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Hurry up baby son all the boys is finished their breakfast
: A socio-
pragmatic analysis of Irish settled and Traveller family discourse
Author: Brian Clancy
Submitted to the University of Limerick for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Supervisors:
Prof. Michael McCarthy
Dr Anne O’Keeffe
Submitted to the University of Limerick, May 2010
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
1
1.0
Introduction to the study
2
1.1
The Irish Travellers
4
1.1.1
Cultural values
5
1.1.2
Education
6
1.1.3
Language
7
1.2
The rationale
10
1.3
Locating the study
14
1.4
Limitations of the study
16
1.5
The research questions
17
Chapter 2: Literature review
19
2.0
Introduction
20
2.1
Pragmatics and the study of family discourse
21
2.1.1
Linguistic politeness
23
2.1.2
Pragmatic socialisation in the family
28
2.2
Sociolinguistics and the study of family discourse
31
2.2.1
Micro-social factors and family discourse
32
2.2.2
Power in family discourse
37
2.2.3
Macro-social factors and family discourse
39
2.2.3.1
Gender
40
2.2.3.2
Age
45
2.2.3.3
Ethnicity
47
2.2.3.4
Social class
49
2.3
Conclusion
50
Chapter 3: Theoretical framework
53
3.0
Introduction
54
3.1
Variational pragmatics
55
3.2
The speech community
59
3.3
Social network theory
64
3.4
The community of practice
68
3.5
How does the community of practice complement a
variational pragmatic approach to family discourse?
74
3.6
Conclusion
77
Chapter 4: Research methodology
78
4.0
Introduction
79
4.1
The data
79
4.1.1
The participants
81
4.2
Spoken corpora and corpus size
82
4.3
The synergy of variational pragmatics, community
of practice and a corpus linguistic methodology
87
4.3.1
Highlighting similarities and differences
88
4.3.2
The issue of representativeness
92
4.4
Corpus linguistic tools
98
4.4.1
Word frequency lists
98
4.4.2
Concordance lines
100
4.5
The ethics of researching minority ethnic communities
104
4.6
The position of the researcher in the research
107
4.7
Conclusion
109
Chapter 5: Articulating a shared familial context I: Personal pronouns 113
5.0
Introduction
114
5.1
The notion of context
115
5.2
Deixis and anaphora
117
5.3
Personal pronouns in family discourse
122
5.3.1
YOU and I
126
5.3.2
WE and THEY
132
5.4
Conclusion
139
Chapter 6: Articulating a shared familial context II:
The demonstratives
this
and
that
and the case of
now
140
6.0
Introduction
141
6.1
Place reference in family discourse:
The demonstratives
this
and
that
141
6.2
Time reference in family discourse:
The case of
now
158
6.3
Conclusion
170
Chapter 7: Facilitating community maintenance I: The use of vocatives 172
7.0
Introduction
173
7.1
Previous research
175
7.2
Vocative form
181
7.2.1
Vocative form: SettCorp
181
7.2.2
Vocative form: TravCorp
183
7.2.3
Comparing vocative form: SettCorp and TravCorp
185
7.3
Vocative function
188
7.3.1
Vocative function: SettCorp
188
7.3.2
Vocative function: TravCorp
195
7.3.3
Comparing vocative function:
SettCorp and TravCorp
199
7.4
Vocative position
202
7.4.1
Vocative position: SettCorp
202
7.4.2
Vocative position: TravCorp
206
7.5
Conclusion
208
Chapter 8: Facilitating community maintenance II: The use of hedges
209
8.0
Introduction
210
8.1
Hedging: Definition and origins
211
8.2
Hedging in family discourse
216
8.2.1
Like
220
8.2.2
I think
225
8.2.3
Just
231
8.2.4
You know
239
8.2.5
Actually
245
8.3
Conclusion
252
Chapter 9: Conclusion
254
9.0
Introduction
255
9.1
Revisiting the research questions
255
9.2
Reviewing the limitations
262
9.3
Directions for further research
263
Reference list
266
Appendices
Appendix A
Brown and Levinson’s (1987) strategies to avoid threatening
positive face
Appendix B
Brown and Levinson’s (1987) strategies to avoid threatening
negative face
Appendix C
Transcription conventions
Appendix D
Wordlist for top 100 most frequent items in the Limerick Corpus
of Irish English
Hurry up baby son all the boys is finished their breakfast
: A socio-pragmatic analysis
of Irish settled and Traveller family discourse
Author: Brian Clancy
Abstract
The present study utilises an integrative theoretical approach that combines variational
pragmatics and community of practice to examine two corpora representing spoken
language collected in the home/family environment: one from a middle class Irish
family and one from a family belonging to the Irish Traveller community, an ethnic
minority group. A distinguishing characteristic of the study is its corpus-based
methodology that enables the identification of a number of high frequency linguistic
items that are characteristic of the pragmatic systems of both families. These items
include features of the referential system such as
you
,
we
,
that
and
now
and vocatives
such as
daddy
,
hun
and
baby son
. Highlighted also is an anomalous lack of hedges,
usually a prominent feature of Irish English. These items display evidence of variation,
while a number of similarities are also unearthed in both families’ pragmatic practices.
It is argued that the similarities between the two families’ pragmatic practices are
largely due to the influence of micro-social factors such as
audience
,
shared immediate
situation
or
social roles
. The differences are attributed to the impact of macro-social
influences such as
age
,
socio-economic status
or
ethnicity
. The present study also
highlights the dual benefits of combining small-scale corpus linguistic studies to the
study of variational pragmatics and community of practice. Analysing family discourse
is not without its challenges, however, it is argued that examining language in one of its
most natural contexts can lead to a variety of beneficial insights that have potential
ramifications far beyond the immediate discipline.
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