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1、Masaryk UniversityFaculty of ArtsDepartment of Englishand American StudiesEnglish Language and LiteratureRadoslava PekarovThe Influence of the Irish language on Irish English GrammarBachelors Diploma ThesisSupervisor: Mgr. Jan Chovanec, Ph.D.2009I declare that I have worked on this thesis independen
2、tly, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.Acknowledgement I would like to thank to Mgr. Jan Chovanec, Ph.D. for his guidance and valuable advice.Table of ContentsIntroduction51. Historical account: Establishment of English in Ireland62. Anglo-Irish, Irish English o
3、r Hiberno-English?143. Controversy about the Irish Influence184. Grammar214.1 Irish English Usages of the Definite Article234.2 Special Use of Reflexive Pronouns274.3 Structures to Denote Tense Aspects in Irish English314.3.1 Perfective Aspect314.3.1.1 The Indefinite Anterior Perfect314.3.1.2 The Af
4、ter Perfect334.3.1.3 The Medial-object Perfect354.3.1.4 The Be Perfect394.3.1.5 The Extended-now Perfect414.3.2 Present Habitual Aspect424.4 Irish English Use of Prepositons474.4.1 The Preposition on484.4.2 The Preposition in504.4.3 The Preposition with524.4.4 The Preposition of53Conclusion55Referen
5、ces56IntroductionIrish English is said to be the oldest variety of English outside Britain (Hickey, 2007) and between varieties of English has a special position which is confirmed by Siedmund and Pietsch (2008: 87), “Irish English represents one of the most interesting and intriguing language conta
6、ct situations in the English speaking world. It involves contact between two genetically related, but typologically fairly distant languages Irish and English” If we think about other varieties of English, such as American or Australian English, we have to realize that none of them was influenced by
7、 any of the native languages of the countries as in the case of Irish English. Nowadays Irish English represents two languages which have been coexisting next two each other for centuries. During this time English of the Irish adopted many features of the natives and this is the area of my interest.
8、 The thesis deals with some peculiarities of Irish English namely with those of Irish English grammar which are influenced by the Irish language. However, this is still an extensive area for studies and thus only some of the structures of Irish English grammar were chosen for the purposes of the the
9、sis. The structures chosen have clear parallels in the Irish language which, however, does not imply that their origin is clear as is shown in discussion within the individual sections. The paper begins with a short historical account of a gradual establishing of English in Ireland because it is nec
10、essary to realize that although Ireland is seen as an English-speaking country, it lasted for a long time until this became truth. During this long struggle the structures of English in Ireland were adjusted to the needs of the native inhabitants so that they could express themselves better. The the
11、sis further deals with the neglecting of the influence of Irish on English generally: it was believed a long time that Irish made no impact on English; however, nowadays it turns out being completely untrue. As is shown in the thesis, especially in the chapter dealing with the story of the Irish inf
12、luence, even some Standard English features have the Irish parallels. Further there is dealt with the terminology referring to Irish English as there exist three different types of terms and the chapter shows a short overview of their usage. The rest of the study discusses the chosen grammatical str
13、uctures and describes the extent of the Irish influence.The aim of the thesis is to introduce some of the distinctive features of Irish English which one can hardly encounter in everyday life and to emphasize the influence conducted by the Irish language which is clearly reflected in the English lan
14、guage of the inhabitants of Ireland.1. Historical account: Establishment of English in IrelandThis chapter deals with the history of the English language in Ireland. The establishment of English in Ireland was a long process lasting for centuries. During this time the language became a weapon: it sh
15、ould have helped Britain to gain control over Ireland. However, it was not until the 19th century when English became the dominant language. Two stages or waves of establishing the English language in Ireland are recognized. The first one is connected with the Norman invasion in 1169 which brought E
16、nglish and Norman French to Ireland. The status of English in Ireland was rather low then because it was spoken mainly by servants of the Normans. The high status was enjoyed by Latin, which was introduced in Ireland since the arrival of religion, and by French (Kallen, 1997). Although the Normans e
17、xpanded in Ireland, their language declined quite rapidly and they themselves became gaelicised (Filppula, 1999) or hibernicised using Todds (1999) terminology. Though English managed to endure longer, gradually it declined as well. Hogan (qtd. in Filppula, 1999) describes the language situation in
18、14th and 15th centuries as follows:Irish came down again into the plains and up to the walls of the towns. With the exception of those who carried on the Dublin government, or lived in or near the Pale The Pale the term comes from Latin palus stake, it was established at the time of Henry IIs expedi
19、tion and consisted of the territories conquered by England, where English settlements and rule were most secure (Encyclopdia Britannica Online), the great Norman families, never having been English, now became thoroughly Irish. The English yeomen and small free holders steadily forsook the land, goi
20、ng to England or the Pale. The area of the Pale (see Figure 1 below) was important for the survival of English in Ireland. It is the only area in Ireland where English influence was uninterrupted since the Norman invasions and thus the English language could continue to exist in Ireland. However, ou
21、tside the Pale and especially in rural areas the impact of English was slight. Later even the area of the Pale shrank. The assimilation of the settlers by the native Irish had, according to Hickey (2007), two main reasons, namely that the English settlers were Catholic and the English government ado
22、pted Protestantism later; and that the connections with England were still rather loose. There were made various attempts by English rulers “to halt the process of gaelicisation” in Ireland such as the Statutes of Kilkenny (Filppula, 1999: 4) they imposed “heavy penalties on those who were found usi
23、ng Irish”. However, these and other measures were of no effect.Figure 1 The area of the Pale (Hickey, 2008)In the 16th century the Irish language spread even to Dublin. In 1578 Lord Chancellor William Gerrard criticised the use of Irish by the English (Hickey, 2007). Todd (1999: 47) comments it by s
24、aying that, “ the Irish had, slowly but surely, assimilated the invaders.” However, this was not allowed to continue. In the 16th century the second wave of English started which is marked by the beginning of the reign of Mary Tudor (1553-1558). The second wave is characteristic of “the organised se
25、ttlement of the Irish landscape which was to have the greatest consequence in terms of anglicisation” (Hickey, 2007: 35). It was a system for planting English settlers in Ireland in order to anglicise the Irish. The main plantations are those of Munster and Ulster (see Figure 2 below). The numbers o
26、f settlers were quite high when we imagine that in 1611 the ratio of the settlers and the Irish in Ulster was three Irish to two Planters (see Table 1 below) and yet further waves of English speakers followed later (Todd, 1999). Table 1 Estimated numbers of the English settlers in Ireland in individ
27、ual counties of Ulster in 1611 (Todd, 1999: 48)CountyIrishPlantersTotalAntrim8,9657,07416,039Armagh4,3552,3936,748Cavan8,2186,48514,703Derry5,3064,4289,734Donegal8,5893,41212,001Down8,6436,54015,183Fermanagh5,3021,8007,102Monaghan3,649 4344,083Tyrone10,2458,08518,330Total for Ulster63,27240,651103,9
28、23Figure 2 Areas of English settlements (Encyclopdia Britannica Online.) “The final blow to the old Irish society”, according to Hogan (qtd. in Filppula, 1999), was done by the Cromwellian Settlement in the 1650s which is connected with confiscation of land of the natives and their resettlement. The
29、 confiscated estates were granted to the English which substantially changed the demography of Ireland. “In all provinces except Connacht i.e. Connaught in the map above, the landowners were English-speaking Protestants” (Filppula, 1999: 7) an in addition, Bliss (qtd. in Filppula, 1999) states that,
30、 “the great houses formed centres where the English language was spoken: tenants and servants alike had to learn some English in order to communicate with their masters.” This situation when the Irish were either forced to the west of the country or to stay and learn the language of their masters de
31、prived of any political rights helped to spread English in Ireland. However, despite all the adopted measures Irish continued to have the dominant position as Cuv (qtd. in Filppula, 1999) states “ in 1731 some two-thirds of the population still used Irish as their everyday means of communication, wh
32、ile as late as 1791 about half of the population were either monoglot Irish or had Irish as their preferred language.” Although the numbers of speakers of Irish remained relatively, it is obvious that the English language spread slowly but surely throughout Ireland. According to Filppula (1999) it w
33、as in the first half of the 19th century when English speakers started gradually to outnumber Irish speakers. In addition, the Great Famine in the 1840s was an important factor in the spread of English: the number of native Irish speakers was reduced approximately by 25%, which was about 2 million p
34、eople (Hickey, 2007), due to starvation and emigration caused by the Famine. Since then the decline of Irish spread quite rapidly and by the census of 1891 the number of the Irish speakers dropped to little over half a million ( Cuv qtd. in Filppula, 1999).According to the study “Europeans and their
35、 Languages” (2006) the present language situation in Ireland is following: 94% of the Irish claim English as their mother tongue and 11% claim Irish as their mother tongue The study enabled multiple choice, i.e. it was possible to mark more languages as mother tongues. As regards the actual use of I
36、rish in Ireland, 40.8% of the Irish claim they are able to speak Irish (according to the Census 2006). In the areas of Gaeltacht Gaeltachts - areas in Ireland where Irish Gaelic is spoken primarily (see Figure 3) the number of speakers is even higher: 70.8% of the Irish say they speak Irish. Table 2
37、 below provides data about numbers of speakers of the Irish language. The increasing numbers show that the Irish language is still very important for the inhabitants of Ireland.Table 2 Changes in numbers of Irish speakers since 1926 according to the Census 2006YearIrish speakersNon-Irish speakers192
38、6540,8022,261,6501936666,6012,140,3241946588,7252,182,9321961716,4201,919,3981971789,4291,998,01919811,018,4132,208,05419861,042,7012,310,9311991 The substantial increase of the speakers of the Irish language between the years 1991 and 1996 is explained by changed formulation in the Census question
39、(Gaelic: Revitalising Gaelic a National Zaset, 1999)1,095,8302,271,176199641,430,2052,049,44320021,570,8942,180,10120061,656,7902,400,856Figure 3 Areas of Gaeltacht Co. Donegal Co. Mayo Co. Meath Co. GalwayCo. Kerry Co. Waterford Co. CorkFrom the historical account stated above it is obvious that th
40、e establishment of the English language in Ireland was a long and complicated process or rather a struggle between two languages that later became a struggle for power. Although English won and is now the main language in Ireland, the result of the struggle was not always sure. The Irish played in t
41、he past an important role in lives of the Irish which is reflected in their handling the English language. And as shows Table 2 above Irish is again gaining its prestige which can be in the future again mirrored in the usage of English in Ireland.2. Anglo-Irish, Irish English or Hiberno-English?Rega
42、rding the terminology used in relation with the English language spoken in Ireland, all three above mentioned terms can be found in the works of linguists. There is much dispute over the terms. This chapter shows various attitudes towards their usage. Some authors use just one of the terms to denote
43、 English in Ireland and the others use all of them to indicate different influences made on English. For example, Henry (1977:20) sees three major strands and calls them Anglo-Irish, which is “a characteristically rural variety compounded of Irish and English or English and Scots”; Hiberno-English,
44、which is defined by him as a more urban, regional and standard variety tending towards international or so-called Standard English. This derives ultimately from British settlers in Ireland and its germinal period was the seventeenth century.Finally Ulster Scots being from the same period as Hiberno-
45、English. On the other hand, Todd (1999) distinguishes two main traditions, namely Planter English and Hiberno-English and further she divides Planter English into two varieties Anglo-Irish and Ulster Scots. Her division generally corresponds with Henrys one. Traditions of English in Ireland accordin
46、g to Todd: Planter EnglishHiberno-EnglishAnglo-Irish Ulster ScotsHowever, concerning the usage of the terms, she defines them almost the other way round. Anglo-Irish is defined by Todd (1999: 57) as, a variety of English that is spoken over most of Ireland. It is descended from the English brought t
47、o Ireland by planters from England, modified by contacts with Irish, Ulster Scots and Hiberno-English. Hiberno-English, Todd (1999:71) explains, is a range of English spoken by people whose ancestral mother tongue was Irish. It is strongest in the vicinity of the Gaeltachts, in rural areas and in parts of the country such as Sperrin Mountains
