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The comment clause in English : syntactic origins and pragmatic development Cover Image

E-book

The comment clause in English : syntactic origins and pragmatic development

Summary: "Although English comment clauses such as I think and you know have been widely studied, this book constitutes the first full-length diachronic treatment, focusing on comment clauses formed with common verbs of perception and cognition in a variety of syntactic forms. It understands comment clauses as causal pragmatic markers that undergo grammaticalization, and acquire pragmatic and politeness functions and subjective and intersubjective meanings. To date, the prevailing view of their syntactic development, which is extrapolated from synchronic studies, is that they originate in matrix clauses which become systematically indeterminate and are reanalyzed as parenthetical. In this corpus-based study, Laurel J. Brinton shows that the historical data do not bear out this view, and proposes a more varied and complex conception of the development of comment clauses. Researchers and students of the English language and historical linguistics will certainly consider Brinton's findings to be of great interest."--Jacket.

Record details

ISBN: 9780521886734
ISBN: 0521886732
ISBN: 9780511464959
ISBN: 9780511464218
ISBN: 0511464959
ISBN: 0511464215
Physical Description: 1 online resource (xvii, 280 pages) : illustrations.
remote
Computer data.
Publisher: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Content descriptions

General Note:	CatMonthString:april.19 Multi-User.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-274) and indexes.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction : comment clauses, parentheticals, and pragmatic markers -- Semantic and syntactic development of pragmatic markers -- Processes of change -- Comment clauses with say -- I mean -- Comment clauses with see -- If you will and as it were -- Comment clauses with look -- What's more and what else -- Epistemic/evidential parentheticals : I gather and I find -- Concluding remarks.
Type of Computer File or Data Note:	Text (HTML), electronic book.
System Details Note:	Mode of access: Internet.
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction Note:	Access requires VIU IP addresses and is restricted to VIU students, faculty and staff. Access restricted by subscription.
Issuing Body Note:	Made available online by EBSCO.
Source of Description Note:	Print version record.