"I was only delighted": Usage Patterns of 'only' in Irish English

Abstract

Only is widely used as an adverb like I was there only once, a conjunction, a postdeterminer, or a diminisher for a subjunct like I was there, only I didn’t have any time. In addition, in Irish English, only can also be used as an adverbial modifier of predicative adjectives in cases where other varieties of English would prefer the modifier just, as in she is only gorgeous. The current paper investigates how adjective and participle-premodifying only is used in Irish English and whether this use is variety specific. The study is carried out on the basis of data from the GloWbE corpus and compares the Irish element of the corpus to other international varieties of English.  From this corpus, examples of only are culled semi-automatically and investigated manually. The paper argues for a specific usage pattern of only in Irish English and provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of this pattern. It suggests that the use of only as a premodifying intensifier is a variety-specific feature in Irish English.