Corpus Pragmatics

what it is and where we are now

Abstract

This work aims to present a new field which has emerged from the intersection between Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics: Corpus Pragmatics. To do so, through a literature review as a starting point, we offer an overview that encompasses the origin, the theoretical and methodological aspects, and the challenges of the new field. In addition, we introduce the form-to-function and function-to-form approaches, two investigative models which integrate the discipline. Finally, by means of a case study in order to illustrate one of the possible analytical routes, we investigate the pragmatic marker kind of by employing sifting, a method which comprises the form-to-function approach, in the oral discourse of Brazilian university students. The subcorpora which support the research are the Spoken Corpus of Brazilian Portuguese and L2-English (SCoPE²) and the Brazilian Spoken English Learner Corpus (BraSEL). The results show that when used pragmatically, even in different linguistic contexts, kind of occurs in its three functional domains (attitudinal, interpersonal, textual) and as a constituent part of vague language markers.