Discourse Markers at the Global Level in Arabic Newspaper Opinion Articles

(Fatima A. Al Kohlani)

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Abstract

This study aims to examine the function of discourse markers, henceforth DMs, at the global level in Arabic newspaper opinion articles. DMs are expressions such as fa ‘since, for,’ h?kadh? ‘thus, and so,’ ghayra ’anna ‘however, but’ that come from different grammatical classes and mostly occur sentence-initially. These expressions are key elements in text production and perception because of their crucial role in connecting textual units above the sentence as well as guiding and influencing the text-receivers’ interpretation throughout the text. The study analyzes 50 Arabic newspaper opinion articles in order to identify DMs that are used at the global level of text structure, i.e. the paragraph, and describe their function. It employs a three-step analytical model: segmenting the texts into paragraphs, describing the functional relations that connect the paragraphs, and identifying DMs at the paragraph boundaries. Two descriptive tools are employed in this analysis: El-Shiyab’s (1990) organizational pattern of Arabic editorials’ text structure to describe the global relations between paragraphs, and Halliday’s (2004) thematic structure analysis to identify the DMs at paragraph boundaries. Based on the description of the DMs’ environment as well as the contribution of these items to their environment, the study suggests functional classifications for DMs at the paragraph level. Key Words: AFL writing, Arabic text, discourse markers, communicative tools, connectors, opinion articles.
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