Content-purport, content-substance and structure: focusing mere and merely

Starting from Hjelmslev’s distinction between content-purport and content-substance, we investigate the meaning of focus markers mere and merely from a diachronic perspective. We argue that their shared ability to convey the four focus types (exclusive-categorial, exclusive-scalar, particularizing, inclusive) can be viewed as their shared content-purport. We approach their content-substance, i.e. the meanings coded by their structures, in terms of the interpersonal modification structures of McGregor’s Semiotic Grammar. The different syntagmatic combinations are associated with different contextual usage types.