TY - CHAP

T1 - And your wedding is the twenty-second <.> of June is it?

T2 - Tag questions in Irish English

AU - Barron, Anne

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - This chapter addresses the lack of systematic research into the use of tag questions in Irish English on a formal and functional level by conducting an exploratory genre-specific analysis of tag questions in service encounters in Irish English. Tag question usage is compared with previous findings from reference corpora of Irish English, British English and American English. The study points to many similarities between tag questions across genre and variety but also shows features which appear particular to present day Irish English, such as the use of sure-tags a higher frequency of the operator BE, a more frequent canonical use of “is it?” tag questions and a high use of interrogative anchors. In addition, the confirmation-eliciting function was employed particularly frequently in the canonical tag questions recorded in the service encounter data. Further research is required to investigate whether this findings was genre-related or varietyrelated. Finally, non-concordant tag uses were found to be uncommon, a finding which contrasts with previous research on Irish English. The paper closes with a plea for an increase in cross-variational analyses of tag questions.

AB - This chapter addresses the lack of systematic research into the use of tag questions in Irish English on a formal and functional level by conducting an exploratory genre-specific analysis of tag questions in service encounters in Irish English. Tag question usage is compared with previous findings from reference corpora of Irish English, British English and American English. The study points to many similarities between tag questions across genre and variety but also shows features which appear particular to present day Irish English, such as the use of sure-tags a higher frequency of the operator BE, a more frequent canonical use of “is it?” tag questions and a high use of interrogative anchors. In addition, the confirmation-eliciting function was employed particularly frequently in the canonical tag questions recorded in the service encounter data. Further research is required to investigate whether this findings was genre-related or varietyrelated. Finally, non-concordant tag uses were found to be uncommon, a finding which contrasts with previous research on Irish English. The paper closes with a plea for an increase in cross-variational analyses of tag questions.

KW - English

KW - Language Studies

U2 - 10.1075/pbns.258.09bar

DO - 10.1075/pbns.258.09bar

M3 - Contributions to collected editions/anthologies

SN - 978-90-272-5663-8

T3 - Pragmatics &amp; Beyond new series

SP - 203

EP - 228

BT - Pragmatic markers in Irish English

A2 - Amador, Carolina

A2 - Vaughan, Elaine

A2 - McCafferty, Kevin

PB - John Benjamins Publishing Company

CY - Amsterdam/Philadelphia

ER -