posted on 2023-02-20, 12:52authored byAngela Farrell
The innovative use of 'like' as a pragmatic marker has generated much
discussion in linguistic circles in recent times. This study sets out to explore
this linguistic phenomenon, typically associated with teenagers and teenage
girls in particular, in an Irish-English setting, in an attempt to determine how
the marker is used by young Irish speakers and whether gender differentiated
patterns of usage prevail, as has been suggested in some previous accounts.
The findings of this research show that Irish teenagers use 'like' as a
pragmatic marker in both an older, traditional pattern as in, 'I don't want any
'like' 'and in the newer American usage, as in, 'she's 'like' so weird'; with the
latter type dominating teenage speech, although there is no evidence of
gender bias for the general use of the marker in either of the two traditions of
usage. 'Like' is used pragmatically to mark off a discrepancy between a
speaker's thought and its conceptualisation and as a result, contributes to
utterance interpretation. It also acts as a marker of minimum politeness and
as such reflects the broader socio-cultural context of use. Thus, 'like' plays a
unique pragmatic role in the discourse of young Irish-English speakers.
History
Faculty
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Degree
Master (Taught)
First supervisor
Fiona Farr
Note
non-peer-reviewed
Language
English
Department or School
Scoil na Gaeilge, an Bhéarla, agus na Cumarsáide | School of English, Irish, and Communication