Modal adverbs as discourse markers

Indeed has many meanings and is sometimes regarded as a discourse marker. There are several approaches to analyse the meaning and uses of indeed. One method involves viewing synchronic variation as resulting from semantic and pragmatic change in the framework of grammaticalization theory. The focus in the present article is on how translation corpora can give us a richer picture of the multifunctionality of indeed. Another issue is how we can describe the functions of indeed in argumentative terms.