Is it truly unique that Irish English clefts are? Quantifying the syntactic variation of it -clefts in Irish English and other post-colonial English varieties
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Kalynda Beal
Abstract
Irish English it-clefts are said to be atypical due to contact-induced transfer. However, they have only been compared to other British Isles varieties and no quantitative study has been conducted to categorize their supposedly unique features. This paper examines unique features of it-clefting in Irish English as compared with other post-colonial Englishes. Quantitative analysis of all it-clefts in sections of the International Corpus of English shows that often, the features of “non-standard” clefting result. from English dialect convergence. A comparison of it-clefts in Irish English with those in British, Jamaican, Singapore, Indian, and East African English identifies variation in post-colonial Englishes and categorizes them according to aspects of Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model to measure a dialect’s level of stabilization. Keywords: It-cleft; post-colonial English; Dynamic Model; language variation; universals; corpus-based analysis
Abstract
Irish English it-clefts are said to be atypical due to contact-induced transfer. However, they have only been compared to other British Isles varieties and no quantitative study has been conducted to categorize their supposedly unique features. This paper examines unique features of it-clefting in Irish English as compared with other post-colonial Englishes. Quantitative analysis of all it-clefts in sections of the International Corpus of English shows that often, the features of “non-standard” clefting result. from English dialect convergence. A comparison of it-clefts in Irish English with those in British, Jamaican, Singapore, Indian, and East African English identifies variation in post-colonial Englishes and categorizes them according to aspects of Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model to measure a dialect’s level of stabilization. Keywords: It-cleft; post-colonial English; Dynamic Model; language variation; universals; corpus-based analysis
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contact details for contributors vii
- Preface xi
- Is Dublin English ‘Alive Alive Oh’? 1
- Linguistic change in Galway City English 29
- [ˈfɪlǝm] and [ˈfarǝm]? 47
- The why of Belfast rises 67
- Exploring grammatical differences between Irish and British English 85
- From Ireland to Newfoundland 101
- “A cannot get a loan for more than six years now” 131
- Is it truly unique that Irish English clefts are? Quantifying the syntactic variation of it -clefts in Irish English and other post-colonial English varieties 153
- The discourse marker LIKE in Irish English 179
- “I’m fine girl, and how are you?” 203
- “It’s lunacy now” 225
- The responsive system of Irish English 247
- A Corpus of Irish English Correspondence (CORIECOR) 265
- The Irish in Argentina 289
- Irish English and recent immigrants to Ireland 311
- Discourse ‘like’ and social identity – a case study of Poles in Ireland 327
- Bio Sketches 355
- Index 359
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contact details for contributors vii
- Preface xi
- Is Dublin English ‘Alive Alive Oh’? 1
- Linguistic change in Galway City English 29
- [ˈfɪlǝm] and [ˈfarǝm]? 47
- The why of Belfast rises 67
- Exploring grammatical differences between Irish and British English 85
- From Ireland to Newfoundland 101
- “A cannot get a loan for more than six years now” 131
- Is it truly unique that Irish English clefts are? Quantifying the syntactic variation of it -clefts in Irish English and other post-colonial English varieties 153
- The discourse marker LIKE in Irish English 179
- “I’m fine girl, and how are you?” 203
- “It’s lunacy now” 225
- The responsive system of Irish English 247
- A Corpus of Irish English Correspondence (CORIECOR) 265
- The Irish in Argentina 289
- Irish English and recent immigrants to Ireland 311
- Discourse ‘like’ and social identity – a case study of Poles in Ireland 327
- Bio Sketches 355
- Index 359
