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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. 390–407

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Now in the speech of newcomers to Ireland

Published online: 15 July 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.258.17mig
Recently, people from all over the world have made Ireland their home. Their reasons for coming to Ireland and their social and linguistic profiles are varied. This study aims to investigate immigrants’ acquisition of pragmatic aspects of Irish English, as these types of features tend to be highly salient and may function as easy targets for acquisition or rejection. The pragmatic marker now, a high-frequency linguistic variable perceived as ‘emblematic’ of Irish English, is in focus. This study uses quantitative and qualitative methods to examine how levels of now use correlate with feelings of belonging to Ireland. Data for the study consist of semi-guided audio-recorded interviews with newcomers. First Ireland’s recent immigration history is briefly discussed and the social characteristics of the people in the sample, including their feelings of belonging to Ireland, are presented. Then the pragmatic marker now is discussed, and its use in the data is examined, comparing the results to previous research. Finally, the implications for research on the relationship between linguistic variation and social integration are discussed.
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O’Keeffe, Anne
2023. Irish English Corpus Linguistics. In The Oxford Handbook of Irish English, ► pp. 243 ff. DOI logo
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Schulte, Marion
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2020. ‘Northmen, Southmen, comrades all’? The adoption of discourselikeby migrants north and south of the Irish border. Language in Society 49:5 ► pp. 745 ff. DOI logo
Magliacane, Annarita
2020. Erasmus students in an Irish studyabroad context. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education 5:1 ► pp. 89 ff. DOI logo
Schweinberger, Martin
2020. Speech-unit finallikein Irish English. English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English 41:1 ► pp. 89 ff. DOI logo
Ní Mhurchú, Aoife
2018. What’s Left to Say About Irish English Progressives? “I’m Not Going Having Any Conversation with You”. Corpus Pragmatics 2:3 ► pp. 289 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2023. The Sociophonetics of Dublin English [Studies in Language Variation, 30], DOI logo
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