ABSTRACT
Discourse marker refers to a range of words or expressions that rise above their semantic or referential meanings to take on complex interactional duties or discourse meanings. Discourse analytic research on discourse markers has been wide ranging, illuminating their use across different contexts, in different languages including learner language, as well as their development in interaction. The role of gaze, gesture, and body movement in interaction has received increasing attention in discourse analysis. Critical discourse analysis is yet another methodology used by discourse analysts to address the question of how social actions are accomplished. The issue of discourse and social action can be addressed via a variety of approaches such as conversation analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, and critical discourse analysis. Analysts interested in discourse and social action formulate their projects in search of either what social actions a particular item of talk, text, or nonverbal conduct in discourse performs or how a particular action is accomplished in discourse.
