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In:Pragmatic Markers in Irish English
Edited by Carolina P. Amador-Moreno, Kevin McCafferty and Elaine Vaughan
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 258] 2015
► pp. 270–291

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“Sure this is a great country for drink and rowing at elections”

Pragmatic markers in the Corpus of Irish English Correspondence, 1750�1940

 | University of Extremadura
 | University of Bergen
Published online: 15 July 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.258.12ama
Few features of Irish English have been studied diachronically and the area of pragmatic markers is likewise largely neglected even as regards present-day Irish English (Corrigan 2010). This study uses data from the Corpus of Irish English Correspondence (CORIECOR) to survey the history of some of the pragmatic markers regarded as most typical of Irish English, particularly like and sure. Besides addressing issues like the historical provenance of these pragmatic markers in varieties of British English, Scots, in contact with Irish, or as innovations in Irish English itself, we trace changes in the functions for which the markers are used throughout the timespans covered by CORIECOR (1750–1940). Also examined are usage patterns in the light of previous empirical findings that many of the distinctive features of Irish English tend to emerge in the written record only at relatively late stages in the process of language shift, and the hypothesis that this may be related to increasing colloquialisation or vernacularisation.
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