Abstract
The study explores the phonic realization of discourse markers in spoken Italian in relation to factors such as frequency of occurrence, pragmatic function, and syntactic and intonative position. In particular, the work aims
at examining whether and how such variables influence phonic specification evaluated on the basis of speech rate and level of erosion. For the purposes of the study, a three-hour dataset of Italian spoken by tourist guides in museum contexts was employed. Results show that a less specified phonic realization of discourse markers, in terms of, for example, lenition and centralization, and higher speech rate, depends on their frequency of occurrence, the more frequent the discourse marker, the more hypospecified the realization. Other factors of position, initial, and pragmatic function, for reformulations and inference markers, impact phonic specification.