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

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, please occurs predominantly in clause-initial position and fulfils a range of pragmatic functions, including those that have not been documented in studies of other world Englishes. Overall, these findings reflect the impact of local languages and cultures on the use of please in the three African English varieties.