'The point I want you to note is': Marking importance in Persian academic lectures

This study was an attempt to explore how verbal patterns of lexicogrammar are used to signal the importance of content in Persian academic lectures. These expressions are referred to as importance markers here. 60 authentic academic lectures compiled in the Persian corpus of SOKHAN were investigated with a mixed-methods (exploratory) approach and a corpus-driven method. Analysis of the results showed that importance marking of portions of discourse can be done by making use of evaluative adjectives and metalinguistic nouns, relating the discourse to assessment, and involving the participants in the discourse. Additionally, importance marking was found to be done with one of the five structures of nominal, verbal, adjectival, adverbial, and exam-related. Among these, verbal (‘V n/clause’) and nominal (‘MN v-link n/clause’) importance markers outnumbered other patterns of importance marking. Finally, importance markers that signaled the importance of later portions of discourse were found to be more advantageous to the audience, as they made it possible for the audience to plan for online processing and note-taking of the points.