This article considers the functional semantic features of the oral speech discourse markers авось, мол, в принципе, вообще, на самом деле, как ни крути in the dynamic aspect. The choice of the subject matter of the research is conditioned by the absence of studies focusing on the functioning of nonsemantic units which have been regulating the discourse behaviour of the participants of a communication act for several historical periods. The attempt to describe different discourse markers within the scope of one study makes it possible to reveal the general tendencies connected with the change in their functional semantics. The authors use methods of linguistic description and content analysis, methods of comparison and quantitative methods. The comparison carried out is meant to reveal the similarities and differences between the contexts in which such discourse markers are used. The analysis of discourse markers is carried out with reference to the Russian National Corpus. The article quotes dictionary definitions of the discourse markers under consideration, indicates their frequency, the purpose of their use at certain times which helps clarify the functional semantics of each marker. The на самом деле discourse marker is compared to the в самом деле marker in order to establish the similarity between the two. The research carried out proves the fact that there may be shifts in the semantic meaning of discourse markers in oral speech which does not happen instantly but gradually. The authors establish the dominant features of the units under considerations and demonstrate changes in their functioning in the Russian language taking into account the changes in the requirements to communication.