This book establishes and applies a linguistic framework for the
synchronic and diachronic analysis of multi-word discourse markers
(MWDMs). The aim of this study is to examine in detail how MWDMs have
developed out of their polysemous lexical counterparts. First, this
study critically evaluates existing Grammaticalization and
Pragmaticalization theories addressing both their strengths and
drawbacks. In the following, a revised Pragmaticalization approach is
developed. Considering three linguistic dimensions, this approach
consists of six mechanisms: Discursivization & Scope Extension (semantic
dimension), Syntactic Isolation & Acategorialization (syntactic
dimension) and Consistency & Prosodic Accentuation (phonological
dimension). Using data from the Oxford Etymological Dictionary and the
TV Corpus, the study then applies these mechanisms to the MWDMs by the
way, all the same and what is more. Providing a detailed corpus-informed
analysis of these units, this book demonstrates the advantages of the
suggested framework and consequently offers an innovative contribution
to the field of linguistics.