Agent Phrases with the Autonomous Verb in Modern Irish

Abstract:This article describes the use of agent phrases with the so-called autonomous forms of the verb in Irish since the seventeenth century. As in earlier stages of the language, three prepositions were used to mark the agent: le, ag and ó. Of these, le (earlier la) had been predominant since the Old Irish period and it remained so in eighteenth-century verse; its use to mark agents declined rapidly thereafter. The use of ag to form agent phrases lingered into the mid-twentieth century in spoken narration, and ó remains in use locally to the present day. Despite the decline in their spoken use, agent phrases (with ag) became well established again in some genres of written Irish in the course of the twentieth century, especially in official documents and in journalism. The linguistic implications of these developments are discussed briefly.