Metatextual discourse markers as pragmatic units: A corpus-based analysis of poetic discourse and colloquial speech

Researchers typically examine metatextual discourse markers as linguistic tools that promote cohesion and logical coherence. Therefore, their functioning beyond these traditional roles remains insufficiently explored. This article analyses the use of inferential markers следовательно, quindi and therefore across different communicative practices, comparing poetic discourse with ordinary language to trace the expansion of their functional potential. A comparative analysis of these units demonstrates how different types of discourse reorganize logical, pragmatic and semantic relations. In order to address the various and overlapping definitions of discourse and pragmatic markers, this study adopts the concept of pragmatic units, which encompasses deictics, discourse markers, illocutionary verbs and modal verbs. Analyzing these linguistic elements in terms of pragmatic markers enables a thorough investigation into how they perform communicative and metalinguistic functions, express the speaker’s stance, indicate the coordinates of the communicative act, structure discourse and organize interaction. The goal of this study is to identify the functional and pragmatic modifications of metatextual discourse markers in poetic discourse compared to ordinary language. Drawing on a Poetic Corpus of three million words in three languages (Russian, Italian, and English), the research compares these markers with those found in Spoken Language Corpora, such as the Russian National Corpus (Spoken), KiParla (L’italiano parlato e chi parla italiano), and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (Spoken). The results provide deeper insight into the mechanisms of the pragmatic dimension of language, define the pragmatic specificity of contemporary poetry, and demonstrate how metatextual discourse markers expand their functional potential, display multifunctionality, and undergo context-driven resemantization.