Discourse Markers In Obama's Affordable Healthcare Speeches

The author of this paper investigates the types of discourse makers that are found in Obama’s Affordable Healthcare speeches and explores intended meaning through the functions of discourse makers. Four Affordable Care speeches delivered in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 were purposively chosen for the analytical study based on 21 types of discourse markers and functions classified by Swan (2005). Findings revealed that Barack Obama, the former President of the United Stated, used 15 types of discourse markers. The most common type was logical consequence, which he used a total of 123 times in these speeches, followed by 62 instances of gaining time and 51 instances of concession and counter-argument. Intended meaning was analyzed based on 15 types of discourse markers classified by Swan (2005).