ABSTRACT
This article presents a data-driven analysis of spoken uses of the Thai pragmatic particle /kɔ̂ɔ/. Drawing on an examination of instances in dialogic discourse, this study identifies several speech-act types related to uses of /kɔ̂ɔ/ and reveals that /kɔ̂ɔ/ interpersonally functions as a reaction marker when the speaker uses it turn-initially and takes into consideration the interlocutor’s previous utterance as a communicatively given presupposition. A fine classification of the instances enables us to see the plausibility of /kɔ̂ɔ/ having broadened past its original, text-procedural function to a logical and modal one, and further to an interpersonal one.
