The discourse marker LIKE in Irish English
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Martin Schweinberger
Abstract
This paper analyses the use of the discourse marker LIKE in Irish English (IrE) with respect to a speaker’s age and gender and illustrates how the International Corpus of English (ICE) can be used for fine-grained sociolinguistic analyses. The results suggest that LIKE use significantly decreases as speakers exceed their mid-thirties and that all variants of LIKE undergo changes which are, however, restricted to younger speakers. Keywords: Discourse marker LIKE; sociolinguistics; linguistic variation; language change; gender; age; ICE Ireland; quantitative analysis
Abstract
This paper analyses the use of the discourse marker LIKE in Irish English (IrE) with respect to a speaker’s age and gender and illustrates how the International Corpus of English (ICE) can be used for fine-grained sociolinguistic analyses. The results suggest that LIKE use significantly decreases as speakers exceed their mid-thirties and that all variants of LIKE undergo changes which are, however, restricted to younger speakers. Keywords: Discourse marker LIKE; sociolinguistics; linguistic variation; language change; gender; age; ICE Ireland; quantitative analysis
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
