“Factive” parenthetical clauses?

Abstract

Regrethas traditionally been regarded as a “true factive” predicate that always presupposes the truth of its complement and cannot occur in parenthetical clauses (Hooper 1975). In the light of earlier observations thatI regretandI regret to sayhave acquired non-factive uses (Heyvaert and Cuyckens 2010), this paper presents a synchronic analysis of the discourse contexts in whichI regretandI regret to sayoccur as parenthetical clauses, and co-occur not with factive complements, but with reported utterances. From a diachronic point of view, the article describes howregret-clauses came to function as illocution modifiers to a reported utterance after the emergence of various types ofto-infinitival complements following the predicate. The article deviates from the traditional view that factive complements are limited to presupposed true complements as expressed in gerunds orthat-clauses. Instead, it broadens the concept of factivity to include presupposed non-epistemic complements and complements realized asto-infinitives.