A corpus based study of discourse markers in British and Pakistani speech

The study sets out to investigate the frequency of eight discourse markers (I mean, you know, I think, kind of, sort of, well, you see, so) in British and Pakistani speech. It also studies the place and function of discourse markers in Pakistani speech. For that purpose, ICLE-GB and a corpus of Pakistani Spoken English (PSE) were used. The data were analyzed using AntConc software. The results validate the claim that native speakers use more discourse markers than the non-native speakers. Furthermore, it was found that discourse markers occur at all positions in Pakistani speech (i.e., initial, medial and final). These discourse markers perform various functions in PSE in different contexts; they may function as gap fillers, may show agreement, consent or polite disagreement; they may also perform anaphoric functions, conclude a statement, convey surprise, soften the effect of a shocking statement, etc. This study certifies the differences in the native and non-native speech, and it may have pedagogical implications too. It may help teachers and learners to realize that Pakistani English is a different variety, and they need not aspire to achieve native like linguistic competence.