Historical and comparative perspectives on the grammaticalization and subjectification of causal discourse markers

Introduction The diachronic development of discourse markers often involves a process of ‘(inter)subjectification’ (cf. Traugott & Dasher 2002; Athanasiado, Canakis & Cornillie 2006), a shift from meanings pertaining to the characterization of the objective world to meanings involving the expression of personal attitudes of the speaker (subjectification) to meanings concerned with the interaction between speaker and hearer (i.e., intersubjectivity). However, it is less obvious that the semantic change of discourse markers also involves a structural type of diachronic change: ‘grammaticalization’ (cf. Onodera 2000; Brinton 2002; Gunthner & Mutz 2006).