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).