CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF PRAGMATIC CHANGES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55640/Keywords:
corpus linguistics, pragmatic change, speech acts, politeness, implicature, discourse markers, digital communication, mediated discourseAbstract
This article presents a comprehensive corpus-based investigation of pragmatic changes in contemporary English. Drawing on data from multiple large-scale corpora spanning 1990-2024, the study examines transformations in speech act performance, politeness strategies, implicature patterns, and discourse organization. The analysis reveals significant shifts toward informality, directness, and positive politeness orientation, particularly accelerated by digital communication. Key findings include the grammaticalization of new pragmatic markers, the reconfiguration of deference systems, and the emergence of novel implicature types in mediated interaction. The study demonstrates that English pragmatics is undergoing measurable transformation with implications for pragmatic theory, intercultural communication, and language education.
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