258 What’s More and Whatever
b. you are too noble to require that, and what is more , too just (1842 Borrow,
The Bible in Spain [CLMET3.0])
c. And, what’s more , whenever he comes along there’s a death sure to follow
him (1872 Harpers [COHA])
d. and, what is more , it produced a very odd effect upon my nerves (1887
Haggard, She [CLMET3.0])
In the twentieth century, Koops and Hilpert ( 2009 : 221) fi nd copula- less
pseudo- clefts to be reduced to the “formulaic” what is more and what is worse
constructions.
A distinction can be made between clause- internal what’s more , defi ned as
preceding and having within its scope an N, Adj, PP, or VP (as in 9b, d), and
clause- external what’s more , defi ned as sentence initial or following a conjunc-
tion and having the entire clause within its scope (as in 9a, c). Over time, we
see a change toward clause external (see Figure 9.2 ). In the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, these two uses are approximately equal, but in the nine-
teenth century, the latter use is strongly preferred, by a ratio of almost 4 to 1.
(^8530)
103
92 35
393
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
17th century 18th century 19th century
%
clause-internal clause-external
Figure 9.2 Position of what’s more in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries
Source: adapted from Laurel J. Brinton, The comment clause in English: Syntactic
origins and pragmatic development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008,
p. 207; with permission.
(The data in this fi gure is based on material collected from the following corpora: seven-
teenth century: Lampeter, EEPF, ED, and EEBO- BYU; eighteenth century: CLMET3.0,
OED, OBPO, ED, ECF; nineteenth century: CLMET3.0, OED, ED, OBPO, COHA.)