Discourse Markers in Scottish Legal Discourse on Climate Change

In 1999, the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government, respectively, were established in the wake of the so-called devolution, i.e. the decentralisation of power in the United Kingdom (the UK). Within their devolved power and responsibilities, the Scottish Parliament may decide upon the matters that pertain to education, environment, healthcare, local government, sports, tourism, and, in alia, the issue of climate change. In particular, the Scottish Parliament adopted the Climate Change (Scotland) Act in 2009. Whereas the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 is amply investigated in a variety of scientific fields, there is insufficient research on the Act from the vantage point of discourse studies. Moreover, there is no current research on the metadiscursive means (for instance, discourse markers) that are found in the Act. Against this backdrop, this paper describes a quantitative study that aims at identifying and quantifying discourse markers (DMs) that are used in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. The study uses a computer-assisted research methodology in order to uncover the frequency of DMs in the Act. The findings of the study are further presented in the article.