One of the most basic functions of language is to express human feelings and thoughts. Various possibilities of language are used both in forming and expressing thoughts. Language enables the speaker's thoughts to be understood by the listener via its phonetic, morphological, lexical, syntactic and semantic elements. These elements come together in different combinations to produce different grammatical features, as well as several supralinguistic functions, especially in communication. In this sense, discourse markers attract attention as in-language structures that enable the realisation of extra-language functions. Discourse markers are linguistic markers of the form "so, well, yes, as I said, you know" that usually occur in speech to connect, organise and manage thoughts. Discourse markers have several functions. During speech, discourse markers perform extra-linguistic pragmatic functions such as creating a mental space for the speaker, organising thoughts, drawing the listener's attention to the discourse, directing the listener, providing clues about the direction of the topic, etc. The functions of discourse markers are not restricted to the linguistic level. Although there are many studies on the functions of discourse markers, there are few studies on the morphological structures of these elements. Grammatically, discourse markers, which can consist of gap-filling sounds, words, phrases and sentences, are structurally closely related to mental verbs, which are lexical elements. Some discourse markers contain mental verbs. This study analyses which types of mental verbs are included in the discourse markers of mental verbs, which is a thematic-semantic class, and how they contribute semantically. In addition, the reasons for the relationship between a pragmatic category such as discourse markers and a semantic category are evaluated.

Discourse markers, mental verbs, pragmatics, semantics, Turkish.