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The Functional Perspective on Language and Discourse: Applications and implications
Edited by María de los Ángeles Gómez González, Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco Gonzálvez-García and Angela Downing
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 247] 2014
► pp. 169–186

The adverb truly in Present-Day English

| Ghent University, Belgium
| Ghent University, Belgium

In comparison with the semantically and pragmatically related adverbs really, actually and in fact, the adverb truly has been studied much less extensively. One reason for the neglect may be its relatively low frequency. This is obvious if one consults the British National Corpus (BNC). This article takes a close look at truly on the basis of a sample of 200 instances from the BNC. It looks at the relative frequency and meaning of the various syntactic patterns in which it occurs in PDE. Lenker (2007) notes that in her diachronic corpus truly occurs as a clause-integrated manner adverb, a clause-integrated emphasiser, a propositional modifier, and a discourse marker. The present article compares these findings with the usage of truly in PDE. It also examines parallels and differences with the adverb really.

Published online: 16 May 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.247.09sim
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