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Old English Hwæt
argument of this chapter has been that the textual and interpersonal functions
of hwæt/ what in Old and Middle English as pragmatic markers of ‘contextual
implication,’ ‘shared knowledge,’ ‘speaker surprise,’ and ‘attention- getting’
develop via context- induced inferences from the propositional functions of
hwæt as an interrogative. The course of development of hwæt , albeit complex,
thus shows increased subjective and intersubjective meanings.