Discourse markers and politeness in a digital forum in Spanish

This study aims to conduct a pragmalinguistic analysis of the use of interpersonal discourse markers (DMs) to regulate politeness in a Spanish language digital forum. The study is based on the premise that relation-oriented particles are imported from oral conversation into the forum's written exchanges and that these particles maintain their prototypical interpersonal functions while coexisting with prototypical monological DMs. The focus is on these interactive particles, and DMs such as hombre, ¿no?, bueno, and mira are singled out, with special attention paid to their role in the management of polite relations. The results show that these DMs are frequently used and fulfil various types of dialogical functions (to structure dialogical exchanges, to involve the addressee, to express deontic modality, to express evidentiality, etc.). Some regular patterns that contribute to rapport management are identified (illocutive force modulation, dialogical rituals, negotiation of agreement/disagreement, regulation of assertiveness). If these patterns are interpreted in terms of mitigation/intensification, focalisation/defocalisation, agreement/disagreement and distance/closeness, they are part of the pragmalinguistic manifestations of polite verbal behaviour. Our conclusions highlight that the technological factors and participation framework of the forum create medium-specific DM patterns that help to meet the participants’ behavioural expectations and face concerns in online debating.

► The article focuses on some patterns of interpersonal discourse markers to regulate the polite digital relation in a forum in Spanish. ► Results show that discourse markers fulfill various types of dialogical functions and are part of manifestations of polite verbal behaviour. ► Conclusions highlight that the technological factors and the participation framework induce medium-specific patterns of discourse markers. ► Some new patterns of discourse markers appear to be direct evidence of the communicative characteristics of computer-mediated discourse. ► These new patterns of discourse markers may also be indirect evidence of rapport management through computer-mediated discourse.