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Article published In:
English World-Wide
Vol. 39:2 (2018) ► pp.190–213

Commentary pragmatic markers in Nigerian English

| Redeemer’s University
| Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
This article investigates the use of commentary pragmatic markers in Nigerian English. The frequency and stylistic variability of five types of commentary markers – assessment, manner of speaking, evidential, hearsay and emphasis markers – were examined in ICE-Nigeria and compared with ICE-Great Britain. The results reveal that Nigerian English has patterns of use of pragmatic markers that differ systematically from British English: speakers of Nigerian English use an overall lower frequency and a reduced inventory of commentary pragmatic markers compared to British English, show distinct preference patterns for individual pragmatic markers and demonstrate different stylistic variability in the use of pragmatic markers. Some of the preference patterns may be influenced by Nigerian languages and socio-cultural norms.
Keywords: commentary pragmatic markers, corpus linguistics, evidential markers, hearsay markers, Nigerian English, British English
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discourse-pragmatic features
  • 3.Method
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Summary and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 31 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00010.unu
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