164 Epistemic Parentheticals
been a meaning shift in which the invited inference of uncertainty stemming
from the mental mode of knowing has been conventionalized or semanticized
as the conventional meaning of the expression.
The relation of syntactic to semantic change is somewhat diffi cult to estab-
lish. However, I would suggest that in their adverbial form in Old English,
clauses such as as I believe/ think denote the cognitive act, but with evidential
meaning, denoting the means of knowing rather than the cognitive act, already
an invited inference. The shift from evidential to epistemic meaning perhaps
correlates with the loss of adverbial connectives, as the more syntactically
independent parenthetical now expresses the degree of (un)certainty underly-
ing the proposition rather than the source of knowledge for that proposition.
Some degree of divergence occurs: the form with the explicit conjunction as
expressing degree (“as far as”) serves more and more to denote cognitive and
evidential meanings ( as I think ), with the main verb- complement structure
more often denoting the cognitive act ( I think/ I’m thinking that ).^33
5.6.4 Grammaticalization or Lexicalization?
As noted above, Thompson and Mulac ( 1991 ) argue that fi rst- person epistemic
parentheticals are best understood as a case of (synchronic) grammatical-
ization (see also Kärkkäinen 2003 : 173ff. and Van Bogaert 2006 ; summarized
in Brinton 2008 : 58– 59. Early diachronic studies support this view. In discuss-
ing methinks , López- Couso ( 1996 ) notes that restriction of the impersonal verb
to the fi rst person, fi xing of OV order, and “fusion of erstwhile independent
elements across word boundaries” correspond to “some of the concomitants
of grammaticalisation” (165), including reduction in autonomy, decategori-
alization , and gradual adverbialization. Palander- Collin ( 1996 , 1997 , 1999 :
46– 63) likewise points to the adverbialization of methinks ; methinks is decat-
egorialized (from verb to the “more grammatical” adverb), no longer intro-
ducing a subclause and thus free to occupy the sentence- medial and fi nal
position of adverbs. The expression of evidential meaning in both the imper-
sonal ( methinks ) and personal ( I think ) is evidence of its grammaticalization.
Palander- Collin argues that the grammaticalized form, methinks , continues the
meaning of uncertainty found in the full verb, thus showing Hopper ’s ( 1991 )
principle of persistence , and there is layering of forms with the other epistemic
parentheticals (e.g., seem , ween , trowe , deem , judge , consider ).^34
33 Quirk et al. (1985: 1116) note a functional distinction between the as and as - less forms: the
form without as is neutral as to the truth of the matrix clause ( George, you said, is a liar [but
I don’t believe it] ), whereas the form with as is affi rmative ( George, as you said, is a liar [*but
I don’t believe it] ). Thus, deletion of as would lead to neutralization of the affi rmative nature
of the clause, a type of semantic weakening or bleaching.
34 Palander- Collin ( 1996 ) argues that the fact that think becomes “specialized” in the fi rst per-
son and no longer takes the modifi ers typical of verb phrases conforms to Hopper ’s principle