The meaning and functions of pragmatic markers in Russian oral speech

Abstract

The reviewed dictionary-monograph Pragmatic Markers of Russian Everyday Speech (St Petersburg, 2021) is devoted to the lexicographic description of pragmatic markers, considered as a class of discursive words whose typical features (absence of denotation, lexical and grammatical meanings, multi-categorization, multi-functionality) are manifested to the highest degree. The dictionary-monograph is the first dictionary that provides a detailed description of over 60 Russian discursive units in various contexts and in the variety of their functions, which makes it a unique phenomenon in modern Russian linguistic studies. The genre of the publication is defined not as a dictionary but as a dictionary-monograph, since the dictionary entries are not traditional. They are more like linguistic essays which include both common lexicographic zones and rich illustrative material, as well as the functions of the markers in speech. In addition, the description is given not in the genre of a dictionary but rather in the genre of a scientific article. All this provides extensive material important for understanding the functioning of markers in speech; without such data the dictionary of discursive units would not make sense. The dictionary is based on the results of work of many linguists while creating the corpora One speech day and Balanced annotated text collection and processing the richest material from these sources. The structure of the dictionary-monograph includes the editor’s preface, the dictionary of pragmatic markers itself, and some final reflections. The editor’s preface is a theoretical introduction that explains to the reader the point of view of the authors’ team on the units of the dictionary, and the results of the studies on how they function in speech. The most important part of the theoretical introduction is the typology of pragmatic markers based on the functions they perform in speech. The dictionary entry includes the headword, all the functions of the pragmatic marker, rich illustrative material from everyday speech for each of the marker’s functions and, in some cases, statistics on the use of the marker in a particular function. The dictionary clearly demonstrates multi-functionality of pragmatic markers. In conclusion, the author-compiler notes that the work on the dictionary is still in progress, and it is open for additions. A multimedia version of the dictionary is already available.