Evolution with an attitude: the grammaticalisation of epistemic/evidential verbs in Australian English

Abstract

Across Englishes, frequently used epistemic/evidential complement-taking predicates (e/e ctps) have undergone conventionalisation, wherebysubject + e/e verbconstructions are reanalysed as formulaic stance markers. However, the system ofe/e ctps in Australian English (AusE) – and the degree to which they have grammaticalised – remains unexplored. In this article, we offer a quantitative analysis of the most frequente/e ctps in the spoken portion of theInternational Corpus of English – Australia. Multivariate analysis shows thatthinkandguessstand as canonical encoders of speaker attitude, andreckonis multifunctional, encoding epistemic modality and evidentiality. Assuming that (inter-)subjective meaning represents the last stage in semantic change, our results indicate that AusEreckonis less grammaticalised thanthinkandguess.

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