“Actually, it’s unfair to say that I was throwing stones”
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Jeffrey L. Kallen
Abstract
This chapter examines Irish English in the perspective of world Englishes, taking the word actually as a discourse marker for case study. The initial discussion focuses on variation in the structural positioning of actually, and on the possible differentiation between actually as an adverb and as a discourse marker. Analysis proceeds on the working assumption that all uses of actually in contemporary English share potential as discourse markers, though clausemarginal position is taken to illustrate an advanced structural position for this function. Material from ICE-Ireland is used to illustrate a wide range of structural positions and discourse-marking functions for actually, while comparisons with other ICE corpora suggest Ireland to be in a conservative position relative to possible change in progress.
Abstract
This chapter examines Irish English in the perspective of world Englishes, taking the word actually as a discourse marker for case study. The initial discussion focuses on variation in the structural positioning of actually, and on the possible differentiation between actually as an adverb and as a discourse marker. Analysis proceeds on the working assumption that all uses of actually in contemporary English share potential as discourse markers, though clausemarginal position is taken to illustrate an advanced structural position for this function. Material from ICE-Ireland is used to illustrate a wide range of structural positions and discourse-marking functions for actually, while comparisons with other ICE corpora suggest Ireland to be in a conservative position relative to possible change in progress.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- The Pragmatics of Irish English and Irish 17
- “I always think of people here, you know, saying ‘like’ after every sentence” 37
- A corpus-based investigation of pragmatic markers and sociolinguistic variation in Irish English 65
- Kind of and sort of 89
- A comparative study of the pragmatic marker like in Irish English and in south-eastern varieties of British English 114
- “Actually, it’s unfair to say that I was throwing stones” 135
- “’Tis mad, yeah” 156
- Turn initiators in professional encounters 176
- “And your wedding is the twenty-second <.> of June is it?” 203
- “Hurry up baby son all the boys is finished their breakfast” 229
- Pragmatic markers as implicit emotive anchoring 248
- “Sure this is a great country for drink and rowing at elections” 270
- Blathering Beauties 292
- Pragmatic markers in contemporary radio advertising in Ireland 318
- “Yeah well, probably, you know I wasn’t that big into school, you know” 348
- “There’s, like, total silence again, roysh, and no one says anything” 370
- Now in the speech of newcomers to Ireland 390
- The significance of age and place of residence in the positional distribution of discourse like in L2 speech 408
- Name index 433
- Subject index 437
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- The Pragmatics of Irish English and Irish 17
- “I always think of people here, you know, saying ‘like’ after every sentence” 37
- A corpus-based investigation of pragmatic markers and sociolinguistic variation in Irish English 65
- Kind of and sort of 89
- A comparative study of the pragmatic marker like in Irish English and in south-eastern varieties of British English 114
- “Actually, it’s unfair to say that I was throwing stones” 135
- “’Tis mad, yeah” 156
- Turn initiators in professional encounters 176
- “And your wedding is the twenty-second <.> of June is it?” 203
- “Hurry up baby son all the boys is finished their breakfast” 229
- Pragmatic markers as implicit emotive anchoring 248
- “Sure this is a great country for drink and rowing at elections” 270
- Blathering Beauties 292
- Pragmatic markers in contemporary radio advertising in Ireland 318
- “Yeah well, probably, you know I wasn’t that big into school, you know” 348
- “There’s, like, total silence again, roysh, and no one says anything” 370
- Now in the speech of newcomers to Ireland 390
- The significance of age and place of residence in the positional distribution of discourse like in L2 speech 408
- Name index 433
- Subject index 437
