This paper examines the Spanish discourse marker o sea; which consists of the preposition o ‘or’ and sea, the third person singular, present subjunctive form of the verb ser ‘to be’. The uses of o sea are grouped into two broad classes: connective and epistemic. Connective uses guide hearers to the correct semantic interpretation between propositions. Epistemic uses mark speakers' degree of commitment to what they say, increasing the modal content of their utterances. In addition, there are also instances of o sea that appear to carry out both connective and epistemic functions. These latter uses challenge the typology of Fraser (1990), who distinguishes discourse markers from other pragmatic markers along similar lines. It is also argued, contra Fraser (1990), that the pragmatic meaning of discourse markers cannot be analyzed without reference to the content meaning of their lexical sources.
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