3. A sociolinguistic study of the specific use of grand and deadly in Hiberno-English
3. A sociolinguistic study of the specific use of grand and deadly in Hiberno-English
Irish women say they’re “Grand” about a million times a day. But let’s be clear, it doesn’t mean “fancy”: It simply means the bare bones of “fine”. In Ireland, the word “Grand” isn’t confined to ballrooms, candelabras or horsey types: it’s not elaborate, not highfalutin, just fine. [...] We’ll mainly be talking about “Grand” in this sense, the sense of being calm, centred and at your most Irishly fine. Not great, but kind of OK. (Tara Flynn 2014: 20)
This particular use of grand was brought to the researcher’s attention while staying in Ireland. Besides grand, the differing semantic use of deadly in Hiberno-English was also striking because it has apparently lost its negative connotation by being used in the sense of ‘brilliant’. The pilot study, “A sociolinguistic study of the specific use grand and deadly in Hiberno-English”, aims therefore at gaining data about the semantic change of those two words which has taken place in the English spoken in Ireland. In order to understand this change, a brief summary of the original meanings of these words is given. As Hiberno-English has evolved through the colonisation by the British Empire, the Oxford English Dictionary is used as reference for the original meanings of grand and deadly.
Afterwards, a documentation of designing and conducting this survey is presented. Therefore, the advantages and disadvantages of using an online survey are discussed in the first place. Being divided into three parts, the survey’s questions and their options of answers are explained with regard to their linguistic purpose in the next step. Finally, a brief analysis and interpretation of the elicited data are provided. Therefore, the participants’ responses are visualised in diagrams and statistically processed.
The major outcomes of this study are summarised in the final part. Additionally, an outlook is given on what else needs to be done regarding this research question.
3.1. Grand and deadly – their original meanings
3.2. Designing and conducting the questionnaire
3.3. Analysing and evaluating the data
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