Kind of as a discourse marker in face-to-face conversations

Abstract

This study investigates the frequency, positional distribution, and functions of kind of across different age groups and genders, using the corpora of British English face-to-face conversations (the Spoken BNC1994DS and the Spoken BNC2014). The analysis reveals a statistically significant increase in the frequency of kind of as a discourse marker (DM), particularly in the utterance medial and final positions. This rise is mainly driven by its use as a hedge, general extender, and pause filler. The age distribution shows a notable increase in the frequency among younger to middle-aged groups, with the highest frequency observed in the 20-39 age group in the Spoken BNC2014. This indicates a growing entrenchment of kind of in the speech of younger generations as a pragmatic tool. The results also indicate that females use kind of more frequently than males in both corpora, with a significant increase in the Spoken BNC2014, highlighting their role in the shifting pragmatic use of this DM. Future research could expand on these findings by investigating the use of kind of in different varieties of English.