Abstract
This paper investigates three pragmatic markers which hitherto have not been discussed in Nigerian English. It examines the meaning, grammatical properties and discourse-pragmatic functions of these pragmatic markers: o, sha and abi in the International Corpus of English-Nigeria, from a grammatical-pragmatic approach. The results reveal that o is an emphasis marker and a mitigation marker, sha is a discourse marker, an attention marker and a mitigation marker while abi occurs as a discourse marker and as an agreement marker. The three markers are syntactically optional; they mostly occupy the clause-final position and are mainly found in informal talks. While o is derived from various Nigerian indigenous languages including Yoruba, Igbo and Ishan, sha and abi are borrowed from Yoruba. The paper concludes that o may be a likely candidate for inclusion in Standard Nigerian English, due to its frequency, distribution and functions in Nigerian English.
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