Interactional discourse markers in a corpus of Italian migrants in Munich

The present study focuses on the use of interactional discourse markers (DMs) in the context of Italian migration varieties. Data are analysed in two generations of Italian migrants living in Munich. The research aims to explore how the use of interactional DMs in terms of their functional space varies across generations. Results point out that the functional space of DMs is gradually lost in the first generation while in the second generation is partly stable and partly replaced by the German DMs. From the second generation onwards, the functions of DMs undergo a process of restructuration or are replaced by German DMs, as in the case of also that covers the function of “allora” as turn taking.