Some emergent discourse connectives in English : grammaticalization via rhetorical patterns
Discourse connectives are metatextual comments that signal discourse coherence relations. They can be realized by sentence adverbials that have their roots in verb phrase adverbials and have followed a path of development that is well attested both for English and cross-linguistically. This study investigates how and why it occurs. It claims that the development belongs to a wider phenomenon of unidirectional internal semantic change, that this change involves context-induced reinterpretation, and that both the immediate discourse context and the wider rhetorical context can be instrumental in bringing it about. Using diachronic and synchronic data in a corpus-linguistic approach, the frequency and distribution of the adverbials after all, in fact, at least and of course are investigated. These are found to follow similar paths of development at different rates and to varying extents. Each undergoes some increase in frequency, subjectification and abstraction, shift of discourse plane and categorial reanalysis. Each acquires at least one connective function to express rhetorical relations such as concession, contrast, justification or elaboration. These relations are defined using the framework of Rhetorical
Lewis, Diana M.
Discourse markers ; English language ; Discourse analysis
Some emergent discourse connectives in English : grammaticalization via rhetorical patterns. Discourse connectives are metatextual comments that signal discourse coherence relations. They can be realized by sentence adverbials that have their roots in verb phrase adverbials and have followed a path of development that is well attested both for English and cross-linguistically. This study investigates how and why it occurs. It claims that the development belongs to a wider phenomenon of unidirectional internal semantic change, that this change involves context-induced reinterpretation, and that both the immediate discourse context and the wider rhetorical context can be instrumental in bringing it about. Using diachronic and synchronic data in a corpus-linguistic approach, the frequency and distribution of the adverbials after all, in fact, at least and of course are investigated. These are found to follow similar paths of development at different rates and to varying extents. Each undergoes some increase in frequency, subjectification and abstraction, shift of discourse plane and categorial reanalysis. Each acquires at least one connective function to express rhetorical relations such as concession, contrast, justification or elaboration. These relations are defined using the framework of Rhetorical
emergent discourse connective english grammaticalization via rhetorical pattern discourse comment signal discourse coherence relation realize sentence adverbial root verb_phrase adverbial follow path development well_attested english cross_linguistically study_investigate occurs claim development belongs wider phenomenon internal semantic_change change involve context induced reinterpretation immediate discourse context_wider rhetorical context instrumental bring about using diachronic_synchronic data corpus_linguistic frequency_distribution adverbial fact least course investigate find follow_similar path development different rate vary extent undergoes increase frequency subjectification abstraction shift discourse plane categorial reanalysis least_one connective function express rhetorical relation concession contrast justification elaboration relation define use framework rhetorical