Learn English – A term for introductory phrases that qualify reality/veracity

expressionsphrases

I'm examining a number of statements from people describing their views, and one notable trend is the use of qualifying phrases at the beginning of the sentence that specifically address the "truth," "reality," or non/factual nature of what the speaker/writer is saying. Examples include:

  • "To tell the truth,"
  • "In my opinion,"
  • "The truth is,"
  • "In all honesty,"
  • "Honestly,"

Is there a term for this specific type of introductory phrase, beyond simply calling them a "qualifying introductory phrase"?

** Edit **

I realize the above examples mainly focus on "truth" or "honesty" – a few other basic examples that come to mind are:

  • "Naturally,"
  • "Obviously,"

There is a hint of "disclaiming," but what I'm interpreting out of these types of introductory bits is that the speaker/writer is emphasizing how they perceive a certain level of "truth" or "reality" in what they are about to state, and that they assume the reader/audience will accept it as well (or will agree with them).

Best Answer

They are pragmatic markers subclasses modality / veridicality (though Wikipedia still classes them as adverbs - even the multiword examples - at http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_modal_adverbs ).

Modality refers to the degree of confidence the speaker is claiming for the correctness of the matrix sentence (the main proposition) ("In my opinion," "Probably," "Possibly," "Obviously," "If I am not mistaken,"...; veridicality to the endorsement of the truth of the statement ("The truth is," "In fact," "Without question,"...).

There are other (sub)classes of pragmatic markers, and references to excellent articles can be found on this site.

See Swan at http://english-learners.com/wp-content/uploads/Language-Use-Grammar-Basics-for-Technical-Writers-Vocabulary-Building-Discourse-Markers.pdf (he uses the term 'discourse markers') and Fraser at the website indicated here: PRAGMATIC MARKERS - people on the Web at Boston University.

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