Metalanguage in interaction : discourse markers as a system -- The interpersonal realm: the discourse marker nu : Israeli Hebrew impatience in interaction -- The textual realm: the discourse marker bekitsur : retroactively constructing digressions -- The cognitive realm: the discourse marker keʼilu : realizing the need to rephrase -- Between realms: the discourse marker tov : accepting while shifting -- Grammaticization from interaction.
Metalanguage in Interaction is about the crystallization of metalanguage employed throughout interaction into the discourse markers which permeate talk. Based on close analysis of naturally-occurring Hebrew conversation, it is a synchronic study of the grammaticization of discourse markers, a phenomenon until now mostly studied from a diachronic perspective. It constitutes the first monograph in the fields of Hebrew interactional linguistics and Hebrew discourse markers. The book first presents what is unique to the present approach to discourse markers and gives them an operational definition.