Analyzing change in the American English amplifier system in the fiction
genre
This study examines the diachronic development of amplification of
adjectives in American English (AmE), specifically in the fiction section of the
Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). The results show that
amplifier use in attributive contexts remains stable, while, in predicative contexts,
so has increased significantly since the 1980s and has replaced
very as the dominant amplifier. This development contrasts with
ongoing change in other regional varieties of English where really,
rather than so, has become the dominant amplifier of adjectives during
the latter half of the 20th century. The results show that so and
very are semantically highly similar and that the increase in
so is mostly based on its co-occurrence with
good.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Previous research
- 3.Data and methodology
- 4.Results
- 5.Discussion and outlook
-
Notes
-
References
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