Intensificatory Tautology in the History of English: A Corpus-based Study

Gonzalez-Diaz, Victorina ORCID: 0000-0001-8856-342X (2021) Intensificatory Tautology in the History of English: A Corpus-based Study. JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS, 49 (2). pp. 182-207.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0075424221999095

Abstract

<jats:p>This paper explores the development and establishment of intensificatory tautology (specifically, size-adjective clusters, e.g., “ great big plans,” “ little tiny room”) in the history of English. The analysis suggests that size-adjective clusters appear in the Late Middle English period as a result of the functional-structural reorganization of the English noun phrase. It is only towards the end of the Early Modern English period that they start to become (relatively) productive in the language, and in Present-Day English that they acquire a wide(r) intensifying functional range (i.e., adjective modifier, emphasizer, degree intensifier) and become associated with informal, spoken-based registers. More broadly, the paper suggests that more research is needed as regards the role of collocation in processes of intensifier creation in the noun phrase and, more generally, as regards how collocation interacts with word-formation processes in this context.</jats:p>

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Intensificatory tautology, size-adjective cluster, fixation, Early Modern English, Late Modern English, corpus linguistics
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of the Arts
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	13 Apr 2021 15:10
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 22:53
DOI:	10.1177/0075424221999095
Open Access URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0075...
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3119174