The Development of Pragmatic Markers in Canadian English

Abstract

This thesis examines the mechanisms of linguistic change involved in the actuation and subsequent development of pragmatic markers (PMs). Using the variationist method, I test the predictions of analysts who have argued that the development of PMs unfolds according to grammaticalization theory (inter alia Hopper and Traugott 1995). In doing so, I address two desiderata suggested in the literature for a better understanding of how PMs change: 1) an examination of both real- and apparent-time data (Pichler and Levey 2011), and 2) an examination of multiple features (Tagliamonte and Denis 2010).The data come from several collections of recorded Ontario English. I examine the Toronto English Archive (Tagliamonte 2006b), a contemporary sociolinguistic corpus, and two collections of oral history interviews recorded in 1975 and 1984, the Belleville Oral History Project and the Farm Work and Farm Life Since 1890 Oral History Collection. Together, these represent an apparent-time span of over one hundred years. The features are general extenders and epistemic parentheticals both of which have been argued to show evidence of ongoing grammaticalization (e.g., Cheshire 2007; Thompson and Mulac 1991).The analysis of the general extenders system finds a lack of evidence for phonetic reduction, decategorialization, and semantic-pragmatic shift of the innovative variant 'and stuff' - each of these changes is a critical component of grammaticalization according to grammaticalization theory. I further show that although the epistemic parenthetical system of Ontario English reorganized through the twentieth century, the changes involved were not the result of gradual grammaticalization, as evidenced by a lack of ongoing fusion, a lack of change in syntactic mobility, and a lack of ongoing semantic bleaching. While the two case studies provide evidence against the idea that PMs develop according to grammaticalization theory, there is no denying that grammaticalization, the phenomenon, has taken place: lexical elements have become PMs. I conclude that the evidence suggests the grammaticalization of pragmatic markers as abrupt reanalysis of lexical material, from one syntactic category to some other syntactic category (see Roberts and Roussou 2003).

Cite this

Derek Denis (2015). The Development of Pragmatic Markers in Canadian English. TSpace (University of Toronto).

@phdthesis{derek2015the,
  title  = {The Development of Pragmatic Markers in Canadian English},
  author = {Denis, Derek},
  year   = {2015},
  publisher = {TSpace (University of Toronto)}
}

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