Explorations in English Historical Syntax

This study aims to investigate a specific construction in spoken discourse, i.e. that’s (not) the bottom line is (that) and its variant forms, in recent American English. The function of the bottom line is (that) is for a speaker to introduce or anticipate upcoming talk, while that’s the bottom line allows a speaker to summarize his/her preceding statement. These constructions give rise to a new construction when repeatedly used in the following sequence: anaphoric that’s (not) the bottom line f