244 Two Politeness Parentheticals
The parenthetical use could derive from the adjectival adjunct use (a) by loos-
ening of the anaphoric bond between it and the noun phrase modifi ed in the
main clause; this would lead to increased syntactic freedom and mobility of
for what it’s worth. In the case of the complement structures (b) or adverbial
adjunct structures (c), ellipsis of the main clause would be required (shown by
strike-outs in the examples below), with subsequent attachment of now syntac-
tically independent for what it’s worth to the following clause.
(18) a. My suspicion, for what it’s worth , is that Dutch did authorize the transfer
(1999 NBC Today [COCA])
b. my own view, for what it’s worth, is that there are important institu-
tional confl icts between Congress and the executive (1992 CNN Politics
[COCA])
c. Family history. Take it for what it’s worth. Your mother spent a year choos-
ing between me and another man (1993 Bear, Moving Mars [COCA])
d. I throw that out there for what it ’ s worth , that Iran could be a lot further
along than we think. (2012 Fox_ Susteren [COCA])
e. For what it ’ s worth , I would say that its large Moon plays a large role
in making Earth such a good home for the evolution of complex life.
(Donaldson , Where are they? [COCA])
f. Anyway, for what it ’ s worth , I will tell you that Leno initially preferred
another title for his book. (2000 Esquire [COCA])
g. For what it ’ s worth I’d say a person who does these things does them
because of serious injury to her sense of herself. (1984 Engel, Murder sees
the light [Strathy])
In the next section, we will examine whether diachronic evidence sheds light
on which of these possible scenarios is correct.
8.3.2 Diachronic Origin of For What It’s Worth
Searches of a variety of diachronic corpora produced no pre- nineteenth- century
examples of for what it is worth in an extended sense.^8 Because for what it’s
worth is a low- frequency item, it was necessary to include a number of corpora
in this study; included were the OED quotations database, CEN, CLMET3.0,
OBPO, COHA, UofV, TIME, Google Books, and Accessible archives (AA).^9
COHA provided seventy- six examples of for what it’s worth , seventy- eight
examples of for what it is worth , and seven examples of for what it may be
worth (searched August 25, 2015).
8 The corpora examined included EEBO, CEECS, CED, Lampeter, ECF, CED, ED, HC, and
Early English prose fi ction (EEPF).
9 Accessible archives is a collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth- century American periodicals
and county records; see http://www.accessible- archives.com/ about- accessible- archives/.