A variational pragmatic approach to responses to thanks in Namibian English

Abstract Variational pragmatics has only recently been combined with non-native World Englishes research, by examining the pragmatics of Namibian English (NamE). However, this research has concentrated on the comparison of pragmatic phenomena in NamE to those in some L1-varieties, exclusively based on the same mixed-task questionnaire. Although this has led to the discovery of specifically Namibian usages, limitations to the validity of this type of data collection have been pointed out. This chapter triangulates the results of a quantitative questionnaire study with qualitative analysis of role-plays and meta-pragmatic focus group discussions, reassessing earlier findings on responses to thanks in NamE. This contributes to the understanding of sociolinguistic complexity and the negotiation of pragmatic strategies in the multilingual ecology of Namibia.