From ugy mond 'quoth he' to ugymond 'so to speak'. The story of a discourse marker from Old Hungarian to the present

This paper discusses a discourse marker that has never been analyzed in grammatical terms so far. First, the original role of the collocation (ugy 'so' + mond 'says') is demonstrated on 15-16th century data, tracing its initial steps towards grammaticalization. Among other things, its behavior in sentences and its roles in text production are characterized. Then, via an intermediate period, the recent history of ugymond is described in detail, including its roles in current language use. On the basis of numerous data, it is shown that - while its role as a quotation marker has been retained - certain non-quotational discourse marking functions have emerged from its original function. These are capable of indicating certain text producer's attitudes (metalinguistic function) and may be detached from the function of referring to an external source of text. Finally, the sentential status of both quotation-marking and non-quotational uses is determined, the place of ugymond in the part-of-speech system is defined, and some further aspects to be considered are identified.