Intensification or degree modification by means of adverbs and adjectives has been the object of linguistic study for many years, yet there is still a need for clear delineation of this functional category. This study focuses on the differences and similarities between the functional domains of intensification and focusing. The latter function has mainly been described for adverbs, with little attention to its adjectival realizations and to its relation to intensification. By means of corpus studies of pure, purely, mere and merely, it is shown that intensification and focusing are similar to some extent, both engaging in interpersonal modification (McGregor 1997), yet also distinct with intensification being semantically scalar, attitudinal and inherently subjective and focusing being only potentially pragmatically scalar, rhetorical and textually intersubjective.
2007On the subjectivity of intensifiers. Language Sciences 29: 554–565.
Bolinger, Dwight
1967Adjectives in English: Attribution and predication. Lingua 18: 1–34.
Bolinger, Dwight
1972Degree Words. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Breban, Tine & Davidse, Kristin
2016The history of very: The directionality of functional-structural change and (inter)subjectification. English Language and Linguistics 20: 1–29.
Carlier, Anne & De Mulder, Walter
2010The emergence of the definite article: ille in competition with ipse in Late Latin. In Subjectification, Intersubjectification, and Grammaticalization, Kristin Davidse, Lieven Vandelanotte & Hubert Cuyckens (eds), 241–275. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Davidse, Kristin & Ghesquière, Lobke
2016Content-purport, content-substance and structure: Focusing mere and merely. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 48(1): 85–109.
Diessel, Holger
2006Demonstratives, joint attention, and the emergence of grammar. Cognitive Linguistics 17: 463–489.
Eckardt, Regine
2012The many careers of negative polarity items. In Grammaticalization and Language Change: New Reflections [Studies in Language Companion Series 130], Kristin Davidse, Tine Breban, Lieselotte Brems & Tanja Mortelmans (eds), 299–326. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Gehweiler, Elke
2008The grammaticalization of the German adjectives lauter (and eitel). In Grammaticalization: Current Views and Issues [Studies in Language Companion Series 119], Ekaterini Stathi, Elke Gehweiler & Ekkehard König (eds), 297–322. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Gehweiler, Elke
2011The Grammaticalization of Privative Adjectives: Present-day Uses and Diachronic Development. PhD dissertation, FU Berlin.
Ghesquière, Lobke
2014The Directionality of (Inter)subjectification in the English Noun Phrase: Pathways of Change. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Ghesquière, Lobke, Brems, Lieselotte & Van de Velde, Freek
2014Intersubjectivity and intersubjectification: Typology and operationalization. In Intersubjectivity and Intersubjectification in Grammar and Discourse: Theoretical and Descriptive Advances [Benjamins Current Topics 65], Lieselotte Brems, Lobke Ghesquière & Freek Van de Velde (eds), 129–153. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Hischberg, Julia
1991A Theory of Scalar Implicature. New York NY: Garland.
Huddleston, Rodney & Pullum, Geoffrey
2002The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: CUP.
Kennedy, Christopher & McNally, Louise
2005Scalar structure, degree modification, and the semantics of gradable predicates. Language 81: 345–381.
König, Ekkehard
1991The Meaning of Focus Particles: A Comparative Perspective. London: Routledge.
Leisi, Elizabeth
1967[1961]Der Wortinhalt. Seine Struktur im Deutschen und Englischen, 3. Durchgesehene und erweiterte Auflage. Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer.
McGregor, William
1997Semiotic Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Murray, James A.H., Brodly, Henry, Craigie, W. A. & Onions, C. T.
1993The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: OUP.
Nevalainen, Terttu
1991BUT, ONLY, JUST. Focusing Adverbial Change in Modern English 1500–1900. Helsinki: Société Neophilologique.
Nevalainen, Terttu & Rissanen, Matti
2002Fairly pretty or pretty fair? On the development and grammaticalization of English downtoners. Language Sciences 24: 359–380.
Paradis, Carita
1997Degree Modifiers of Adjectives in Spoken British English. Lund: Lund University Press.
Paradis, Carita
2000Reinforcing Adjectives: A cognitive semantic perspective on grammaticalization. In Generative Theory and Corpus Studies: A Dialogue from 10 ICEHL, Ricardo Bermudez-Otero, David Denison, Richard M. Hogg & Chris B. Mccully (eds), 233–258. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.
Paradis, Carita
2001Adjectives and boundedness. Cognitive Linguistics 12: 47–65.
2006The Semantic Development of Scalar Focus Modifiers. In The Handbook of the History of English, Ans Van Kemenade & Bettelou Los (eds), 335–359. Oxford: Blackwell.
Tribushinina, Elena
2008Cognitive Reference Points: Semantics beyond the Prototypes in Adjectives of Space and Colour. Utrecht: LOT.
PPCME2 = Kroch, Anthony & Taylor, Ann2000Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English, second edition. [URL]
PPCEME = Kroch, Anthony, Santorini, Beatrice & Delfs, Lauren2004Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Early Modern English. [URL]
CLMET3.0 = The Corpus of Late Modern English Texts, version 3.0. Diller, Hans-Jürgen, De Smet, Hendrik & Tyrkko, Jukka2011A European database of descriptors of English electronic texts. The European English Messenger 19: 21–35.
2022. Modification as a linguistic ‘relationship’: Ajust soproblem in Functional Discourse Grammar. Open Linguistics 8:1 ► pp. 699 ff.
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