“’Tis mad, yeah”

Abstract

The study of pragmatic markers has stressed their function of relating segments of discourse one to the other, including the functions of response to previous talk and the marking of stance. This chapter investigates the turn-opening slot as an important locus for pragmatic marking. Tao’s (2003) work on turn-openings concluded that turn-openers were primarily lexical and linked with prior talk. McCarthy’s (2002) study of single-word lexical response tokens revealed variation in the use of tokens between British and North American English but that work did not cover turn-openers in general. The present chapter compares turn-openers in informal Irish and British English, focusing on lexically freestanding pragmatic markers. The chapter discusses variety-specific items in their role as turn-initial pragmatic markers.

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