The As If-Construction: A Grammaticalization Perspective

Abstract

This paper aims to address language change of the complex conjunction as if from lexicalization, grammaticalization, pragmatics, and corpus study. The combined complex conjunction as if does not show the semantic bleach and decategorization in the developmental path from the adjunct clause to the complement clause. The as if in the monoclause and bare complement clause develop to the discourse marker and speech act, carrying derision, counterexpectation, and denial. In this process epistemic and negative attitudinal stances are recognized. Insubordination, accompanied with phonological erosion, reanalysis and pragmatic inference, plays in the grammaticalization of the as if-construction. The corpus-based study shows that hypotheticals are dominant but the present indicatives are little by little on the rise, even though their collocational frequencies are still comparatively very low.