Cover not available
Article published In:
English World-Wide
Vol. 40:1 (2019) ► pp.54–81

Going global and sounding local

Quotative variation and change in L1 and L2 speakers of Irish (Dublin) English

| University of Melbourne
| University of Ottawa

We chart the incursion of quotative be like into Dublin English, drawing comparisons with similar developments in urban Canadian English as well as with diachronic benchmarks representing vernacular Irish English. Quantitative analysis reveals that be like is the lead variant in the quotative system used by young Dubliners and is advancing along a similar, though not identical, cline of grammaticalization to that found in urban Canadian English. We use the resultant information about the Dublin English quotative system as a baseline to assess the extent to which this system has been acquired by Polish-born L2 speakers of English differentiated in terms of target language proficiency. Comparison of the L2 quotative system with the L1 Dublin English benchmark reveals that not all L1 usage constraints are faithfully replicated by L2 speakers, indicating that the acquisition of the relevant constraints is incomplete, even in the case of advanced learners.

Keywords: quotatives, be like , variation, change, grammaticalization, second language acquisition, Irish English, Canadian English
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data
    • 2.1Diachronic data
    • 2.2Synchronic data
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Theoretical framework
    • 3.2The variable context
    • 3.3Coding protocol
      • 3.3.1Social factors
      • 3.3.2Linguistic factors
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Distributional findings
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Sources
  • References
Published online: 1 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00022.dis
References

Sources

The SPICE-Ireland Corpus: Systems of Pragmatic Annotation for the Spoken Component of ICE-Ireland
. John M. Kirk, Jeffrey L. Kallen, Orla Lowry, and Margaret Mannion eds. 2011 Version 1.2.2. CD-ROM. Belfast: Queen’s University Belfast and Dublin: Trinity College Dublin.Google Scholar
Bayley, Robert, and Vera Regan
2004 “Introduction: The Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence”. Journal of Sociolinguistics 81: 323–338. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buchstaller, Isabelle
2006 “Diagnostics of Age-Graded Linguistic Behaviour: The Case of the Quotative System”. Journal of Sociolinguistics 101: 3–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 Quotatives: New Trends and Sociolinguistic Implications. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Buchstaller, Isabelle, and Alexandra D’Arcy
2009 “Localised Globalisation: A Multi-Local, Multivariate Investigation of Be Like ”. Journal of Sociolinguistics 131: 291–331. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Corrigan, Karen
2016 “ ‘When I Was a Kid No One Came… The Only Black Men Here Had Uniforms on Them’: The Sociolinguistics of Globalization and Migration in the Context of Northern Ireland”. Plenary talk presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation 45, Simon Fraser University.
Council of Europe
2001 Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
D’Arcy, Alexandra
2015 “Quotation and Advances in Understanding Syntactic Systems”. Annual Review of Linguistics 11: 43–61. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davydova, Julia, and Isabelle Buchstaller
2015 “Expanding the Circle to Learner English: Investigating Quotative Marking in a German Student Community”. American Speech 901: 441–478. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diskin, Chloé, Debbie Loakes, Hywel Stoakes, Josh Clothier, and Rosey Billington
2018 “Variation in Australian English and Migrant Irish English Laterals: A Sociophonetic and Articulatory Study”. Paper presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation Asia-Pacific 5, University of Queensland.
Diskin, Chloé, and Vera Regan
2015 “Migratory Experience and Second Language Acquisition Among Polish and Chinese Migrants in Dublin, Ireland”. In Fanny Forsberg Lundell, and Inge Bartning, eds. Cultural Migrants and Optimal Language Acquisition. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 137–177. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Durham, Mercedes, Bill Haddican, Eytan Zweig, Daniel Ezra Johnson, Zipporah Baker, David Cockeram, Esther Danks, and Louise Tyler
2012 “Constant Linguistic Effects in the Diffusion of Be Like ”. Journal of English Linguistics 401: 316–337. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ferrara, Kathleen, and Barbara Bell
1995 “Sociolinguistic Variation and Discourse Function of Constructed Dialogue Introducers: The Case of Be + Like ”. American Speech 701: 265–289. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fox, Sue
2012 “Performed Narrative: The Pragmatic Function of This Is + Speaker and Other Quotatives in London Adolescent Speech”. In Isabelle Buchstaller, and Ingrid Van Alphen, eds. Quotatives: Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 231–258. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Höhn, Nicole
2012 “ ‘‘They Were All Like, ‘What’s Going on?’’: New Quotatives in Jamaican and Irish English”. In Marianne Hundt, and Ulrike Gut, eds. Mapping Unity and Diversity World-Wide. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 263–290. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hopper, Paul, and Elizabeth Closs Traugott
2003 Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Howard, Martin, Raymond Mougeon, and Jean-Marc Dewaele
2013 “Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition”. In Robert Bayley, Richard Cameron, and Ceil Lucas, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 340–359.Google Scholar
Kallen, Jeffrey L., and John M. Kirk
2012 SPICE-Ireland: A User’s Guide. Belfast: Queen’s University.Google Scholar
Lenneberg, Eric H.
1967 Biological Foundations of Language. New York: Wiley. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levey, Stephen
2016 “The Role of Children in the Propagation of Discourse-Pragmatic Change: Insights from the Acquisition of Quotative Variation”. In Heike Pichler, ed. Discourse-Pragmatic Variation and Change in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 160–181. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levey, Stephen, Karine Groulx, and Joseph Roy
2013 “A Variationist Perspective on Discourse-Pragmatic Change in a Contact Setting”. Language Variation and Change 251: 225–251. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meyerhoff, Miriam, and Erik Schleef
2014 “Hitting an Edinburgh Target: Immigrant Adolescents’ Acquisition of Variation in Edinburgh English”. In Robert Lawson, ed. Sociolinguistics in Scotland. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 103–128. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mougeon, Raymond, Terry Nadasdi, and Katherine Rehner
2010 The Sociolinguistic Competence of Immersion Students. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mougeon, Raymond, Katherine Rehner, and Terry Nadasdi
2004 “The Learning of Spoken French Variation by Immersion Students from Toronto”. Journal of Sociolinguistics 81: 408–432. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nestor, Niamh
2013 “The Positional Distribution of Discourse Like – A Case Study of Young Poles in Ireland”. In David Singleton, Vera Regan, and Ewelina Dabaene, eds. Linguistic and Cultural Acquisition in a Migrant Community. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 49–74. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poplack, Shana, and Sali A. Tagliamonte
2001 African American English in the Diaspora. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Poplack, Shana, James Walker, and Rebecca Malcolmson
2006 “An English ‘Like No Other’? Language Contact and Change in Quebec”. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 511: 183–213.Google Scholar
Regan, Vera, Martin Howard, and Isabelle Lemée
2009 The Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence in a Study Abroad Context. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sankoff, David, Sali Tagliamonte, and Eric Smith
2012 “Goldvarb Lion: A Multivariate Analysis Application for Macintosh”. [URL] (accessed March 20, 2017).
Schleef, Erik
2017 “Developmental Sociolinguistics and the Acquisition of T-Glottalling by Immigrant Teenagers in London”. In Gunther De Vogelaer, and Matthias Katerbow, eds. Acquiring Sociolinguistic Variation. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 305–341. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schweinberger, Martin
2012 “The Discourse Marker Like in Irish English”. In Bettina Migge, ‎and Máire Ní Chiosáin, eds. New Perspectives on Irish English. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 179–202. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorace, Antonella
2011 “Pinning down the Concept of ‘Interface’ in Bilingualism”. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 11: 1–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali A., and Alexandra D’Arcy
2004 “ ‘He’s Like, She’s Like’: The Quotative System in Canadian Youth”. Journal of Sociolinguistics 81: 493–514. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 “Frequency and Variation in the Community Grammar: Tracking a New Change through the Generations”. Language Variation and Change 191: 199–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali A., and Rachel Hudson
1999 “ Be Like et al. beyond America: The Quotative System in British and Canadian Youth”. Journal of Sociolinguistics 31: 147–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali A., Alexandra D’Arcy, and Celeste Rodríguez Louro
2016 “Outliers, Impact, and Rationalization in Linguistic Change”. Language 921: 824–849. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
VanPatten, Bill
2004 Processing Instruction: Theory, Research, and Commentary. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 11 other publications

Choi, Jihyun Karen & Chloé Diskin-Holdaway
2022. The Acquisition of Quotatives and Quotative Be Like among Chinese L2 Speakers of English in Australia. Languages 7:2 ► pp. 123 ff. DOI logo
Clews, Madeleine, Celeste Rodríguez Louro & Glenys Collard
2021. Indigenizing say in Australian Aboriginal English. Australian Journal of Linguistics 41:4 ► pp. 453 ff. DOI logo
Corrigan, Karen P. & Chloé Diskin
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
Deuber, Dagmar, Eva Canan Hänsel & Michael Westphal
2021. Quotative be like in Trinidadian English. World Englishes 40:3 ► pp. 436 ff. DOI logo
Diskin‐Holdaway, Chloé
2021.  You know and like among migrants in Ireland and Australia . World Englishes DOI logo
Hansen Edwards, Jette G.
2024. Social Factors and L2 Phonetics and Phonology, DOI logo
Kirk, John
2022. Irish English as a World English. Frontiers in Communication 7 DOI logo
Morady Moghaddam, Mostafa & Jodi Tommerdahl
2022. Samesaying and double-voiced discourse in Iranian EFL learners’ production of L2 reported speech. Language and Cognition 14:4 ► pp. 575 ff. DOI logo
Schoning, Christian, Jørn Helder & Chloé Diskin-Holdaway
2023. Vi snakker sådan: An analysis of the Danish discourse-pragmatic markersådan. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 46:1 ► pp. 46 ff. DOI logo
Schulte, Marion
2022. The Silences and Silencing of First Languages Among L2 Speakers of English in Ireland. In Silence and its Derivatives, ► pp. 311 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2023. Saipanese English [Varieties of English Around the World, G69], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.