Invoking scalarity

Abstract

The discourse contexts are analyzed in which clause-internal in fact developed pragmaticalized meanings and came to invoke scalarity in two domains: epistemic sentence adverb (IPAdv), and additive discourse marker (DM). In both these uses, in fact tightens word to world fit (Powell 1992): the world of epistemic belief in the case of the IPAdv, the world of evaluative, rhetorical perspective in the case of the DM. The analysis therefore provides further evidence for (i) pragmatic ambiguities across these worlds (Sweetser 1990), (ii) subjectification that shifts perspectives from interpersonal (adversative) to personal evaluation (Traugott 1989), (iii) the pragmatic relationship between scalarity, adversativity and additivity (Schwenter 1999). The different orientations of the two uses suggest they are polysemous, not contextually bound.