Discourse

This chapter considers some aspects  of the spoken and written discourse patterns found in Brunei English. It considers the occurrence of discourse particles such as lah and bah and ‘sort of’ and ‘kind of’, showing that ‘kind of’ is more common in Brunei than in Britain, perhaps reflecting the influence of American English. A ‘new’ discourse particle, wah, is also included in the discussion; this particle is common in the speech of young Bruneians and seems to be preferred over bah. In addition, the occurrence of topic fronting, lexical repetition and lexical doublets is discussed, and it is suggested that many of the patterns that are found may be subject to influence from the structure of Malay discourse. Pragmatic norms are also discussed in this chapter, with a particular focus on the notion of politeness. There now appear to be differing viewpoints on what politeness entails, particularly in making requests, and the schism manifests along the generation cline. Finally, sentence length in Brunei English is considered, and it is suggested that this may similarly reflect the influence of Malay.