A model of metadiscourse for multi-audience talk—the case of police interviews

Nicci MacLeod

doi:10.1093/applin/amag084

A model of metadiscourse for multi-audience talk—the case of police interviews

Nicci MacLeod^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The study of metadiscourse, or commentary on ongoing talk or text, has its origins in the context of academic writing, and the phenomenon has since been explored in relation to a range of types of institutional talk including classroom interaction, health communication, public hearings, parliamentary debates, and courtroom interaction. This paper turns attention to the discourse event of the police investigative interview, drawing on a small corpus of interactions with individuals reporting rape to an English police force in 2019/2020. I identify a range of instances of metadiscourse functioning interactively and interactionally, with some pointing to other points within the interaction, some flagging the interviewers’ and interviewees’ roles in relation to the unfolding talk, and a final category of features speaking explicitly to the eventual audience of the interview—the broader legal system and the Court at a potential future trial. I propose a bespoke model of metadiscourse to fit this specific multiaudience interaction type.

Original language	English
Journal	Applied Linguistics
Early online date	26 Sept 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amag084
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 26 Sept 2026

Bibliographical note

Copyright © The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Funding

This work was funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grant reference SRG22\220098 and a Leverhulme Fellowship reference RF-2025-218.

Funders	Funder number
Leverhulme Trust	RF-2025-218
British Academy	SRG22\"220098

Access to Document

10.1093/applin/amag084Licence: CC BY 4.0

N MacLeod_Model of metadiscourse for multiaudience talk—the case of police interviews
Copyright © The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 913 KBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

@article{53d2358bcd5140f39e87600733a90ecd,

title = "A model of metadiscourse for multi-audience talk—the case of police interviews",

abstract = "The study of metadiscourse, or commentary on ongoing talk or text, has its origins in the context of academic writing, and the phenomenon has since been explored in relation to a range of types of institutional talk including classroom interaction, health communication, public hearings, parliamentary debates, and courtroom interaction. This paper turns attention to the discourse event of the police investigative interview, drawing on a small corpus of interactions with individuals reporting rape to an English police force in 2019/2020. I identify a range of instances of metadiscourse functioning interactively and interactionally, with some pointing to other points within the interaction, some flagging the interviewers{\textquoteright} and interviewees{\textquoteright} roles in relation to the unfolding talk, and a final category of features speaking explicitly to the eventual audience of the interview—the broader legal system and the Court at a potential future trial. I propose a bespoke model of metadiscourse to fit this specific multiaudience interaction type.",

author = "Nicci MacLeod",

note = "Copyright {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.",

year = "2026",

month = sep,

day = "26",

doi = "10.1093/applin/amag084",

language = "English",

journal = "Applied Linguistics",

issn = "0142-6001",

publisher = "Oxford University Press",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A model of metadiscourse for multi-audience talk—the case of police interviews

AU - MacLeod, Nicci

N1 - Copyright © The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

PY - 2026/9/26

Y1 - 2026/9/26

N2 - The study of metadiscourse, or commentary on ongoing talk or text, has its origins in the context of academic writing, and the phenomenon has since been explored in relation to a range of types of institutional talk including classroom interaction, health communication, public hearings, parliamentary debates, and courtroom interaction. This paper turns attention to the discourse event of the police investigative interview, drawing on a small corpus of interactions with individuals reporting rape to an English police force in 2019/2020. I identify a range of instances of metadiscourse functioning interactively and interactionally, with some pointing to other points within the interaction, some flagging the interviewers’ and interviewees’ roles in relation to the unfolding talk, and a final category of features speaking explicitly to the eventual audience of the interview—the broader legal system and the Court at a potential future trial. I propose a bespoke model of metadiscourse to fit this specific multiaudience interaction type.

AB - The study of metadiscourse, or commentary on ongoing talk or text, has its origins in the context of academic writing, and the phenomenon has since been explored in relation to a range of types of institutional talk including classroom interaction, health communication, public hearings, parliamentary debates, and courtroom interaction. This paper turns attention to the discourse event of the police investigative interview, drawing on a small corpus of interactions with individuals reporting rape to an English police force in 2019/2020. I identify a range of instances of metadiscourse functioning interactively and interactionally, with some pointing to other points within the interaction, some flagging the interviewers’ and interviewees’ roles in relation to the unfolding talk, and a final category of features speaking explicitly to the eventual audience of the interview—the broader legal system and the Court at a potential future trial. I propose a bespoke model of metadiscourse to fit this specific multiaudience interaction type.

UR - https://academic.oup.com/applij/advance-article/doi/10.1093/applin/amag084/8836474

U2 - 10.1093/applin/amag084

DO - 10.1093/applin/amag084

M3 - Article

SN - 0142-6001

JO - Applied Linguistics

JF - Applied Linguistics

ER -

A model of metadiscourse for multi-audience talk—the case of police interviews

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this