Discourse markers so and well in Zimbabwean English : a corpus-based comparative analysis

Abstract

This analysis of discourse markers so and well in Zimbabwean English (ZE) and British English was carried out to determine possible statistically significant variations in their occurrence and function frequencies in spoken and written registers, and in different genres to ascertain if they are used in the same manner in both languages and in different language use contexts. The ZE corpus and the International Corpus of English-Great Britain (ICE-GB) were compared to reveal statistically significant variations in some registers and genres. Regarding so, the marking implied result and the sequential so functions were more frequent in the ICE-GB compared to the ZE corpus. Well occurred more in the ICE-GB compared to the ZE corpus. Searching for the right phrase, rephrasing or correcting, move to main story, indirect answer, contributing an opinion, direct answer, continuing an opinion, and evaluating a previous statement occurred more in the ICE-GB compared to the ZE corpus.