Conceptual Categories in Contact

Abstract The conceptual and formal linguistic differences between Irish and English with regards to predicative possession have arguably had an effect on the grammar of the contact-induced English variety of Irish English (IrE). An analysis of IrE and British English (BrE) data shows variation in the range of meanings conveyed by the construction [ NP 1 have (got) NP 2] – variation that is even more significant between standard IrE and traditional rural IrE. Considering the different degrees of Irish language influence on each dataset, this variation is explored in the context of the original historical acquisition of English by Irish speakers and the various cognitive processes involved in it: the role played by prototypes in the perception and reproduction of English possessives by Irish speakers, and the effects of the saliency and frequency of the English input on the emergent Irish English.