Changing Northern Ireland – Reflections in Language Usage and Change

• Main Author: Rusch, Michaela
• Other Authors: Technische Universität Chemnitz, Philosophische Fakultät
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz 2017
• Subjects: Sprachwandel; semantischer und lexikaler Wandel; Nordirland; Politik; Post-Troubles; sozialer Wandel; Gender; sexuelle Identität; Language Change; Semantic and Lexical Change; Northern Ireland; Politics; post-Troubles; Social Change; Sexual Identity; ddc:300; ddc:420; Sozialer Wandel; Geschlecht; Geschlechtsidentität
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-qucosa-229791; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-qucosa-229791; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/22979/Dissertation_Michaela_Rusch.pdf; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/22979/signatur.txt.asc

With respect to its troubled past Northern Ireland has constantly been a field of interest, academic research and discourse. Certain periods in this past, like for example the “Troubles” (a time of violent struggle that began in 1969/70), sooner or later tend to create a particular approach towards language usage. As research has already been carried out on the “Troubles” and its language usage the question now remains in how far the application of lexical items would be changing through the impact of the so called peace process. Examining the language use surrounding this process a wide range of phenomena in the field of politics and social affairs but also in society could be analysed and discussed, assuming that change for some reason developed here. Investigating such circumstances further this empirical interdisciplinary study in the shape of a corpus analysis addresses the presumed language change in Northern Ireland by employing news texts (Belfast Telegraph, BBC Northern Ireland and An Phoblacht) of the period from 1995 to 2009 (i.e. before and after the Good Friday Agreement a negotiated settlement between Catholics and Protestants in 1998) for the analysis to attempt to establish a link between changing semantic and lexical units, and to some extend to even find a relation to alleged gradual social change. The evaluation is based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of thematically pre-selected keywords in the areas of politics, social affairs, and society. Generally it could therefore be concluded that change – though marginal in numbers – appears perceivable. Despite a detailed examination and evaluation (qualitative and quantitative) it needs to be pointed out, however, that the findings of correlating social and linguistic variables could in the end only imply a kind of relation – contrary to the expectations in the beginning. Perhaps, in some cases, gradual change could be illustrated like for example with the name change of the police (RUC to PSNI) or changed social terminology. Nevertheless this study created an important contribution of research on post-“Troubles” Northern Ireland as it brings this statelet back into focus on the one hand and in addition prompts questions on the challenges of future language usage in societies that experienced violent conflict on the other. Corpus and Appendix on CD-Rom for printed copy available at University Library Chemnitz and German National Library