Discourse marker

A discourse marker is a word or a phrase that plays a role in managing the flow and structure of discourse. Since their main function is at the level of discourse (sequences of utterances) rather than at the level of utterances or sentences, discourse markers are relatively syntax-independent and usually do not change the truth conditional meaning of the sentence. Examples of discourse markers include the particles "oh", "well", "now", "then", "you know", and "I mean", and the discourse connectives "so", "because", "and", "but", and "or". The term "discourse marker" was coined by Deborah Schiffrin in her 1988 book "Discourse Markers".
Usage.
Common discourse markers used in the English language include "you know", "actually", "basically", "like", "I mean", "okay" and "so". Data shows that discourse markers often come from different word classes, such as adverbs ("well") or prepositional phrases ("in fact"). The process that leads from a free construction to a discourse marker can be traced back through grammaticalisation studies and resources.
Traditionally, some of the words or phrases that were considered discourse markers were treated as "fillers" or "expletives": words or phrases that had no function at all. Now they are assigned functions in different levels of analysis: topic changes, reformulations, discourse planning, stressing, hedging, or backchanneling.
Yael Maschler divided discourse markers into four broad categories: interpersonal, referential, structural, and cognitive.
Another example of an interpersonal discourse marker is the Yiddish marker "nu", also used in Modern Hebrew and other languages, often to convey impatience or to urge the listener to act (cf. German cognate "nun", meaning "now" in the sense of "at the moment being discussed," but contrast Latin etymological cognate "nunc", meaning "now" in the sense of "at the moment in which discussion is occurring"; Latin used "iam" for "at the moment being discussed" (and many other meanings) and German uses "jetzt" for "at the moment in which discussion is occurring").