Right-dislocation

This feature lies on the border of syntax and discourse. In right-dislocation, a noun phrase tag (e.g. me) is co-referent with the subject of the preceding clause (Biber et al. 1999: 957), as in I love carpets, me (the slogan of a chain of carpet shops based in the region). This feature is certainly not unique to the region, though it is probably used more in the north of England than the south (Moore and Snell 2011). Nevertheless, there is some evidence to suggest that it has a particular regional significance. For example, Heslop includes right dislocation – with and without the operator – in his description of the dialect (1892: xxi).

Another tendency is that of placing the subject of a sentence at the end of a phrase. "He’d getten a sair tumm’le, Jack had." "They’ve come oot o’ skyul, the bairns hez." "Th’or myestly a’ that colour, wor coos."

Moore and Snell (2011) provide more evidence of the feature’s importance in North East English by showing how it is used not only to mark emphasis or provide clarification but also to perform a wide range of interpersonal functions concerned mainly with positioning speakers within the social group and forging and maintaining social bonds. It is this aspect of its use which is being exploited in the slogan of the carpet shop and in RTG.

(1) Love owt like this me (2019)

(2) Ah love owt like this, me (2012)

(3) I’m a fucking idiot me (2018)

(4) He’s a little bell end him mind (2019)

(5) Fat arsed wanker him (2019)

(6) Utter sad bastards they are (2018)

(7) Brilliant them like (2015)

References

Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad and Edward Finegan. 1999. The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman.

Moore, Emma and Julia Snell 2011. 'Oh, they’re top, them': Right Dislocated Tags and Interactional Stance. In Language Variation: European Perspectives III, edited by Frans Gregersen, Jeffrey Parrott and Pia Quist, 97-110. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.