Rannsachadh coimeasach air na h-aithrisean a rinn na h-eileanaich air trèigsinn nan eileanan ann an Èirinn agus ann an Alba anns an fhicheadamh linn

Tha an rannsachadh coimeasach seo a' toirt iomraidh air na h-aithrisean a rinn na h-eileanaich air trèigsinn nan eileanan ann an Èirinn agus ann an Alba anns an fhicheadamh linn. Tha an rannsachadh a' dèiligeadh ris an ùine ron trèigsinn, crìonadh a' phobaill, eilthireachd eachdraidheil agus na h-adhbharan gun robh feum air fàgail. An uair sin tha an rannsachadh a' measadh na buaidhe a bha aig an imrich air na h-eileanaich. Tha an rannsachadh a' cleachdadh measgachaidh do thùsan bhon bheul-aithris agus sgrìobhadh foillsichte. Tha e mar amas aig an rannsachadh seo an ceangal eadar eachdraidh eileanan na h-Èireann agus na h-Alba a nochdadh agus a leasachadh. Bheirear sùil gu sònraichte air guth nan eileanach fhèin

Goidelic inherent plurals and the morphosemantics of number

After numbers above 2, nouns are singular or plural depending on the language. But in Irish and Scottish some nouns must be singular and others plural, in a variety of dialectal patterns. Once the semantic basis underlying all these patterns is clarified, the ‘‘irregular’’ distribution of number in Goidelic fits neatly into the typological pattern of classifier constructions. Number seems arbitrary in some constructions, because that is where nouns are interpreted as transnumerals: apparent singulars are just numberless, and plurals are inherently plural stems. This provides a unified explanation for a host of constructions beside numeratives, and affords a deeper understanding of the way aspects of lexical semantics are encoded by number morphology.Author has checked copyrightTS 12.03.1

The acquisition of Irish : a study of word order development

This study examines the development of word order patterns in Irish, a strict VSO language. It was found that the three children studied used subject-initial utterances considerably more frequently than adults in input, and that in both adult and child the elision of the verb ‘to be’ played a significant role. Another significant factor was found to be the different restrictions on main verbs and verbal nouns with regard to the subject: in neutral sentences the main verb always precedes the subject, while the verbal noun always follows it. The Bates & MacWhinney (1979). hypothesis that early verb initialization results from a tendency to place new information before given information was also investigated.Author has checked copyrightAMS. No Keywords

Irish orthography: what do teachers and learners need to know about it, and why?

Irish has significant State support, but lacks a research base to support the teaching of Irish reading. Current approaches to teaching Irish reading are presented, and outcomes summarised. Issues of consistency and complexity in Irish orthography are discussed in light of an analysis of a corpus of early reader texts, and the formulation of rules for discriminating between words which are regular by letter-sound and grapheme-sound rules is outlined. While the most frequent words show a high level of regularity, underlying rules are very complex. The need to target decoding skills early is discussed. Recommendations regarding the teaching of aspects of Irish orthography are presented.Author has checked copyrightAM

Output optimization in the Irish plural system

In this paper I argue that a subpattern of Irish plural allomorphy should be analyzed as output optimizing in character. Specifically, I claim that stress-sensitive alternations between the plural suffixes-(e)annaand-(e)achaare conditioned by constraints on metrical well-formedness. This analysis connects with independent facts about the the prosodic prominence of [ax] sequences in Irish phonology. I further argue that an explanatory analysis of these patterns must make use of the notion of surface optimization. Alternative frameworks that eschew surface-oriented optimization mechanisms fail to account for synchronic and diachronic properties of the Irish plural system