Publications
Publication details [#67511]
Unuabonah, Foluke Olayinka. 2019. Frequency and Stylistic Variability of Discourse Markers in Nigerian English. Corpus Pragmatics 3 (3) : 249–271.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Annotation
This paper examines the choice, frequency and stylistic variability of discourse markers
in Nigerian English, using the International Corpus of English – Nigeria. Three
types of discourse markers (elaborative, contrastive and inferential discourse markers)
were examined in the Nigerian corpus and these were compared with the International
Corpus of English – Great Britain, from a variational pragmatic approach. The results
were subjected to the log-likelihood test and paired sample t test. The results indicate that
there was a significant difference both in the overall frequency of discourse markers
in Nigerian English and British English, and in the stylistic variability of these
markers in the two corpora. Nigerian English speakers use elaborative and contrastive
discourse markers less frequently than British English speakers, but utilise inferential
discourse markers more frequently than British English speakers. Moreover, speakers
of Nigerian English use a reduced inventory of discourse markers compared to British
English speakers and exhibit distinct preference patterns for a few individual discourse
markers. The paper also identifies the rise of a new discourse marker moreso/more so
in Nigerian English which is used differently from its adverbial form. There were also
differences and similarities in the stylistic variability of the discourse markers across
the two varieties, which may be dependent on the status of Nigerian English as a second
language and the influence of British English on Nigerian English.