ABSTRACT

Theitemsbeingdiscussedhere,however,althoughplaced

beforeand,bycontrastingwhatcamebeforewithwhatis

theswitch.Thusnowatthebeginningofalectureora

theconfinesoftheentireproceeding)willnowbeaban-

donedinfavorofanensuingone.Nowisanevincive

sinceithasthetwocoincidentpropertiesofevincives:

onthepartofthespeaker.Thesecondpropertyisre-

within-continuityperceivedbythespeakerbutleftto

theaddresseeto(ifpossible)determinetheprecisena-

tureof.6Thespeakerissayingineffect,"Thisbelongs

here,butmyreasonsforsayingsoremaintobebroughtup

laterinthesharedworld,orleftforyou(theaddressee)

toinfer,guessat,ignore,orinquireabout."Likewell,

whenthatparticleisusedasatopicintroducer(see4.4),

nowprovidesthattheswitchisonethatisundertaken

ThediscourseitemImeanisdiscussedatlengthin

concisepagestoit.Assuggestedbyaliteralreading,

oftheprevious<usuallythespeaker'sown)contribution"

(Goldberg1980:124-5).Thefunctionsoftheiteminpar-

ticulardiscourseenvironmentsmayvaryaccordingtohow

(125),oritmayregainthefloor(251a)bysignaling

"thattheinterveningturninterruptedthespeaker"(127),

phonologicalorgrammaticalerror"(244).Thedescription

oftheitemofferedbyCrystalandDavyisessentiallyin

harmonywithGoldberg's.Theyclaim

Themeaningofthisphraseisextraordinarilydifficult todefine:itseemstoperformavarietyofsemantic functions,someofwhicharemoreimportantthanothers inanygiveninstance.Generallyspeaking,itsmain functionistoindicatethatthespeakerwishesto clarifythemeaningofhisimmediatelyprecedingexpression.Thisclarificationmaystemfromanumberof reasonsandtakeanumberofforms(1975:97).