Andersen Gisle. Pragmatic Markers and Sociolinguistic Variation: A relevance-theoretic approach to the language of adolescents

John Benjamins, 2001. — x, 352 pp. — (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series). — ISBN: 90-272-5103-7 / 1 58811 018 4.This book combines theoretical work in linguistic pragmatics and sociolinguistics with empirical work based on a corpus of London adolescent conversation. It makes a general contribution to the study of pragmatic markers, as it proposes an analytical model that involves notions such as subjectivity, interactional and textual capacity, and the distinction between contextual alignment/divergence. These notions are defined according to how information contained in an utterance interacts with the cognitive environment of the hearer. Moreover, the model captures the diachronic development of markers from lexical items via processes of grammaticalisation, arguing that markerhood may be viewed as a gradient phenomenon.The empirical work concerns the use of like as a marker, as well as a characteristic use of two originally interrogative forms, innit and is it, which are used as attitudinal markers throughout the inflectional paradigm, despite the fact that they contain a third person singular neuter pronoun. The author provides an in-depth analysis of these features in terms of pragmatic functions, diachronic development and sociolinguistic variation, thus adding support to the hypothesis that adolescents play an important role in language variation and change.General introduction
Pragmatics and sociolinguistic variation
Aims and scope of the current study
The structure of this book
Theoretical background
Relevance and grammaticalisation
Pragmatic markers
Pragmatic markers and (non-)propositional meaning
Pragmatic markers and relevance
COLT and the BNCThe COLT conversations
The BNC/London conversations
Statistical method and representativity
Invariant tags and follow-upsPragmatic functions
Variation and language change
The pragmatic markerlikePragmatic functions
Variation and language change
Pragmatic aspects of teenage and adult conversationLanguage change and age-grading
Suggestions for future research