Recent changes of now as a discourse marker in spoken English

Abstract

This study examines the evolving role of now in spoken English using data from two distinct corpora complied in the 1990s and 2010s. Analyses of randomly selected tokens distinguish occurrences of now as either a temporal adverb or a discourse marker (DM), with a focus on positional patterns, social factors (age and gender), functional distribution, and co-occurrences with other DMs. Findings reveal that while the DM now predominantly appears in turn- or utterance-initial positions, its occurrence in utterance-medial positions has notably increased, reflecting broader pragmatic development. The DM now is increasingly used for textual and affective functions, such as shifting topics, marking contrasts, or indicating stance, beyond its time-referential role. In terms of speaker demographics, the rise in DM now usage is largely driven by younger speakers, indicating a generational shift from two decades earlier; gender, however, does not significantly affect overall frequency. Analysis of DM co-occurrences shows that additive patterns are most frequent, whereas compositional and juxtaposed forms are less common. Overall, these results underscore the growing versatility of now in contemporary English, reflecting broader trends in discourse structuring, interaction management, and generational language shift.