John Benjamins Publishing Company
The responsive system of Irish English
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Gili Diamant
Abstract
This paper examines the Irish English responsive system. The discussion focuses on the different patterns that make up the Irish English responsive system and considers its possible origins. The paper argues that although yes/no questions may be answered by a range of responses in all varieties of English, Irish English is somewhat unique in that it also employs other types of responses apart from polarity particles. Comparison with the responsive system of Irish suggest that this very un-Germanic way of answering yes/no questions may have its origin in Irish. Keywords: Irish English responsive system; Irish responsive; nexus; yes/no question
Abstract
This paper examines the Irish English responsive system. The discussion focuses on the different patterns that make up the Irish English responsive system and considers its possible origins. The paper argues that although yes/no questions may be answered by a range of responses in all varieties of English, Irish English is somewhat unique in that it also employs other types of responses apart from polarity particles. Comparison with the responsive system of Irish suggest that this very un-Germanic way of answering yes/no questions may have its origin in Irish. Keywords: Irish English responsive system; Irish responsive; nexus; yes/no question
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
