PHATIC FUNCTION IN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

Abstract

The paper puts forward the hypothesis that in academic discourse the phatic function not only provides the discourse continuity but also possesses a discourseorganizing feature. It helps lectures be continued and structured with the help of certain lecture specific tokens, which we have called phatic tokens. This assumption is substantiated with the example of questions in lectures as a genre recurrent element, which, together with other tokens, not only provides for the continuity but also structures lectures at the discourse level.