretation of utterances expressed by teenage YouTube speakers and facilitate understanding of their intentions.