Metadiscursive markers in the context of Italian migration in Germany: an intergenerational perspective

The present study investigates the use of Discourse Markers (DMs) in the context of Italian migration varieties using an onomasiological approach, i.e. looking at the functions that DMs entail in conversation. Thus, this study focuses on intergenerational variation, namely, how the use of DMs in terms of their functional space varies across generations. We will only consider the metadiscoursive functions, i.e. all the microfunctions that aim at structuring the discourse, ensuring clarity and affect-ing the organization of discourse. They are analysed in two generations of Italian migrants living in Munich. Data are taken from a corpus of audio recorded interviews with 13 Italian migrants living in Munich (average length of each interview, 30 minutes). The results show that second-generation in-formants DMs undergo both a gradual loss of types, and a gradual reduction of tokens.