241
8.3 For What It’s WorthThe OED also notes, however, that for what it is worth is often used parenthet-
ically, as shown in the following:^6
(15) a. For what it’s worth , I was right about my student’s thesis. It needed more
work (2011 Psychology Today [COCA])
b. “Well, for what it ’ s worth , his daughter sounds fairly reasonable.” (1996
Walters, The dark room [COCA])
c. Well, for what it’s worth , learning an instrument at your age is diffi cult
(2009 NPR_ FreshAir [COCA])
d. For what it is worth , Smith is not alone in his efforts to develop an ideal
judge theory (2001 Perspectives on Political Science [COCA])
e. For what it may be worth , Dr. John Bayard Britton’s killer did not pene-
trate his homemade bulletproof vest. (1994/ 08/ 08 TIME)
What distinguishes the examples in (14) from those in (15) is that in the former
it is anaphoric (or theoretically cataphoric), referring to an element in the main
clause (in 14, it = degree , it = opinion , it = what I say , it = contribution , it =
guess ). In (15), in contrast, it is typically non- referential: (lack of) worthiness
cannot be attributed to any element in the host clause. Unlike the complement
uses in (14a– c),^7 for what it’s worth in (15) is movable (e.g., His daughter, for
what it’s worth, sounds fairly reasonable. His daughter sounds fairly reason-
able, for what it’s worth vs. * for what it may be worth what I say must be taken ).
For what it is worth belongs to class of “adverbial clause/ clausal adjunct
(fi nite)” parentheticals (Kaltenböck 2007 : 30), “PPs and AdvPs supple-
ments” (Huddleston and Pullum 2002 : 1360), or (paren)theticals (Kaltenböck
et al. 2011 : 853). As a (paren)thetical, it has the following characteristics (as
described in Section 1.2.2 ).
(a) It is syntactically independent.
(b) It is set off prosodically from the rest of the utterance.
(c) Its meaning is “non- restrictive” (cf. Huddleston and Pullum 2002 : 1352–
1353), i.e., the meaning of the parenthetical is determined not by the syn-
tax of the host sentence, but by “the situation in which discourse takes
place” (Kaltenböck et al. 2011 : 861).
(d) It may be positionally mobile (or independent).
(e) Its internal structure is built on principles of sentence grammar but can be
elliptic.
6 For all it’s worth is very occasionally used parenthetically with the same meaning as for what
it’s worth :
(i) “I can tell myself I’m great anytime, Chief, for all it’s worth. It helps to have an outside
opinion.” (2005 Analog Science Fiction & Fact [COCA])
7 In the adjunct usage (14d– e), for what it is worth has limited mobility. It can usually be moved
to the beginning of the sentence, e.g., “For what it’s worth, my guess is that ....” This issue is
discussed in greater detail below.