In:Pragmatic Markers in Irish English
Edited by Carolina P. Amador-Moreno, Kevin McCafferty and Elaine Vaughan
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 258] 2015
► pp. 135–155
“Actually, it’s unfair to say that I was throwing stones”
Comparative perspectives on uses of actually in ICE-Ireland
Published online: 15 July 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.258.06kal
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.258.06kal
This chapter examines Irish English in the perspective of world Englishes, taking
the word actually as a discourse marker for case study. The initial discussion
focuses on variation in the structural positioning of actually, and on
the possible differentiation between actually as an adverb and as a discourse
marker. Analysis proceeds on the working assumption that all uses of actually
in contemporary English share potential as discourse markers, though clausemarginal
position is taken to illustrate an advanced structural position for this
function. Material from ICE-Ireland is used to illustrate a wide range of structural
positions and discourse-marking functions for actually, while comparisons
with other ICE corpora suggest Ireland to be in a conservative position relative
to possible change in progress.
References (26)
Aijmer, Karen. 2002. English Discourse Particles: Evidence from a Corpus. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Anthony, Laurence. 2012. AntConc version 3.3.5m. Computer software. Tokyo: Waseda University. Available at [URL].
Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad, and Edward Finegan. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman.
Carter, Ronald, and Michael McCarthy. 2006. Cambridge Grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cheng, Winnie, and Martin Warren. 2001. “The Functions of Actually in a Corpus of Intercultural Conversations.” International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 6 (2): 257–280.
Corpus of Canadian English Website. [URL]. Last accessed 13 November 2013.
Defour, Tine, Ulrique D’Hondt, Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen, and Dominique Willems. 2012. “Degrees of Pragmaticalization: The Divergent Histories of ‘Actually’ and Actuellement
.” In Pragmatic Markers and Pragmaticalization, ed. by Peter Lauwers, Gudrun Vanderbauwhede, and Stijn Verleyen, 37–64. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Gray, Mark. 2012. “On the Interchangeability of Actually and Really in Spoken English: Quantitative and Qualitative Evidence from Corpora.” English Language and Linguistics 16: 151–170.
Greenbaum, Sidney (ed.). 1996. Comparing English Worldwide: The International Corpus of English. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
ICE Website. ICE – International Corpus of English. [URL]. Last accessed 13 November 2013.
ICE-GB. 1998. The International Corpus of English: The British Component. CD-ROM. London: Survey of English Usage.
Kallen, Jeffrey L., and John M. Kirk. 2007. “ICE-Ireland: Local Variations on Global Standards.” In Creating and Digitizing Language Corpora, Vol. 1: Synchronic Databases, ed. by Joan C. Beal, Karen P. Corrigan, and Hermann L. Moisl, 121–162. London: Palgrave.
Kirk, John M., Jeffrey L. Kallen, Orla Lowry, Anne Rooney, and Margaret Mannion. 2011a. International Corpus of English: Ireland Component. The ICE-Ireland Corpus. Version 1.2.2. CD-ROM. Belfast: Queen’s University Belfast and Dublin: Trinity College Dublin.
. 2011b. The SPICE-Ireland Corpus: Systems of Pragmatic Annotation for the Spoken Component of ICE-Ireland. Version 1.2.2. CD-ROM. Belfast: Queen’s University Belfast and Dublin: Trinity College Dublin.
Oh, Sun-Young. 2000. “
Actually and In Fact in American English: A Data-based Analysis.” English Language and Linguistics 4: 243–268.
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. 1972. A Grammar of Contemporary English. London: Longman.
Taglicht, Josef. 2001. “
Actually, There’s More to It Than Meets the Eye.” English Language and Linguistics 5: 1–16.
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs, and Richard B. Dasher. 2002. Regularity in Semantic Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Waters, Cathleen. 2008. “
Actually, It’s More than Pragmatics, It’s Really Grammaticalization.” Unpublished generals paper, University of Toronto. Available at [URL].
Cited by (6)
Cited by six other publications
O’Keeffe, Anne
Aijmer, Karin
Aijmer, Karin
Ní Mhurchú, Aoife
Kirk, John M.
2016. The Pragmatic Annotation Scheme of the SPICE-Ireland Corpus. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 21:3 ► pp. 299 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
