A Parallel Corpus Analysis of the Pragmatic Marker “I Think”

This paper aims to explore the meanings and functions of the pragmatic marker, "I think", in 19th century English literature. Through a contrastive corpus analysis, we will investigate its uses in character development, narrativity, and the interplay between language and culture, using a corpus of fiction as a tool. The translation of "I think" into Arabic will provide valuable insight into how meanings transfer between different language cultures. The analysis reveals that "I think" has nuanced meanings distinct from logical markers like "but", and that these meanings are inherently pragmatic, relating to structural or modal discourse functions rather than propositional content. These meanings can be conceptualized as part of a radial category or semantic network, shedding light on their role in 19th-century English literature.