This article investigates the degree modifiers pretty and a bit in the subsection 1730s–1830s of the Old Bailey Corpus (OBC), containing speech-based/related data (ca. 50 million words). Pretty is shown to be already grammaticalized, with the degree modifier uses clearly dominating. Subjectification is evidenced both by the downtoning and upgrading degree meanings as well as by the ironic uses. While a bit is also semantically versatile and shows nuances of subjectification, it is far less grammaticalized than pretty, as the degree uses are in the clear minority. The change seems to be led by a bit of (a)-constructions rather than by simple a bit.
MED = Middle English Dictionary. 2001. University of Michigan. Online: [URL]
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OBC = Old Bailey Corpus. The speech-tagged and sociobiographically annotated version (0.5, June 2011) prepared under the supervision of Magnus Huber at the University of Giessen; based on the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, see [URL]
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OED = Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition in progress. 1989–. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Online: [URL]
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WordSmith Tools (version 5.0). 2010. PC software by Mike Scott. Lexical Analysis Software and Oxford University Press.
Zurich English Newspaper Corpus (version 1.0). 2004. Compiled by Udo Fries, Hans Martin Lehmann, Beni Ruef, Peter Schneider, Patrick Studer, Caren auf dem Keller, Beat Nietlispach, Sandra Engler, Sabine Hensel and Franziska Zeller. University of Zurich. More information: [URL]
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