An Analysis of Meta-discourse Markers in Joyce's The Dead with Reference to Hylands' (2005) Meta-discourse Markers Taxonomy

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the ways in which meta-discourse markers are employed in the short story The Dead by James Joyce. Metadiscourse is the ways in which writers and speakers interact through their use of language with readers and listeners which is a widely used term in current discourse analysis, pragmatics and language teaching that involves indicators of emphasis, attitudes and cohesion. This study examines and analyzes the meta-discourse items of the selected text concentrating on the hedges, boosters, attitude signals, and transitions. The analysis shows that Joyce utilizes meta-discourse markers to provide authority, manage the reader’s decoding process and construct the text coherently. The research concludes that the variety of meta-discourse markers is chosen as appropriate to the social background of the characters, as well as the typical rhetorical tradition of the writer’s time.