Re: Sentence-final 'but/'so'/'then'

I have just examined British corpora: English from Newcastle, Scotland,
and from the BNC.
I know that the phenomenon exists for 'but' in New Zealand and
Australian English, but I do not know about American English.

Examples:

-I went and looked in the dustbin to see if he was back in there but.
-He would have stayed and while I did it but.

-Er, in those days women didn't work, but.
- it is classified as being part of Glasgow, but.

- she doesn't like particularly her job so.
She's about my size so.
I'm going out tomorrow so.

-You probably weren't very buoyant, so.
- I will do now, so.

-What vessel did you go on then ?
- Well I 'll have an ox tail then.

- that 's Saturday , then.
- And money wise she 's alright , then.

sylh

Peter T. Daniels wrote:
sylh wrote:
I am currently working on non-standard positions of discourse
connectives, esp. sentence-final positions of 'but', 'then', and 'so'.

I have used the spoken part of the British National Corpus, the spoken

part of the Scottish English corpus, and the Newcastle English corpus
to find occurrences.

My first question concerns the semantic value of these adverbs in
final
positions.
-when 'but' is not preceded by a comma in the text (ie a pause in
speech), does it mean 'though' as in Australian English f.i.?
-when 'but' is preceded by a comma, has it got a
contrastive/adversative value or is it just like a particle like
'huh',
'what' in final position? Tell me about the meaning it conveys.
-when 'so' is preceded by a comma, does it mean 'in that way' or is it

just an intensifier meaning 'yes, indeed'?
- same question when 'so' is not preceded by a comma?
- I have the same questions for 'then'.

My second question is this: can you still classify theses adverbs as IP
adjuncts in this non-canonical syntactic position? It does not seem
that the synctactic position is clear.

Thanks for your feedback. Please remember to tell me about the dialect
you are using.

Examples?

Are you saying (from your choice of corpora) that this is a phenomenon
that doesn't appear in American English at all?

I suspect so, as I can't figure out what you're describing.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Sentence-final but/so/then
    ... I have used the spoken part of the British National Corpus, ... part of the Scottish English corpus, ... -when 'but' is not preceded by a comma in the text (ie a pause in ... I have just examined British corpora: ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Sentence-final but/so/then
    ... I have used the spoken part of the British National Corpus, ... part of the Scottish English corpus, ... -when 'but' is not preceded by a comma in the text (ie a pause in ... preceding sentence is an inference. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Sentence-final but/so/then
    ... I have used the spoken part of the British National Corpus, ... part of the Scottish English corpus, ... -when 'but' is not preceded by a comma in the text (ie a pause in ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Sentence-final but/so/then
    ... I have used the spoken part of the British National Corpus, ... part of the Scottish English corpus, ... -when 'but' is not preceded by a comma in the text (ie a pause in ... preceding sentence is an inference. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Sentence-final but/so/then
    ... I have used the spoken part of the British National Corpus, ... part of the Scottish English corpus, ... -when 'but' is not preceded by a comma in the text (ie a pause in ... preceding sentence is an inference. ...
    (sci.lang)
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