Pragmatics of African Varieties of English

This book is a collection of research papers that focus on the development and use of different African varieties of English from a pragmatic perspective. Although there are a number of studies on African varieties of English there is no book available that would present studies from a pragmatic perspective. This book is intended to fill this gap.

The authors focus on how the different socio-cultural backgrounds and the multilingual environment affect the oral and partly the written use of English in specific areas. They identify unique communicative features of varieties of English and their relationship to one another. The chapters also explore the interplay of the socio-political factors with the linguistic and interactional factors.

The book consists of four sections: The Lexicon, Formulaic Language, Speech Acts and Pragmatic Markers. The studies included in each section represent a variety of views, different approaches and several different theories. They demonstrate the depth of African linguistics in general and pragmatics research in Africa in particular.