Lexical Level Distribution of Metadiscourse in Spoken Language

Rui Correia, Maxine Eskénazi, Nuno J. Mamede

Abstract: This paper targets an understanding of how metadiscourse functions in spoken language. Starting from a metadiscourse taxonomy, a set of TED talks is annotated via crowdsourcing and then a lexical grade level predictor is used to map the distri- bution of the distinct discourse functions of the taxonomy across levels. The paper concludes showing how speakers use these functions in presentational settings.