Tine Defour

“Positive Appraisal” as a Core Meaning of well: A Corpus-Based Analysis in Middle and Early Modern English Data

This article unravels the complexity of the historical development of the pragmatic marker well. Using data from three historical corpora (Helsinki Corpus of English Texts, Corpus of Early English Correspondence and Corpus of English Dialogues) a detailed description is provided of the contextualised semantic-pragmatic meanings of well in different periods. The study shows how the use of well in specific contexts allowed the form to gradually adopt increasingly pragmatic meanings from the Middle English period onwards. A detailed overview provides evidence for the thesis that interpersonal and textual functions were intertwined from the beginning and hence that the linear view of an evolution from propositional over textual to interpersonal meanings oversimplifies reality.