Textual functions of low confidence adverbs: The case of perhaps

Abstract

Epistemic adverbs often become discourse markers and perform various interpersonal and textual functions. While the interpersonal functions of epistemic adverbs have been discussed extensively, their textual functions have received less attention, and have mostly been reported for high confidence adverbs, such as indeed. This study attempts to explore the potential of low confidence adverbs to perform textual functions. It focuses on perhaps – one of the most frequent epistemic adverbs in English. Using Halliday’s typology of expansion markers, it examines the occurrences of perhaps in a sample of the British National Corpus. Its findings indicate that while the uses of perhaps as a connective marker are considerably less frequent than its uses as an epistemic adverbial, there are several textual functions which it performs with some regularity. They include its use as a marker of apposition (exemplification), concession, clarification (corrective uses/reformulation), and, less often, alternation. Additionally, it performs opening and closing functions in the rhetorical domain of discourse. The connective functions of perhaps seem to be related to its ability to signal alternatives, which it shares with other low confidence adverbs, which is why similar connective functions can be expected from the other adverbs in this category.