From matrix clause to pragmatic marker

The interpersonal pragmatic markers ( now ) look ( here ), look you , lookee , lookahere , and lookit are shown to be the result of originally free matrix clauses which become syntactically fixed, are reanalyzed as sentence adjuncts, and undergo internal coalescence, a process which began in the seventeenth century. Their development is considered an instance of grammaticalization exhibiting most, though not all, of the characteristics of the process. A new grammaticalization cline is proposed to account for the unidirectionality of the development.