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New Trends in Grammaticalization and Language Change
Edited by Sylvie Hancil, Tine Breban and José Vicente Lozano
[Studies in Language Companion Series 202] 2018
► pp. 135–157

Grammaticalizing connectives in English and discourse information structure

| Aix Marseille University | Laboratoire Parole et Langage

The development of lexical expressions such as VP adverbs, matrix clauses and prepositional phrases into discourse markers and connectives expressing coherence relations has been well explored in the grammaticalization literature, under a broad view of grammaticalization, but there has been less emphasis on how the discourse information structuring functions of markers evolve during these developments. This paper investigates the relationship between discourse coherence marking and information structure by examining two developing discourse connectives: it suggests that the grammaticalization of a lexeme in its construction into a discourse marker may involve acquiring or strengthening discourse-level information structuring functions – indicating relative informational salience – and that (further) grammaticalization of markers may be at least partly directed by information structure.

Keywords: coherence relations, discourse connectives, English, grammaticalization
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discourse connectives
    • 2.1Grammaticalization and discourse connectives
    • 2.2Positions of discourse connectives
    • 2.3Coherence relations and information structure
  • 3.Grammaticalizing discourse connectives and position
    • 3.1Two recent Engish connectives
    • 3.2In fact
      • 3.2.1Evolution of ‘in fact’
      • 3.1.2Position of in fact
    • 3.3After all
      • 3.3.1Evolution of after all
      • 3.3.2Position of ‘after all’
    • 3.4Findings for ‘in fact’ and ‘after all’
  • 4.Grammaticalization and information structure beyond the sentence
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Appendix
  • References
Published online: 6 December 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.202.06lew
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