A diachronic discussion of extenders in English remedies found in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850)

Extenders are phrases such as “and so on”, “and the like”, “and many others”, which occur at the end of enumerations in order to make them more inclusive. This paper explores the forms and the functions of extenders in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850). To my knowledge, until now, the only historical study on extenders has been carried out by Carroll (2007). Other studies in the field include the works by Graham (1998), Overstreet (1999 and 2005), and Jucker (2003). My intention is to offer a distinct taxonomy of extenders in recipes to see (a) their form and use in specific points in time, and (b) whether extenders have remained stable in time or, conversely, have undergone any type of change, whether formal or functional.

• Affiliations: 1: University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria