Sounds pretty ethnic, eh

A pragmatic particle in New Zealand English

Bibliographic Data

ID2904579
AuthorsMiriam Meyerhoff (0000-0002-2599-1870, University of Pennsylvania, corresponding author)
Year1994
Volume23
Issue3
Pages367-388
Publication date1994-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047404500018029
OpenAlexW2104471058
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited33

A social dialect survey of a working-class suburb in New Zealand provides evidence thateh, a tag particle that is much stereotyped but evaluated negatively in NZ English, may persist in casual speech because it plays an important role as a positive politeness marker. It is used noticeably more by Maori men than by Maori women or Pakehas (British/European New Zealanders), and may function as an in-group signal of ethnic identity for these speakers. Young Pakeha women, though, seem to be the next highest users ofeh. It is unlikely that they are using it to signal in-group identity in the same way; instead, it is possible that they are responding to its interpersonal and affiliative functions for Maori men, and are adopting it as a new facet in their repertoire of positive politeness markers. (Gender, ethnicity, politeness, New Zealand English, intergroup and interpersonal communication

Art · Casual · Ethnic group · Identity (music) · Interpersonal communication · Linguistics · Literature · Politeness · Political science · Repertoire · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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