Title: Discourse Structuring Markers in English
Subtitle: A historical constructionalist perspective on pragmatics
Series Title: Constructional Approaches to Language 33
Published: 2022
Publisher: John Benjamins
http://www.benjamins.com/

Book URL: https://benjamins.com/catalog/cal.33

Author: Elizabeth Closs Traugott
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027257925 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 143.00
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027257925 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 80.00
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027257925 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 95.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027210913 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 143.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027210913 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 80.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027210913 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 100.70
Abstract:

This book is a contribution to the growing field of diachronic construction grammar. Focus is on corpus evidence for the importance of including conventionalized pragmatics within construction grammar and suggestions for how to do so. The empirical domain is the development of Discourse Structuring Markers in English such as “after all, also, all the same, by the way, further” and “moreover” (also known as Discourse Markers). The term Discourse Structuring Markers highlights their use not only to connect discourse segments but also to shape discourse coherence and understanding. Monofunctional Discourse Structuring Markers like “further, instead, moreover” are distinguished from multifunctional ones like “after all” and “by the way”. Drawing on usage-based work on constructionalization and constructional changes, the book is in three parts: foundational concepts, case studies, and currently open issues in diachronic construction grammar. These open issues are how to incorporate the concepts subjectification and intersubjectification into a constructional account of change, whether position in a clause is a construction, and the nature of constructional networks and how they change.