188
I/You Admit and Admittedly
of epistemic parentheticals. The development of admit is summarized in
Figure 6.1.
The more frequent and earlier passive it be admitted construction may be a
factor in the development of the epistemic parenthetical,^18 and might suggest
a merging of two constructions: I/ you admit ( that ) and it be admitted ( that ).
Semantically, the development from it be admitted to I (modal) admit would
show increasing subjectivity , while the development from it be admitted to you
(modal) admit would show increasing intersubjectivity , as would also be pre-
dicted (cf. Traugott and Dasher 2002), but the syntactic mechanisms involved
in this merger are not clear.
In respect to the disjunct admittedly , there is no evidence for its development
from an adjunct (manner adverb).^19 Hanson ( 1987 ) observes that in addition to
modal adverbs that derive from adjectives (e.g., possibly , apparently ), there
are others that derive somewhat later from adjectives which were originally
borrowed from French as verbs; here she includes admittedly and allegedly.
Evidence for the development from (verb) > adjective > disjunct adverbial
seems more plausible here, as the use of admitted as a pure adjective predates
its use as a disjunct adverbial. The passive construction, it be admitted (that) ,
should be seen as important in the development of the disjunct adverbial. This
provides evidence for Swan ’s and Fischer ’s proposals of independent clauses
of the form It be Adj that underlying the development of disjunct adverbials,
event verb
‘allow to enter’
speech act verb
‘acknowledge/concede as true’(hedged)
performative/procedural
I (must/will/have to) admit S(hedged)
procedural
you (must/will/have to) admit Sepistemic parenthetical
you (must/will/have to) admitepistemic parenthetical
I (must/will/have to) admit
Figure 6.1 Development of admit18 Traugott and Dasher ( 2002 : 206) note the occurrence of passive is/ was promised in the devel-
opment of I promise.
19 The OED entry for admittedly (adv.) was updated in December 2011. Prior to that time it stated
that admittedly meant ‘in an admitted or acknowledged manner.’ The current defi nition reads
“As is admitted or acknowledged; confessedly, esp. as the speaker or writer is wiling to admit.”
The manner sense has thus been eliminated. The subjective meaning of admittedly is now made
clear (“as the speaker or writer is willing to admit”).