The role of discourse markers in the speeches of selected Asian Presidents

Adapting the Discourse Theory of Halliday and Hasan (1976) and de Beaugrande and Dressler (1981b), the study linguistically delves into the forms and functions and categories of discourse cohesion markers employed in the 54 speeches of the selected Asian Presidents which are written in English. The results reveal that DM, Adding Something and DM cohesion, Substitution are popular in the selected Asian presidential speeches. Thus, the presidents’ speeches loaded with substantial information are organized using elaboration as one of the discourse markers. And with significant utilization of substitution (personal pronouns), the presidents have established connection with their audience.