From matrix clause to pragmatic marker

Abstract

The interpersonal pragmatic markers (now) look (here), look you, lookee, lookahere, and lookit are shown to be the result of originally free matrix clauses which become syntactically fixed, are reanalyzed as sentence adjuncts, and undergo internal coalescence, a process which began in the seventeenth century. Their development is considered an instance of grammaticalization exhibiting most, though not all, of the characteristics of the process. A new grammaticalization cline is proposed to account for the unidirectionality of the development.