From: Grammaticalization – Theory and Data
I’d try to translate what all these technical terms mean, but.
Basically, language is so cool that it changes in ways that actually can be pretty similar across languages. And basically, sometimes when we end a sentence with “but” or “and” (or maybe, as I suggest “or”), we’re actually very specifically ending the sentence, even though these words typically indicate the middle of a conjunction. I only have access to the limited google books version, but if you’re interested in getting the whole story, it was published by John Benjamins Publishing this year. There are some other really cool looking chapters, too!
But is is really just but and and, or?
I’ve also ended a sentence with other coordinators/subordinators, so.
*But certain ones don’t seem to work at all, because.
*Especially the ones that need to appear in pairs, if.
*More research is clearly necessary to figure out, when.
Some of them seem like you could also end them with “yeah” or general trailing off, which…yeah.
(via tinsnip)
