John Benjamins Publishing Company
Chapter 6. ‘I have not time to say more at present’
Abstract
Lexical or stative possesssive have has been negated in five ways. Alongside ancient nominal negation (I have no NP) and a newer variant with got (I have got no NP), three verbal negation strategies are found. Bare negation (I have not NP) is the oldest of these, but has ceded ground over the last two centuries to an American-driven innovation using do-support (I don’t have NP) and a British innovation with got (I haven’t got NP). The Corpus of Irish English Correspondence (CORIECOR) allows us to study variation and change in the use of these variants from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. The analysis shows do-support was added to the Irish English repertoire in this period, but in the early twentieth century it remained rare in Irish English; bare negation persisted as the most robust verbal negation strategy; the got variants occurred only sporadically. Strong maintenance of bare negation and nominal negation with have no indicates that Irish English was a solidly conservative variety in this area of the grammar well into the twentieth century.
Abstract
Lexical or stative possesssive have has been negated in five ways. Alongside ancient nominal negation (I have no NP) and a newer variant with got (I have got no NP), three verbal negation strategies are found. Bare negation (I have not NP) is the oldest of these, but has ceded ground over the last two centuries to an American-driven innovation using do-support (I don’t have NP) and a British innovation with got (I haven’t got NP). The Corpus of Irish English Correspondence (CORIECOR) allows us to study variation and change in the use of these variants from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. The analysis shows do-support was added to the Irish English repertoire in this period, but in the early twentieth century it remained rare in Irish English; bare negation persisted as the most robust verbal negation strategy; the got variants occurred only sporadically. Strong maintenance of bare negation and nominal negation with have no indicates that Irish English was a solidly conservative variety in this area of the grammar well into the twentieth century.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- List of contributors ix
- Chapter 1. Mining emigrant correspondence for linguistic insights 1
-
Part I. The language of emigrant correspondence
- Chapter 2. Wisconsin immigrant letters 27
- Chapter 3. ‘I hope you will excuse my bad writing’ 43
- Chapter 4. Singular, plural, or collective? 67
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Part II. The language of the Irish emigrant experience
- Chapter 5. Homesickness, recollections and reunions 87
- Chapter 6. ‘I have not time to say more at present’ 119
- Chapter 7. ‘Matt & Mrs Connor is with me now. They are only beginning to learn the work of the camp’ 139
- Chapter 8. Grammatical variation in nineteenth-century Irish Australian letters 163
- Chapter 9. ‘[S]eas may divide and oceans roll between but Friends is Friends whatever intervene’ 185
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Part III. Vernacular correspondence
- Chapter 10. ‘[T]his is all answer soon’ 213
- Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic features in earlier African American English 239
- Chapter 12. Memoirs from Central America 261
- Index 287
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- List of contributors ix
- Chapter 1. Mining emigrant correspondence for linguistic insights 1
-
Part I. The language of emigrant correspondence
- Chapter 2. Wisconsin immigrant letters 27
- Chapter 3. ‘I hope you will excuse my bad writing’ 43
- Chapter 4. Singular, plural, or collective? 67
-
Part II. The language of the Irish emigrant experience
- Chapter 5. Homesickness, recollections and reunions 87
- Chapter 6. ‘I have not time to say more at present’ 119
- Chapter 7. ‘Matt & Mrs Connor is with me now. They are only beginning to learn the work of the camp’ 139
- Chapter 8. Grammatical variation in nineteenth-century Irish Australian letters 163
- Chapter 9. ‘[S]eas may divide and oceans roll between but Friends is Friends whatever intervene’ 185
-
Part III. Vernacular correspondence
- Chapter 10. ‘[T]his is all answer soon’ 213
- Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic features in earlier African American English 239
- Chapter 12. Memoirs from Central America 261
- Index 287
