Subject: Languages and literature
Year: 2026
Type: Conference or Workshop Item
Type: PeerReviewed
Title: Evolutionary Perspectives on Discourse Markers in Cyber-Pragmatics: Between Dialogical Silence and Filler Expressions
Author: Jovanovska, Sashka
Abstract: This study aims to clarify the synchronic and diachronic status of discourse markers as a pragmatically grounded linguistic category within cyber-communication. It investigates their functional and developmental relationship with silence and filler expressions in order to distinguish these phenomena conceptually and linguistically. By examining discourse-level change, the study seeks to contribute to theories of language evolution and support the development of functional grammatical models capable of accounting for discourse phenomena. This study employs a qualitative, corpus-based methodology combining synchronic and diachronic approaches to the analysis of discourse markers in cyber-communication. The primary dataset consists of a private corpus of 600 instant messaging conversations conducted via Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp, supplemented by data from the Macedonian Web Corpus (mkWaC) as a reference corpus. The analytical framework integrates conversation analysis, pragmatics, discourse analysis, philosophy of language, and functional approaches to grammar to examine the communicative and developmental aspects of discourse markers. The study is expected to demonstrate that discourse markers constitute a pragmatically grounded linguistic category with identifiable synchronic and diachronic functions in cyber-communication. Findings are anticipated to clarify their developmental relationship with silence and filler expressions, contributing to a more precise conceptual distinction between these phenomena. The research is also expected to reveal discourse-level evolutionary processes and provide a theoretical-methodological framework for analysing communication in digital environments.
Publisher:
Relation: https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/38626/
Identifier: oai:eprints.ugd.edu.mk:38626
Identifier: https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/38626/1/Evolutionary-Perspectives-on-Discourse-Markers-in-Cyber-Pragmatics.pdfIdentifier: https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/38626/2/SELCS%20Annual%20Conference%202026%20Programme%20Booklet%20%281%29%20%281%29.pdfIdentifier: Jovanovska, Sashka (2026) Evolutionary Perspectives on Discourse Markers in Cyber-Pragmatics: Between Dialogical Silence and Filler Expressions. In: SELCS Annual Conference 2026, 2-4 July 2026, University of Warwick, United Kingdom.
