This paper uses a newer version of the grammaticalization framework to explore to what degree English general extenders have generated meanings that can be labelled subjective (speaker-oriented) and intersubjective (addressee-oriented). In this development, the extenders have become employed as hedges on informativeness and precision expectancies, and as signs of positive and negative politeness strategies. It is argued that pragmatic functions play a vital role in the linguistic changes linked to grammaticalization.