Tracking shifts in the literal versus the intensifying fake reflexive resultative construction
The development of intensifying dood ‘dead’ in 19th–20th Century Dutch
This paper explores diachronic shifts in the literal and intensifying uses of dood ‘dead’ in the Dutch fake reflexive
resultative construction. Without sufficient context, a clause like Hij werkte zich dood (lit. ‘He worked himself dead’) is
ambiguous in that it is unclear whether dood expresses an actual result of the activity denoted by the verb or whether it
intensifies that verbal activity. We will investigate shifts in the (relative) type and token frequencies of both subtypes over the last two
centuries and show that the intensifying use has become predominant. Particular attention is paid to the notion of productivity, which may
help us to elucidate the possible pathways along which dood – in its function as an intensifier – is moving. By taking into
account the variety of verbs that dood has occurred with since the early 19th Century, we aim to assess whether the
dramatic increase in relative frequency of intensifying dood is paralleled by a concomitant extension of its collocational
range or, conversely, whether this increase in frequency is mainly due to the rise of some highly frequent collocations.
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