Truth Is, Sentence-Initial Shell Nouns Are Showing Up Bare

Abstract

**Please note that the full text is embargoed** ABSTRACT: In one subtype of English shell noun construction, the noun serves as the subject in a pre-clausal unit, e.g., “The thing is.” Shell noun NPs have mainly been investigated synchronically, often as case studies of particular noun types, with the bare forms only ever briefly noted. Data from COCA and COHA was examined to collect the range of sentence-initial bare form shell nouns, to track any changes in their use occurring between 1810 and 2012. The findings suggest that, referentially, these abstract bare forms function differently than bare concrete count nouns, and distributionally, that bare shell forms are used increasingly in subject position, confirming their state as grammaticalizing discourse marker constructions.