The discourse functions of I don’t know in English conversation

This paper discusses the pragmatic functions of I don’t know in examples from the spoken part of the Cobuild Corpus. The study provides an overview of the concept of ‘face’ and explores the potential value of the notion of face and politeness in the interpretation of I don’t know. The occurrences of I don’t know are also studied in order to identify its meaning and function. Particular attention is paid to the role of certain discourse markers occurring in conjunction with I don’t know like oh, you know, I mean, well, each of which adds a particular pragmatic effect. The analysis reveals that the basic semantic meaning of I don’t know underlines all the pragmatic functions, regardless of whether it is used, for instance, as a mitigating strategy avoiding face threats or as a filler for time, to take two extremes.