“We’ve only missed an emergent phenomenon in Standard British English!”: the mirative ONLY in contemporary colloquial English
This article takes a look at what is hypothesised to be a recent phenomenon restricted to some forms of contemporary British English, whereby the restrictive adverb ONLY seems to have become a discourse marker signalling counter-expectation or undesirability. The article paper begins by examining th...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2018-06-01
|
| Series: | E-REA |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/erea/6222 |
| _version_ | 1818951193908477952 |
|---|---|
| author | Jim WALKER |
| author_facet | Jim WALKER |
| author_sort | Jim WALKER |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article takes a look at what is hypothesised to be a recent phenomenon restricted to some forms of contemporary British English, whereby the restrictive adverb ONLY seems to have become a discourse marker signalling counter-expectation or undesirability. The article paper begins by examining the diachrony of ONLY, to show how such a usage may have emerged within the general framework of grammaticalisation theory, and furthermore demonstrates that ONLY as a mirative DM can be shown to be almost exclusively a British phenomenon. The article goes on to tie it in with two other constructions which are equally posited to be relatively recent in origin and geographically restricted in scope, namely the narrative use of the Present Perfect and hendiadic GO AND + V structures and speculates as to the degree to which these three separate developments may have been mutually reinforced. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T09:30:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2702373824504af3909ab579542066dd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1638-1718 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T09:30:36Z |
| publishDate | 2018-06-01 |
| publisher | Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | E-REA |
| spelling | doaj.art-2702373824504af3909ab579542066dd2022-12-21T19:45:06ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182018-06-011510.4000/erea.6222“We’ve only missed an emergent phenomenon in Standard British English!”: the mirative ONLY in contemporary colloquial EnglishJim WALKERThis article takes a look at what is hypothesised to be a recent phenomenon restricted to some forms of contemporary British English, whereby the restrictive adverb ONLY seems to have become a discourse marker signalling counter-expectation or undesirability. The article paper begins by examining the diachrony of ONLY, to show how such a usage may have emerged within the general framework of grammaticalisation theory, and furthermore demonstrates that ONLY as a mirative DM can be shown to be almost exclusively a British phenomenon. The article goes on to tie it in with two other constructions which are equally posited to be relatively recent in origin and geographically restricted in scope, namely the narrative use of the Present Perfect and hendiadic GO AND + V structures and speculates as to the degree to which these three separate developments may have been mutually reinforced.http://journals.openedition.org/erea/6222onlymirativegrammaticalisationhendiadys |
| spellingShingle | Jim WALKER “We’ve only missed an emergent phenomenon in Standard British English!”: the mirative ONLY in contemporary colloquial English E-REA only mirative grammaticalisation hendiadys |
| title | “We’ve only missed an emergent phenomenon in Standard British English!”: the mirative ONLY in contemporary colloquial English |
| title_full | “We’ve only missed an emergent phenomenon in Standard British English!”: the mirative ONLY in contemporary colloquial English |
| title_fullStr | “We’ve only missed an emergent phenomenon in Standard British English!”: the mirative ONLY in contemporary colloquial English |
| title_full_unstemmed | “We’ve only missed an emergent phenomenon in Standard British English!”: the mirative ONLY in contemporary colloquial English |
| title_short | “We’ve only missed an emergent phenomenon in Standard British English!”: the mirative ONLY in contemporary colloquial English |
| title_sort | we ve only missed an emergent phenomenon in standard british english the mirative only in contemporary colloquial english |
| topic | only mirative grammaticalisation hendiadys |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/erea/6222 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jimwalker weveonlymissedanemergentphenomenoninstandardbritishenglishthemirativeonlyincontemporarycolloquialenglish |