Signalling nouns in discourse

Abstract

This paper presents a description of a major class of vocabulary, signalling nouns, which have important discourse functions in establishing links across and within clauses. This class of noun is particularly prevalent in academic discourse. The description is based on a reading of the literature and, more importantly, the author's own corpus data. The synthesis represents the first attempt to bring this diverse work together under one umbrella. The description provides a framework which is likely to be of value to materials writers and teachers and learners in English for Academic and Specific Purposes.