The Evolution of Pragmatic Markers in English: Pathways of Change - Hardcover

Brinton, Laurel J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107129052 ISBN 13: 9781107129054

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2017

Synopsis

Based on a rich set of historical data, this book traces the development of pragmatic markers in English, from hwæt in Old English and whilom in Middle English to whatever and I'm just saying in present-day English. Laurel J. Brinton carefully maps the syntactic origins and development of these forms, and critically examines postulated unilineal pathways, such as from adverb to conjunction to discourse marker, or from main clause to parenthetical. The book sets case studies within a larger examination of the development of pragmatic markers as instances of grammaticalization or pragmaticalization. The characteristics of pragmatic markers - as primarily oral, syntactically optional, sentence-external, grammatically indeterminate elements - are revised in the context of scholarship on pragmatic markers over the last thirty or more years.

About this title

Book Description:

This book examines the historical origins and development of pragmatic (or discourse) markers ranging from Old English to the present-day English, and provides new insights concerning their syntactic and semantic development. It is ideal for scholars in the fields of pragmatics, history of English, corpus linguistics and English historical syntax and semantics.

About the Author:

Laurel J. Brinton is Professor of English Language at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. She is co-author of several books, including Lexicalization and Language Change (Cambridge, 2005, with Elizabeth Closs Traugott), The Comment Clause in English: Syntactic Origins and Pragmatic Development (Cambridge, 2008) and The English Language: A Linguistic History 3rd ed. (2016, with Leslie K. Arnovick). She served as co-editor of the Journal of Historical Pragmatics and is currently co-editor of English Language and Linguistics.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1107129052
• ISBN 13: 9781107129054
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 344