Integrating corpus-based and interactional approaches to pragmatic variation in world Englishes

This monograph explores how speakers of English in Hong Kong realise disagreements by studying and comparing interactions of Hong Kong Chinese, Mainland Chinese, returnees, and expatriates. It combines corpus-based and interactional approaches to uncover how pragmatic choices in disagreeing are influenced by socio-cultural conditions and individual preferences. By integrating qualitative analyses with statistical modelling, the study offers a comprehensive account of pragmatic variation in a diverse speech community. Drawing on frameworks from world Englishes and variational pragmatics, it contributes to their theoretical synthesis and provides methodological innovations for researchers interested in (postcolonial) varieties of English and the pragmatics of everyday interaction.