ABSTRACT
Tactical metadiscourse tells audiences what point they have reached in the narrative or exposition, how they got there, and what they are to expect. Lexical metadiscourse also takes diverse forms, as illustrated by a few extracts culled from an essay by Bertrand Russell, called ‘In praise of idleness’. Fictional metadiscourse is often complex, both in its designed effect on the reader, and in the forms it takes. The language of poetry and literature makes continual raids on ‘ordinary’ usage, endowing simple scripts with complex significance. There are of course clues of language and apparent speech-style. One of the speakers appears to have an uneasy acquaintance with educated English usage.
