A variational pragmatic analysis of responses to thanks in Nigerian English

Abstract

Studies on responses to thanks in some varieties of English have reported preferred forms and strategies that are germane in language variation and cross-cultural research.  For example, speakers of Cameroon English have been shown to prefer response forms and strategies that diverge from those of British English and Canadian English thereby suggesting differences in the communicative strategies between L1 and L2 speakers.  Since generalization is problematic using one L2 variety, more studies are needed. This study examined 300 responses to thanks collected among ESL speakers of Nigerian English. Analysis revealed that speakers of Nigerian English prefer return thanks, pleasure response forms and minimizing favour strategy.  These results align more with preferred BrE response forms and strategies than with CamE’s consequently indicating that the reported divergence between L1 and L2 cannot be generalized as it does not apply to NigE.  However, more studies in the other L2 varieties are required.