“Yeeees, Thank You Please!”: the Pragmatics of Please in African Englishes

Unuabonah, Foluke;Daniel, Florence;Fifelola, Deborah;Oyebola, Folajimi
(2026) Contrastive Pragmatics — Vol. 1, p. 1-34 (2026)

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  • Unuabonah, Folukeorcid-logoDepartment of English, Redeemer’s University https://dx.doi.org/59199 Ede Nigeria
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  • Daniel, Florenceorcid-logoDepartment of English, Redeemer’s University https://dx.doi.org/59199 Ede Nigeria
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  • Fifelola, Deborahorcid-logoDepartment of English, Redeemer’s University https://dx.doi.org/59199 Ede Nigeria
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  • Oyebola, Folajimiorcid-logoDepartment of English Linguistics, University of Bremen https://dx.doi.org/9168 Bremen Germany
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Abstract
This article examines the discourse-pragmatic use of please as a marker of politeness in three African English varieties: Ghanaian English, Nigerian English, and Ugandan English, analysing its frequency, structural patterns, pragmatic functions, and variation across different text types. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, the study analysed data from the Ghanaian, Nigerian, and Ugandan components of the International Corpus of English. The findings show that please occurs most frequently in Nigerian English, followed by Ghanaian English and Ugandan English, and that it is most common in correspondences and public dialogues across all three varieties. Also,
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Unuabonah, F., Daniel, F., Fifelola, D., & Oyebola, F. (2026). “Yeeees, Thank You Please!”: the Pragmatics of Please in African Englishes. Contrastive Pragmatics, 1, 1-34. https://doi.org/10.1163/26660393-bja10165 (Original work published 2026)