“I’m fine girl, and how are you?”
-
Bróna Murphy
Abstract
The use of phatic communion and small talk are obvious examples of how interpersonal relationships are built and maintained. This paper explores the use of vocatives, which play an equally important part in the affective realm of communication. This paper uses corpus-based tools and methodologies to explore the use of vocatives across a range of contexts in Irish English, highlighting the strong link between the use of vocatives and casual conversation in particular. Focusing on three high frequency forms (girl, lads and boy) in casual conversation, we investigate how their distribution and functions are conditioned by sociolinguistic variables like age and gender. The paper reveals new insights into interpersonal interaction which has informality at its core. Keywords: Vocatives; social contexts; age; gender; casual conversation
Abstract
The use of phatic communion and small talk are obvious examples of how interpersonal relationships are built and maintained. This paper explores the use of vocatives, which play an equally important part in the affective realm of communication. This paper uses corpus-based tools and methodologies to explore the use of vocatives across a range of contexts in Irish English, highlighting the strong link between the use of vocatives and casual conversation in particular. Focusing on three high frequency forms (girl, lads and boy) in casual conversation, we investigate how their distribution and functions are conditioned by sociolinguistic variables like age and gender. The paper reveals new insights into interpersonal interaction which has informality at its core. Keywords: Vocatives; social contexts; age; gender; casual conversation
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
