The Emergence of Pragmatic Functions: The Case of the Discourse Marker First of All

This paper examines the discourse marker first of all within a grammaticalization framework, analyzing its evolution from a literal ordinal phrase to a pragmatic tool for managing discourse. Originally used to indicate the first item in a sequence, first of all has undergone significant linguistic changes that have transformed it into a versatile marker for organizing and prioritizing information in discourse. By focusing on key processes underlying this evolution, such as semantic bleaching, syntactic fixation, and pragmatic enrichment, this study reveals how first of all has adapted to emphasize key points, manage conversational flow, and structure multi-point arguments. The findings shed light on the grammaticalization of ordinal expressions, demonstrating their adaptation to broader discourse-level roles and contributing to a deeper understanding of language evolution and pragmatic development.