“Sure this is a great country for drink and rowing at elections”
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Carolina P. Amador-Moreno
Abstract
Few features of Irish English have been studied diachronically and the area of pragmatic markers is likewise largely neglected even as regards present-day Irish English (Corrigan 2010). This study uses data from the Corpus of Irish English Correspondence (CORIECOR) to survey the history of some of the pragmatic markers regarded as most typical of Irish English, particularly like and sure. Besides addressing issues like the historical provenance of these pragmatic markers in varieties of British English, Scots, in contact with Irish, or as innovations in Irish English itself, we trace changes in the functions for which the markers are used throughout the timespans covered by CORIECOR (1750–1940). Also examined are usage patterns in the light of previous empirical findings that many of the distinctive features of Irish English tend to emerge in the written record only at relatively late stages in the process of language shift, and the hypothesis that this may be related to increasing colloquialisation or vernacularisation.
Abstract
Few features of Irish English have been studied diachronically and the area of pragmatic markers is likewise largely neglected even as regards present-day Irish English (Corrigan 2010). This study uses data from the Corpus of Irish English Correspondence (CORIECOR) to survey the history of some of the pragmatic markers regarded as most typical of Irish English, particularly like and sure. Besides addressing issues like the historical provenance of these pragmatic markers in varieties of British English, Scots, in contact with Irish, or as innovations in Irish English itself, we trace changes in the functions for which the markers are used throughout the timespans covered by CORIECOR (1750–1940). Also examined are usage patterns in the light of previous empirical findings that many of the distinctive features of Irish English tend to emerge in the written record only at relatively late stages in the process of language shift, and the hypothesis that this may be related to increasing colloquialisation or vernacularisation.
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
