The Formal and Functional Features of "Innit": A Study on its Use in Online Forums

Abstract

This essay studies the use of "innit" as at Tag Question and a follow-up in four online forums. The aim of the study is to examine how and why "innit" is used, i.e. its formal and functional features. The four forums used were "Grime Forum" (a forum concerning the music genre grime), "We are the Rangers Boys" (a forum about the football team QPR), "British Expats" (a forum for British Expatriates) and "The Student Room" (a forum for students in the UK). The number of "innits" were found as well as the number of invariant and canonical uses. The speech acts, polarities, placements and turn-positions were also examined. Finally the functions were studied using a model inspired by Axelsson's (2011:41-55) overview of the functions of Tag Questions and Andersen's (2001) functions of "innit". The results showed that "innit" is used both invariantly and canonically and the extent to which either is used depends on the forum (or social group). Turn-final was found to be the most common turn position. The explanation of covert prestige and in-group speech gave some insight into why "innit" is used. It was also found that "innit" is most often used to give emphasis and involve the listener, as these were the most common functions found in the forums used for this study.