Scott,
   It has been called "meta-discourse", discourse about the text as a
text. It orients the reader to the text itself (rather than the
subject.) My problem with "first of all" is that it tends to be used
mechanically.
   I had a handful of students coming out of the same English as a Second
language program in a New York city high school who used the term
"firstable". I thought that was conceptually interesting. Not
everything is able to be first.
   Does being first mean most important? Is it background necessary before
understanding the rest? A preliminary orientation? An arbitrary
starting point? I usually find it productive to ask those questions.

Craig

>


 List,
>  
> What would you call and how would you explain "First of all" (and similar
> constructions) as a sentence opener marking the relationship of the
> following sentence with a previous statement?
>  
> Thanks,
>  
> Scott Woods
>
>
>
>
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