Functions of Russian verb-derived discourse markers slušaj and smotri from the perspective of information management and interpersonal regulation

Abstract

While a significant amount of research related to discourse markers in the Russian language has been devoted to particles, very few scholars have focused on verb-derived discourse markers such as slušaj (‘listen’), smotri (‘look’), znaeš’ (‘y'know’), ponimaeš’ (‘d'you understand’), and vidiš’ (‘d'you see’). In this paper, I focus on slušaj and smotri, exploring their functions of information management and interpersonal regulation in talk-in-interaction. Based on data collected from YouTube interview videos, I examine the features of slušaj and smotri in terms of speaker roles, position in utterances, utterance structure, and lexical co-occurrence. A qualitative analysis supported by quantitative results shows how slušaj and smotri perform their information management and interpersonal functions in requesting/providing information, reformulating utterances, establishing contact, and indicating empathy. Considering the similarities and differences observed from the analysis, the results of this study suggest that slušaj is likely to be an interpersonal marker typical of response utterances, while smotri is an information-oriented marker leading a hearer to understand an utterance.