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The discourse marker well in the history of English1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2008

Andreas H. Jucker
Andreas H. Jucker
Affiliation:
Justus Liebig University GiessenFB 10, AnglistikOtto-Behaghel-Str. 1035394 Giessen, Germanyandreas.jucker@anglistik.uni-giessen.de
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Extract

The discourse marker well has four distinct uses in Modern English: as a frame it introduces a new topic or prefaces direct reported speech; as a qualifier it prefaces a reply which is only a partial answer to a question; as a face-threat mitigator it prefaces a disagreement; and as a pause filler it bridges interactional silence.

In Old English well was used on an interpersonal level as an emphatic attention-getting device (similar to Old English hwæt ‘listen’, ‘behold’, or ‘what’). In Middle English, well always functioned as a frame on a textual level. In Early Modern English, and particularly in the plays by Shakespeare, the uses of well diversified considerably and adopted interpersonal uses again.

Type
Articles
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , May 1997 , pp. 91 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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References

Sources

Boethius, King Alfred's Old English version ofBoethius De consolatione philosophiae, ed. Sedgefield, John. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1968. Translation taken from the edition by Samuel Fox. London: H. G. Bohn, 1864.Google Scholar
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Homilies, Æfric's Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, Walter W.. (Early English Text Society O.S. 76.) London: Trubner, 1881.Google Scholar
LLC02 London-Lund Corpus, text sample 2, published on CD-ROM by the International Computer Archives of Modern English (ICAME).Google Scholar

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