253
9.2 What’s More in Present-Day EnglishAcademic genres. It is infrequent in both the Spoken and Fiction genres. These
results suggest that this form is not characteristic of spoken discourse and is
unsuitable for narrative discourse. It also does not occur widely in the most
formal, written discourse (Academic). Rather, it seems to be characteristic of
the genre falling halfway in between the most oral, intimate genre and the most
written, informational genre, namely Magazines.^2 Its relative infrequency in
Newspaper discourse, which likewise occupies this mid position, is most likely
the result of its greater suitability to exposition rather than narration.
2 Compare the use of that said , see Section 7.2.
Table 9.1 Frequency of non- complemented and complemented uses of what is/ ’s/ was
more in COCA a
Without complement b With complementwhat’s more 2836 86.5% 442 13.5%
what is more 383 52.3% 349 47.7%
what was more 37 26.6% 102 73.4%
a. Searched March 22, 2016.
b. Non- complemented uses are followed immediately by a comma.
3256292 2701643607
4440246810121416All Spoken Fiction Magazine Newspaper AcademicFrequency per millionFigure 9.1 Distribution of non- complemented what is/ ’s/ was more by sub-
corpus in COCA
(Searched March 22, 2016.)