Australian English Reimagined

This chapter reviews the latest research on discourse-pragmatics in the Englishes spoken in Australia, focusing on discourse markers/particles (yeah/no, sort of, cos, discourse like), general extenders (and stuff like that), final but, epistemic/evidential parentheticals (I think), and quotative verbs (say, think, be like). Based on a heterogeneous cohort of linguistic items, the field has grown exponentially in the last decade beginning with studies focusing on individual discourse-pragmatic items and their usage frequencies across social categories and time while subsequently paving the way for accountable, systematic variationist analysis of language in use based on replicable methods, rich linguistic data and comparable analytical tools. The chapter reviews Australian discourse-pragmatic research in both camps and addresses three areas that need close attention as the field continues to expand. It concludes with a swift call to action to include minority English varieties in Australia.