The renewal of intensifiers and variations in language registers: a case-study of very, really, so and totally
Résumé
The renewal of intensifiers and variations in language registers: a case-study of very, really, so and totally The purpose of this paper is to investigate the renewal of intensifiers in English over time and the consequences of such a renewal process. It is assumed that intensifiers are popularized because of their intensifying force. Through frequency of use and over time, intensifiers tend to lose said intensifying force. That is when the renewal process occurs. This process promotes new adverbs to the rank of intensifying adverbs. In some cases, a newly created intensifier may become the most frequently used intensifier until it loses its intensifying force and needs to be replaced again. The renewal process seems to have consequences on language register. Indeed, "older" intensifiers are not replaced by newer, fresher, more expressive intensifiers entirely. They remain in use, but they are assigned new functions and they are employed in different contexts. My assumption is that intensifiers that have recently emerged such as totally tend to bear on adjectives or other parts of speech belonging to colloquial language. On the contrary, adverbs that developed a long time ago such as very tend to modify adjectives or other parts of speech belonging mostly to the standard or formal registers. There seems to be a correlation between the intensifying force of an adverb and language register. 1) The renewal of intensifiers The first part of this paper will deal with the causes of the renewal process. I will briefly present those intensifiers that were the most frequently used intensifiers at some point in their development. This will be based on T. Mustanoja [1960] who retraces the evolution of the renewal of the most popular intensifiers from the 14 th century to the 21 st century. This study will focus on the four most popular intensifiers of the 21 st century, i.e. very, really, so and totally. 2) Presentation of the corpus used for my study The second part of this article will be devoted to the presentation of the corpus I used for my study. I worked on all 9 seasons of the American TV series How I Met Your Mother. I will explain what methods I used to analyse the data and detail the results of my analysis. 3) A closer look at the four most popular intensifiers of the 21 st century: very, really, so and totally Firstly, for each adverb under scrutiny, I shall present their frequency of use in my corpus. So appears to be the most frequently used, which makes it the most popular intensifier of this century. However, totally seems to be on the rise and it may be a potential candidate for the replacement of so. Very and really both have a high frequency of use, but not as high as the frequency of use of the adverb so. Furthermore, a closer look at the distributional context shows that intensifiers are not used with the same types of adjectives. Very and really tend to be used with adjectives belonging to the formal or standard registers while so and totally tend to co-occur with adjectives or other parts of speech belonging to colloquial language. Very tends to be used mostly with adjectives expressing opinion or appreciation. They convey the speaker's opinion and subjectivity. Let us not that very has also reach an advanced stage of grammaticalization and lexicalization. As such, it may be seen as a function word as D. Bolinger [1972 : 28] confirms « [i]f there are function words, very is surely one of them ». Some linguists, such as C. Stoffel [1901 : 33] go as far as saying that very is an empty word : It is easy to see that a word which at so early a period was on its way to become an "empty" word, was especially adapted for being used as a colourless intensive.
Domaines
Linguistique
Fichier principal
The renewal of intensifiers and variations in language registers a case-study of very, really, so and totally.pdf (395.85 Ko)
Télécharger le fichier
Loading...