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Tag questions across Irish English and British English: A corpus analysis of form and function

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Published/Copyright: March 18, 2015

Abstract

The present study, situated in the area of variational pragmatics, contrasts tag question (TQ) use in Ireland and Great Britain using spoken data from the Irish and British components of the International Corpus of English (ICE). Analysis is on the formal and functional level and also investigates form-functional relationships. Findings reveal many similarities in the use of TQs across the varieties. They also point, however, to a lower use of TQs in Irish English and in a range of variety-preferential features on both the formal and functional levels. The paper shows how an in-depth analysis of form-function relations together with a fine-tuned investigation of sub-functions gives an insight into formal preferences.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Fund for Scientific Research (Kleinforschungsprojekt) awarded by the Leuphana University Lüneburg which enabled the research reported in this paper to be undertaken. Special thanks also to two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments, to Martin Schweinberger, who offered advice on statistical measures, and to Kerstin Single for formatting assistance.

Transcription conventions

<,>

Short pause

<,,>

Long pause

<{>...</{>

Initiation and completion of a stretch of text in which overlapping speech occurs

<[>... </[>

Initiation and completion of an utterance which overlaps with another utterance. Subsequent overlapping utterances are numbered, as in <[1>... </[1>, <[2>... </[2>, etc.

<unclear>...</unclear>

Unclear speech

<&> laughter </&>

Indicates laughter

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Published Online: 2015-3-18
Published in Print: 2015-7-1

©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton

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