Parenthetical clauses and speech reporting: the case of shriek

This study turns to the pathway of change whereby an originally intransitive manner-of-speaking predicate (e.g. babble, whisper, shout) comes function in parenthetical clauses as a direct speech reporting predicate. On descriptive plane, paper presents detailed analysis recent developments affecting shriek Early and Late Modern English. The case presented here does not involve standardly assumed ‘reduction’ main clause adverbial subject-verb phrase that seems lack clausal argument, but rather augmentation It semantic bleaching core grammatical meaning such epistemic hedges or mirative markers discursive attention-getters, instead maintains lexically specific component manner speaking. relevance is highlighted against backdrop broader trends related transitivization processes with non-prototypical object patterns. relatively abrupt development line synchronic theories event lexicalization, which predict roots readily allow for certain argument patterns derive complex structure. can be explained on basis analogically facilitated co-optation, via range similarities other predicates manner-of-speaking. hopes inspire studies comparing pathways attested different subtypes parentheticals, well their interaction, near future.