American and Irish English speakers’ perceptions of the final particles so and but

Abstract

AbstractThe retrospective (final‐particle) use of so and but (Thanks, but.) is documented in Irish English, but not in American English, which only has the prospective (final‐hanging) use (I could scream, but …). American English (AmE) speakers are expected to have communication difficulty in understanding the retrospective use of so and but. Interestingly, however, our questionnaire survey indicated a partially contradictory result: some AmE speakers were able to arrive at the retrospective‐scope interpretation of final so and but. To gain a more in‐depth understanding of how AmE speakers interpret such final‐particle uses, we conducted a qualitative analysis using data obtained from semi‐structured interviews with AmE speakers.