TY - JOUR
T1 - There as a discourse-pragmatic marker in Irish English
AU - Clancy, Brian
AU - Amador-Moreno, Carolina
AU - Vaughan, Elaine
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - The upper ranks of corpus word frequency lists are primarily populated by functional items, as well as by other small words characterised by their polysemy that reward focussed attention and research. Exploring these items has resulted in rich and fruitful insights from a corpus pragmatic perspective. This paper focuses on the nature and value of there as a discourse-pragmatic marker in Irish English (IrE). We focus on intimate discourse (i.e., the language used between family and friends), and use corpora of IrE to trace and investigate the varietal nuances of there in this context. Our analysis acknowledges the expected existential and locative functions and illustrates that there has specific discourse–pragmatic properties in the intimate sphere in IrE. We argue that there has acquired additional pragmatic dimensions and is used in the language of family and friends as, for example, an involvement marker or mitigator. In the discussion of the development of there as a discourse-pragmatic marker, we consult historical data that matches our focal context, and discuss the processes by which there has come to fulfil a range of discourse-pragmatic functions in IrE.
AB - The upper ranks of corpus word frequency lists are primarily populated by functional items, as well as by other small words characterised by their polysemy that reward focussed attention and research. Exploring these items has resulted in rich and fruitful insights from a corpus pragmatic perspective. This paper focuses on the nature and value of there as a discourse-pragmatic marker in Irish English (IrE). We focus on intimate discourse (i.e., the language used between family and friends), and use corpora of IrE to trace and investigate the varietal nuances of there in this context. Our analysis acknowledges the expected existential and locative functions and illustrates that there has specific discourse–pragmatic properties in the intimate sphere in IrE. We argue that there has acquired additional pragmatic dimensions and is used in the language of family and friends as, for example, an involvement marker or mitigator. In the discussion of the development of there as a discourse-pragmatic marker, we consult historical data that matches our focal context, and discuss the processes by which there has come to fulfil a range of discourse-pragmatic functions in IrE.
KW - Corpus pragmatics
KW - Discourse-pragmatic markers
KW - Discourse-pragmatic there
KW - Intimate discourse
KW - Irish English
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85174216372&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.pragma.2023.09.015
DO - 10.1016/j.pragma.2023.09.015
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85174216372
SN - 0378-2166
VL - 218
SP - 62
EP - 70
JO - Journal of Pragmatics
JF - Journal of Pragmatics
ER -