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In:The Ziggurat of Grammar: In honor of Ur Shlonsky
Edited by Lena Baunaz, Giuliano Bocci and Andrew Nevins
[Language Faculty and Beyond 20] 2025
► pp. 478–494

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Chapter 23
‘Frankly’, and the syntacticization of speech acts

 | Ca' Foscari UniversityVenice
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Published online: 13 November 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.20.23cin
Abstract
The article proposes a non-integrated analysis of speech act adverbs (with particular attention to the syntax of ‘frankly’). This means that they modify a verb of saying in all of their uses (as VP adverbs predicated of the subject; as IP adverbs predicated of an opinion holder; and as speech act adverbs, outside of CP, predicated of the speaker or addressee of an abstract performative verb of saying).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.‘Frankly’ as a manner adverb (of verbs of saying)
  • 3.‘Frankly’ as a speech act adverb
  • 4.‘Frankly’ as an IP adverb predicated of an attitude holder
  • 5.A unification: ‘Frankly’ as a manner adverb modifying a verb of saying at different heights
    • 5.1‘Frankly’ as a manner adverb predicated of the underlying subject of a lexical verb of saying
    • 5.2‘Frankly’ as a manner adverb predicated of the speaker or the addressee of a speech act
    • 5.3‘Frankly’ as an IP adverb predicated of an attitude holder
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (55)
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