Pragmatic markers in World Englishes: 'Kind of' and 'Sort of' as a case in point

Abstract

This book contributes to the field of pragmatic variation in World Englishes by analysing the pragmatic markers 'kind of' and 'sort of'. After a general review of their history and current use, the book offers a contrastive study of their frequency, semantics and pragmatic values in four varieties of English, as represented in the GloWbE corpus. These are, on the one hand, the two most influential inner circle varieties of English, those spoken in the United States and Great Britain, and, on the other, two outer circle varieties spoken in former colonies of these two countries, namely the Philippines and Singapore respectively. The results strengthen the understanding of the effects of global processes such as Americanization and glocalization on pragmatic variation and illustrate phenomena of linguistic convergence and divergence across space.