Under `proclaim' (which includes Expect and Pronounce) we are concerned with formulations which can be interpreted as heading off contradiction or challenge from potential dialogic respondents . They are meanings which increase the interpersonal cost of any such contradiction by adding additional support or motivation for the current proposition/proposal.
Through values of Expect, the speaker/writer represents the current proposition/proposal as uncontentious within the current speech community, as a `given, as being in accord with what is generally known or expected. Consider by way of example the use of `of course' in the following.
When, belatedly, their selectors chose Paul Adams, who would assuredly have won them the second Test in Johannesburg, their attack became `very good' in the opinion of Trevor Bailey, who has seen a few in his time. Bailey, of course, was that rarity, a cricketer who at his best was world-class with both bat and ball. (From the Bank of English OzNews corpus)
Here the writer represents himself/herself as simply agreeing with the reader, as recounting a view (that Bailey was a cricketing rarity) which is already held by the dialogic partner and by people in generally. The location of the current proposition within a dialogistic exchange is thus employed to increase the cost of any subsequent challenging or rejecting of the proposition.
