I think, I mean and I believe in political discourse: Collocates, functions and distribution

Fetzer, Anita

doi:10.1075/fol.21.1.05fet

Article published In: Discourse linguistics: Theory and practice
Edited by Karin Aijmer and Anita Fetzer
[Functions of Language 21:1] 2014
► pp. 67–94

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I think, I mean and I believe in political discourse

Collocates, functions and distribution

Anita Fetzer | University of Augsburg

Published online: 7 April 2014

https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.21.1.05fet

This article examines the distribution, collocates and function of the first-person-singular cognitive-verb-based syntagmatic configurations I think, I mean and I believe in argumentative political discourse, considering their status as parenthetical construction and pragmatic marker in two sets of spoken data: monologic speech and dialogic interview. Its goal is to identify discourse-domain-specific discourse patterns, which manifest themselves in patterned co-occurrences with other pragmatic markers, and with expressions of modality and evidentiality. The explicit accommodation of local context allows for a fine-grained analysis of the three constructions, filtering out those contextual configurations in which I think, I mean and I believe may count as a pragmatic marker.

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