The Use and Functions of the Pragmatic Marker You Know in Professional ELF Discourse: A Corpus-based Study

Although ELF has been investigated from various linguistic angles ranging from phonology to lexicogrammar, research that explore the impact of social variables (e.g., age, power relations) on pragmatic markers is still in its infancy (Koczogh & Furkó, 2011). The proposed study aims to fill these gaps in the literature by addressing the following research question: How do symmetrical and asymmetrical power relations affect the use and functions of the pragmatic marker you know in the context of professional ELF spoken discourse? In order to answer this question, a corpus-based mixed methods data design was adopted. The occurrences of the pragmatic marker you know in the professional domains of Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE) were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. For the quantitative analysis, normed frequency counts of you know in each sub-corpus were tallied. Subsequently, functions of you know were analyzed with an iterative approach. The findings revealed that you know mostly functions as a textual/discourse organizer in professional ELF context, and there is no statistical relationship between the use of this pragmatic marker and symmetrical and asymmetrical power relations.