261However, in EEBO, parenthetical what is more Adj is most often part of a
comparative clause (i.e., what is more Adj than/ then ) and only rarely paren-
thetical. In Late Modern English, parenthetical what’s more Adj becomes more
common, but never equals the frequency of parenthetical what’s more. For
example, in CLMET3.0, one fi nds 53 examples of parenthetical what’s more
Adj compared with 91 examples of what’s more , and in the nineteenth- century
data in COHA, 39 examples of parenthetical what’s more Adj compared with
405 examples of parenthetical what’s more.
There is a tendency for is to be uncontracted in the what’s more Adj con-
struction: 49 of the 53 examples in CLMET3.0 and 32 of the 39 examples in
COHA have uncontracted is. In obverse, this provides further evidence for fos-
silization of contracted what’s more as a comment clause (see above).
Finally, the complete pseudo- cleft structure (i.e., what’s more Adj is (that) )^7
appears to be remarkably rare historically. EEBO provides a few early examples
(14a– b) and CLMET3.0 and COHA provide only nine pre- twentieth- century
examples:
(14) a. But what is more strange, is, that I, who ever quarrel with you for being too
scrupulus in point of health, am at the present fallen into the same humour
(1657 de Voiture, Letters of affaires love and courtship [EEBO])
b. b u t what is more considerable, is, that you were hardly twenty years of
age, (1665 Scarron, Scarron’s novels [EEBO])
c. b u t what is more extraordinary, is, that Sir William himself could not for-
get the authoress of this misfortune, (1753 Cibber, The lives of the poets of
Great Britain and Ireland [CLMET3.0])
d. Our author’s changing his opinions for new ones is not so wonderful; what
is more remarkable is his facility in forgetting his old ones. (1821– 22
Hazlitt, Table- talk: Essays on men and manners [CLMET3.0])
e. But what is more strange is that his enemies also had apparently fogotten
[sic] the fact (1858 North American Review [COHA])
9.3.4 Which Is More (Adj)
A construction very similar to what’s more but containing which – i.e., which
is more – is said to be earlier than the construction with what (Jespersen 1927
[1961]: 114– 115; Curme 1935 : 46). The earliest examples in my data are given
in (15), thus putting its fi rst occurrence less than 50 years before that of what is
more. The construction appears in the mid sixteenth century and is common in
the seventeenth century, reaching a peak in usage around 1600 (see Figure 9.3 ).
Typically, which is more occurs clause internally and has within its scope a
7 No examples of what’s more is (that) are found in COCA or other corpora consulted.
9.3 History of What’s More