Exploring Intensification
Synchronic, diachronic and cross-linguistic perspectives
Editors
This book is the first collective volume specifically devoted to the multifaceted phenomenon of intensification, which has been traditionally regarded as related to the expression of degree, scaling a quality downwards or upwards. In spite of the large amount of studies on intensifiers, there is still a need for the characterization of intensification as a distinct functional category in the domain of modification. The eighteen papers of the volume contribute to this aim with a new approach (mainly corpus-based). They focus on intensification from different perspectives (both synchronic and diachronic) and theoretical frameworks, concern ancient languages (Hittite, Greek, Latin) and modern languages (mainly Italian, German, English, Kiswahili), and involve different levels of analysis. They also identify and examine different types of intensifiers, applied to different forms and structures, such as adverbs, adjectives, evaluative affixes, discourse markers, reduplication, exclamative clauses, coordination, prosodic elements, and shed light on issues which have not been extensively studied so far.
[Studies in Language Companion Series, 189] 2017. vii, 394 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 2 October 2017
Published online on 2 October 2017
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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New insights on intensification and intensifiersMaria Napoli and Miriam Ravetto | pp. 1–12
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Part I. The category of intensification
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Chapter 1. The comparative basis of intensificationEkkehard König | pp. 15–32
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Chapter 2. Intensification and focusing: The case of pure(ly) and mere(ly)Lobke Ghesquière | pp. 33–54
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Chapter 3. Intensification processes in Italian: A surveyNicola Grandi | pp. 55–78
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Chapter 4. Noun classification in Kiswahili: Linguistic strategies to intensify or to reduceMarina Castagneto | pp. 79–98
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Part II. Strategies of intensification in ancient languages: Hittite, Greek and Latin
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Chapter 5. Intensification and intensifying modification in HittitePaola Dardano | pp. 101–126
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Chapter 6. Diminutives in Ancient Greek: Intensification and subjectivityChiara Meluzzi | pp. 127–146
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Chapter 7. Nulla sum, nulla sum: Tota, tota occidi : Repetition as a (rare) strategy of intensification in LatinChiara Fedriani | pp. 147–170
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Part III. Strategies of intensification in modern languages: Italian, German, English
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Chapter 8. Intensifiers between grammar and pragmatics: A lesson from a language contact situationIlaria Fiorentini and Andrea Sansò | pp. 173–192
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Chapter 9. Stress and tones as intensifying operators in GermanGianluca Cosentino | pp. 193–206
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Chapter 10. English exclamative clauses and interrogative degree modificationPeter Siemund | pp. 207–228
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Part IV. Contrastive analysis of intensification in Italian and German
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Chapter 11. A pragmatic view on intensification: Expansions in German and ItalianKatharina Salzmann | pp. 231–250
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Chapter 12. Intensifying structures of adjectives across German and ItalianPatrizio Malloggi | pp. 251–264
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Chapter 13. The coordination of identical conjuncts as a means of strengthening expressions in German and ItalianMarina Foschi | pp. 265–288
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Chapter 14. What does reduplication intensify? The semantics and pragmatics of reduplicated forms in Italian and their equivalents in GermanSilvia Bonacchi | pp. 289–304
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Chapter 15. Intensification strategies in German and Italian written language: The case of prefissi intensivi or Fremdpräfixe. A corpus-based studyNicolò Calpestrati | pp. 305–326
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Chapter 16. Ways to intensify: Types of intensified meanings in Italian and GermanMaria Napoli and Miriam Ravetto | pp. 327–352
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Chapter 17. Augmentatives in Italian and German: From contrastive analysis to translationMarcella Costa | pp. 353–370
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Chapter 18. Intentional vagueness: A corpus-based analysis of Italian and GermanMiriam Voghera and Laura Collu | pp. 371–390
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Index | pp. 391–394
“Maria Napoli and Miriam Ravetto have successfully put together an edited volume, focussing on theoretical aspects of the semantics and pragmatics of intensification, and corpus based studies of realizations of intensification ranging from single word forms to larger chunks, intensification and prosody, and the appearance of new expressions and the decline of others. The book takes stock of previous work in this fascinating field of research, provides new insights in a range of languages and poses questions for future research. In addition to the editors’ eminent introductory overview, the volume offers 18 engaging and well-written chapters, grouped together in a clear and lucid way. It is a most stimulating and extremely readable book – a must for anybody interested in intensifiers and intensification.”
Carita Paradis, Lund University
“This volume provides new data, descriptions, and insights in the challenging and intriguing phenomenon of intensification. Recurring themes in the volume are the relation between intensification and other notional categories like comparison, focusing, and evaluation, the distribution of intensifiers across different text types and sociolinguistic parameters, and in particular the objective vs. subjective, emotional-evaluative, dimension of intensification. As Ekkehard König, in his contribution to the volume, puts it : “More often than not, the use of intensifiers tells us more about a speaker than about the situation described”.”
Ad Foolen, Radboud University
“The eighteen high-quality papers in this volume make for a most enlightening and stimulating read. The overall structure of the collection not only presents the reader with a wide variety of approaches to intensification (historical, cross-linguistic, sociolinguistic and corpus-based), but does so through discussions of a wide variety of languages other than English, and thus the volume constitutes a much needed and very valuable contribution to the field.”
Zeltia Blanco-Suárez, University of Santiago de Compostela, in Journal of Historical Pragmatics 23:2 (2022).
Cited by (6)
Cited by six other publications
Hendrikx, Isa, Kristel Van Goethem & Natacha Buntinx
2024. Intensification strength in speech: language-specific preferences and differences between native and learner language. Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics 13 
Prinzie, Thomas, Ferran Suñer & Kristel Van Goethem
2022. From Crystal-clear to Limpide: Translating English [Noun+adj] Compound Adjectives with a Figurative-intensifying Noun into French. Research in Language 20:4 ► pp. 305 ff.
Melissaropoulou, Dimitra & Christos Papanagiotou
2021. Language variation and change in the formation of Greek superlative constructions. Dialectologia et Geolinguistica 29:1 ► pp. 55 ff.
Roels, Linde, Fien De Latte & Renata Enghels
2021. Monitoring 21st-Century Real-Time Language Change in Spanish Youth Speech. Languages 6:4 ► pp. 162 ff.
Blanco-Suárez, Zeltia
2020. Mortal hurryandmortal fine: on the rise of intensifyingmortal. Studia Neophilologica 92:3 ► pp. 271 ff.
Oksefjell Ebeling, Signe & Hilde Hasselgård
2020. Intensification in dialogue vs. narrative in a corpus of present-day English fiction. In Voices Past and Present - Studies of Involved, Speech-related and Spoken Texts [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 97], ► pp. 301 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 december 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFK: Grammar, syntax
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009060: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Syntax