The grammatical status of discourse markers

The chapter discusses the grammatical status of discourse markers, with reference to Romance languages. The first part of the chapter is devoted to outlining some key features of discourse markers at the morphological and syntactic level. As regards the former, we will highlight the heterogeneity of discourse markers, which nonetheless share the feature of morphological invariability. As for the latter, the question is addressed as to whether position with respect to the clause may be used by speakers and writers to guide addressees and readers interpretation. We will also discuss other features, such as syntactic autonomy, variable scope, and eliminability. The second part focuses on a set of little-explored Italian discourse markers that share formal and semantic features, having origin in space adverbials. Among them, d’altronde is discussed in more detail, looking also at its development. The markers in question are shown to be used with distinct functions in different positions in the clause and to enrich herewith our understanding of positional uses in texts. In the conclusions some topics for further research are suggested on areas that still deserve attention.