No biggie can be a “biggie”: A taxonomical and statistical analysis of the pragmaticalization of no biggie on the basis of pragma-syntactic variation and co-occurring lexical items

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the pragmaticalization process of (it's) no biggie, through a corpus-based taxonomical and statistical examination. The research study involves (i) elaborating a taxonomy of no biggie constructions by exploring the variability of the pragmatic functions and the syntactic features associated with the construction; (ii) monitoring the links between the taxonomical types of no biggie and the parameters of syntactic loci and structure of the construction (e.g. absence of it's); and (iii) determining habitual lexical items that co-occur with the construction. The findings show that the vast majority of (it's) no biggie constructions are used in its abbreviated form no biggie, half of which being employed as a discourse-pragmatic marker (DPM). The correlations between syntactic loci and the taxonomy were tested through Chi-square, which demonstrates that specific pragma–syntactic properties are orderly assigned to extended forms, and that pragmaticalized free-standing constructions (as with DPMs) are generally used in the middle of a clause. The analysis of no biggie collocates also indicates that the pragma-syntactic function of the collocates is oftentimes subject to the syntactic function of the construction types. Finally, a qualitative examination of the taxonomy and their examples confirms that pragma-syntactic variation occurs differently in all the taxonomical types, the DPM no biggie showing the highest degree of variation.