The Pragmatics of Irish English

The study of Irish English (IrE) on the phonological, grammatical and lexical levels is long established. Research on the pragmatics of Irish English, in contrast, is a recent endeavour, going back to the early years of this millennium. The aim of this long-term project is to identify the specific nature of appropriate language use in Irish English with relation to politeness theories. To this aim, the framework of variational pragmatics (Schneider/ Barron 2008, Barron/ Schneider 2009) is employed whereby language use in Irish English is contrasted with language use in other varieties of English. The focus of this project to date has been on the speech acts of apologising, offering and requesting. In addition, the pragmatic marker sure has been analysed across varieties, as have the use of tag questions. As well as contrasting patterns of language use in Irish English with those of other varieties of English, the research has also investigated patterns of language use within Irish English according to region (e.g. North/ South), gender and age. Corpus data, production questionnaire data (DCTs, FDCTs) and retrospective qualitative interviews have been the primary sources of data analysed.

Current research within the pragmatics of Irish English focuses on expressions of gratitude in online corpora, apologies in production questionnaires and on directives and responses to gratitude using interactional data from the Lueneburg Direction-Giving (LuDiG) corpus, a corpus of direction-giving interactions elicited for this project using a Labovian methodology.

General:

Barron, A. & Pandarova, I. (2016). The Sociolinguistics of language use in Ireland. In: Hickey, R. (Ed.), Sociolinguistics in Ireland (pp. 107-130). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Barron, A. & Schneider, K. P. (Ed.). (2005). The pragmatics of Irish English. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter.

Barron, A. & Schneider, K. P. (2005). Irish English: A focus on language in action. In: Barron, A. & Schneider, K. P. (Ed.), The pragmatics of Irish English (pp. 3-15). Berlin, New York: De Gruyter.

Apologies:

Barron, A. (forthcoming). “Sorry Miss I completely forgot it”: A variational pragmatic perspective on apologies in Irish English. In: Amador-Moreno, C. & Lucek, S. (Eds.), Expanding the landscapes of Irish English. Abingdon, New York: Routledge.

Expressing gratitude:

Barron, A. (forthcoming). Teaching pragmatic competence with corpora: Intensification in expressions of gratitude across varieties. In: Glaser, K. & Limberg, H. (Eds.),
Pragmatische Kompetenzen im schulischen Fremdsprachenunterricht. Frankfurt a.M.: Lang.

Offers:

Barron, A. (2017). The speech act of ‘offers’ in Irish English.World Englishes, 36(2), 224-238.

Barron, A. (2017). Offers in English. In: Giora, R. & Haugh, M. (Ed.), Doing pragmatics interculturally: Cognitive, philosophical, and sociopragmatic perspectives (pp. 335-352). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.

Barron, A. (2011). Variation revisited: A corpus analysis of offers in Irish English and British English. In: Frenk, J. & Steveker, L. (Ed.), Wissenschaftlicher Anglistentag 2010 Saarbrücken: Proceedings: [proceedings of the conference of the German Association of University Teachers of English] (pp. 407-419). Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier

Barron, A. (2005). Offering in Ireland and England. In: Baron, A. & Schneider, K. P. (Ed.), The pragmatics of Irish English (pp. 141-177). Berlin, New York: De Gruyter.

Barron, A. (2003). Acquisition in Interlanguage Pragmatics: Learning How to do Things with Words in a Study Abroad Context. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Requests:

Barron, A. (2008). Contrasting requests in inner circle Englishes. A study in variational pragmatics. In: Pütz, M. & Neff-van Aertselaer, J. (Eds.), Contrastive Pragmatics: Interlanguage and Cross-Cultural Perspectives (pp. 335-402). Berlin, New York: De Gruyter.

Barron, A. (2008). The structure of requests in Irish English and English English. In: Schneider, K. P. & Barron, A. (Ed.), Variational pragmatics: A focus on regional varieties in pluricentric languages (pp. 35-68). Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Barron, A. (2006). Requesting in Irish English and English English: A study of intra-lingual regional pragmatic variation. LAUD Paper 684. Duisburg, Essen: Universität Duisburg-Essen.

Barron, A. (2003). Acquisition in interlanguage pragmatics: Learning how to do things with words in a study abroad context. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Refusals:

Barron, A. (2003). Acquisition in interlanguage pragmatics: Learning how to do things with words in a study abroad context. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Tag questions:

Barron, A. (2015). And your wedding is the twenty-second <.> of June is it?: Tag questions in Irish English. In: Amador, C., Vaughan, E., McCafferty, K. (Eds.), Pragmatic markers in Irish English (pp. 203-228).Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Barron, A. & Pandarova, I. (2016). The Sociolinguistics of language use in Ireland. In: Hickey, R. (Ed.), Sociolinguistics in Ireland (pp. 107-130) London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Barron, A., Pandarova, I. & Muderack, K. (2015). Tag questions across Irish English and British English: A corpus analysis of form and function.  Multilingua, 34(4), 495-524.

Discourse markers:

Pandarova, I. (in progress). Revisiting sentence adverbials in relevance theory: the semantics and pragmatics of sure across varieties of English. (PhD thesis to be submitted to the Leuphana Universität Lüneburg).

Talks - General:

Barron, A. (2012, December 8).  Different cultures, different interactional norms: Addressing variation across the Englishes. Invited talk at Carl von Ossietzky Universität, Oldenburg, Germany.

Barron, A. (2010, September 19-22). Variation revisited: Language use across the Englishes. Talk presented at the Deutscher Anglistentag, Saarbrücken, Germany.

Barron, A. (2008, December 31).  Different cultures, different interactional norms: Addressing variation across the Englishes. Invited talk at Carl von Ossietzsky Universität, Oldenburg, Germany.

Barron, A. (2005, June 10).  Addressing regional pragmatic variation: Irish English and English English in contrast. Invited talk at Universität Münster, Münster, Germany

Barron, A. & Schneider, K. (2006, July 6-8).  Where is pragmatics in the study of language variation? The case of Irish English. Talk presented at the Sociolinguistics Symposium 16 Conference, Limerick, Ireland.

Barron, A. (2007, May 30). How to get things done with words in Irish English and English English: Pragmatics and dialectology at the cross-road. Invited talk at Universität Basel, Basel, Switzerland.

Talks - apologies

Barron, A. (2019, May 22-24).  'Sorry Miss I completely forgot it': A variational pragmatic perspective on apologies in Irish English and English English. Talk given at the Languages, Nations, Cultures: Pluricentric Languages in Context(s) Conference, Stockholm, Sweden.

Barron, A. (2018, November 11).  ‘Listen I‘m sorry. I didn‘t mean to offend you.’: Conventions of language use across the Englishes. Invited talk at Universität Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany.

Talks – Offers:

Barron, A. (2017, April 26).  ’Granny do you want tea?’: Investigating offers across the Englishes. Brown Bag Lectures at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany.

Barron, A. (2013, May 21-22) Corpora and Pragmatics: Focus on offers in Irish English and British English. Talk presented at the New Perspectives on Irish English 2 (NPIE 2), Dublin, Ireland.

Barron, A. (2010, June 28).  “Will I look have I something?” Pragmatic variation across the Englishes. Invited talk at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany.

Barron, A. (2010, May 31).  Offering in English: A corpus analysis of regional variation. Invited talk at Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.

Barron, A. (2010, April 26). “Shall I lock him up?”: Speech act variation across the Englishes. Invited talk at Universität Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.

Barron, A. (2010, April 13).  "WILL and SHALL: The role of modality in doing things with words across the Englishes". Invited talk at Universität Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany.

Barron, A. (2008, November 11). "Will I call the doctor?" Offers across regional varieties of English. Invited talk at Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany.

Barron, A. (2003, October 29). 'Will I help you?': Offers in Irish English and English English. Invited talk, Universität Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.

Talks – Requests:

Barron, A. (2006, March 27-30).  Requesting in Irish English and English English: A study of intra-lingual regional pragmatic variation. Talk presented at the 31st Internationales LAUD Symposium, Landau, Germany.

Talks - Responses to gratitude:

Barron, A. (2019, June 19).  'You're welcome', 'alright', 'okay': Analysing pragmatic variation across the Englishes. Invited talk at Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.

Barron, A. (2019, May 22-24). Contrastivity and the pragmatic variable: Responses to thanks across English as a pluricentric language. Plenary talk at the Language, Nations, Cultures: Pluricentric Languages in Contest (s) Conference, Stockholm, Sweden.

Barron, A. (2019, April 26-27). Contrasting pragmatic choices in responding to thanks in Ireland, England and Canada. Talk given at the New Approaches to Irish English (Corpus) Pragmatics Conference, Dortmund, Germany.

Talks – Tag questions:

Barron, A. (2015, July 16). Tag questions in Irish English and British English. Invited talk at Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.

Barron, A. (2013, June 25).  “And your wedding ist the twenty-second <.> of June is it?”: Tag Questions in Irish English. Invited talk at Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

Talks - Discourse markers:

Pandarova, I. (2014, May 30-June 1). The Irish English discourse marker sure at the semantics/pragmatics interface. Talk presented at the 6th Intercultural Pragmatics and Communication conference - INPRA 2014, Malta, Spain

Pandarova, I. (2014, October 16-17). ‘I would never ever kick you up the arse. Sure, I think you're great.’ The Irish English discourse marker sure and context accessing. International Workshop - Pragmatic Markers, Discourse Markers and Modal Particles: What do we know and where do we go from here? Como, Italy