A comparative corpus analysis of the frequencies and functions of so between native and non-native speakers of English in Hong Kong

Abstract

Multifunctional forms such as so well and like in English are ubiquitous in discourse. In spoken discourse where they are syntactically optional and carry no or little propositional meaning these frequently occurring items are commonly known as discourse markers pragmatic markers or discourse particles and serve a variety of important discourse functions in the textual interpersonal and interactional domains sometimes even concurrently in one instance. While previous studies on these items have provided invaluable insights into their functions and register variation such research work was mostly based on data of native speakers. Much less is known about how and the extent to which non-native speakers use such multifunctional forms. In turn it remains unclear whether these forms constitute part of the pragmatic toolkit for second/foreign language speakers. Drawing on a corpus of spoken English collected in Hong Kong from a range of situational settings the present study investigates and compares the frequencies and functions of the multifunctional form so by Hong Kong Chinese non-native speakers of English and native speakers of English. Findings from the study show similarities in the ratio of the discourse use to propositional use of the word between the two groups of speakers. However discrepancies are observed in the frequency of certain discourse functions by the two groups. These results are considered in relation to such critical issues as linguistic performance pragmatic competence and cultural preference. For language teachers and literacy educators the pedagogical implications of how such comparative findings can be meaningfully deployed to enhance second/foreign language education especially in terms of the pragmatic aspect of communication are discussed.