From Ireland to Newfoundland
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Sandra Clarke
Abstract
Irish English is well-known for its extensive range of perfect equivalents, including the after-perfect and the medial-object perfect. Yet the literature displays no consensus on either the precise semantics of the former or the origins of the latter (along with those of the “extended present”, the be-perfect, and the simple past as perfect equivalent). This paper attempts to shed light on both issues, using corpus data from Newfoundland, among the earliest of Britain’s transatlantic colonies. These data suggest that the after-perfect was brought to Newfoundland with a full range of perfect meanings, not simply that of “hot news”. They also cast serious doubt on the role played by an Irish substrate in the path of grammaticalisation of the medial-object perfect. Keywords: Newfoundland English; Irish English; perfect forms; after-perfect; medial-object perfect
Abstract
Irish English is well-known for its extensive range of perfect equivalents, including the after-perfect and the medial-object perfect. Yet the literature displays no consensus on either the precise semantics of the former or the origins of the latter (along with those of the “extended present”, the be-perfect, and the simple past as perfect equivalent). This paper attempts to shed light on both issues, using corpus data from Newfoundland, among the earliest of Britain’s transatlantic colonies. These data suggest that the after-perfect was brought to Newfoundland with a full range of perfect meanings, not simply that of “hot news”. They also cast serious doubt on the role played by an Irish substrate in the path of grammaticalisation of the medial-object perfect. Keywords: Newfoundland English; Irish English; perfect forms; after-perfect; medial-object perfect
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
