Pub Date : 2021-03-01DOI: 10.1177/0075424220982063
C. Claridge, E. Jonsson, Merja Kytö
Even though intensifiers have received a good deal of attention over the past few decades, downtoners, comprising diminishers and minimizers, have remained by and large a neglected category (but cf. Brinton, this issue). Among downtoners, the adverb little or a little stands out as the most frequent item. It is multifunctional and serves as a diminishing and minimizing intensifier and also in non-degree uses as a quantifier, frequentative, and durative. Therefore, the present paper is devoted to the structural and functional profile of (a) little in Late Modern English speech-related data. The data source is the socio-pragmatically annotated Old Bailey Corpus (OBC, version 2.0), which allows, among other things, the investigation of the usage of the item among different speaker groups. Our research charts the semantic and formal uses of adverbial little. Downtoner uses outnumber non-degree uses in the data, and diminishing uses are more common than minimizing uses. The formal realization is predominantly a little, with very rare determinerless or modified instances, such as very little. Little modifies a wide range of “targets,” but most frequently adjectives and prepositional phrases, focusing on human states and circumstantial detail. With regard to variation and change, adverbial little declines in use over the 200 years and is used more commonly by speakers from the lower social ranks and by the lay, non-professional participants in the courtroom.
{"title":"A Little Something Goes a Long Way: Little in the Old Bailey Corpus","authors":"C. Claridge, E. Jonsson, Merja Kytö","doi":"10.1177/0075424220982063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424220982063","url":null,"abstract":"Even though intensifiers have received a good deal of attention over the past few decades, downtoners, comprising diminishers and minimizers, have remained by and large a neglected category (but cf. Brinton, this issue). Among downtoners, the adverb little or a little stands out as the most frequent item. It is multifunctional and serves as a diminishing and minimizing intensifier and also in non-degree uses as a quantifier, frequentative, and durative. Therefore, the present paper is devoted to the structural and functional profile of (a) little in Late Modern English speech-related data. The data source is the socio-pragmatically annotated Old Bailey Corpus (OBC, version 2.0), which allows, among other things, the investigation of the usage of the item among different speaker groups. Our research charts the semantic and formal uses of adverbial little. Downtoner uses outnumber non-degree uses in the data, and diminishing uses are more common than minimizing uses. The formal realization is predominantly a little, with very rare determinerless or modified instances, such as very little. Little modifies a wide range of “targets,” but most frequently adjectives and prepositional phrases, focusing on human states and circumstantial detail. With regard to variation and change, adverbial little declines in use over the 200 years and is used more commonly by speakers from the lower social ranks and by the lay, non-professional participants in the courtroom.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":"49 1","pages":"61 - 89"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0075424220982063","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45124377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-01DOI: 10.1177/0075424220979126
L. Brinton
In Present-Day English, nearly functions as an approximator downtoner meaning ‘almost, all but, virtually,’ as do earlier variants based on the same root—nigh, nighly, near, next (to)—though more rarely and in more restricted contexts. Nigh functions as an approximator downtoner in Old and Middle English. When near displaces nigh, nigh is retained as a downtoner with lexical adjectives expressing negative semantic prosody. Near is used as a downtoner in later Middle and Early Modern English. However, degree adjunct uses are not well attested, thus pointing to incomplete grammaticalization. During the eighteenth century, the new -ly form (nearly) takes over the innovative downtoner function and the old form (near) is retained in the original locative sense, with some remnant downtoner uses. Next (to) grammaticalizes as a downtoner, but proceeds only to the degree modifier stage and involves a high degree of idiomaticization, thus suggesting incipient grammaticalization. As spatial adverbs, nigh/near/next (to)/nearly represent one of the well-known sources for the grammaticalization of degree adverbs. However, these forms seem to follow a pathway where the degree modifier use (adjective/participle modifier) precedes the degree adjunct use (verb modifier), contrary to the reverse pathway postulated for other degree adverbs.
{"title":"“He loved his father but next to adored his mother”: Nigh(ly), Near, and Next (To) as Downtoners","authors":"L. Brinton","doi":"10.1177/0075424220979126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424220979126","url":null,"abstract":"In Present-Day English, nearly functions as an approximator downtoner meaning ‘almost, all but, virtually,’ as do earlier variants based on the same root—nigh, nighly, near, next (to)—though more rarely and in more restricted contexts. Nigh functions as an approximator downtoner in Old and Middle English. When near displaces nigh, nigh is retained as a downtoner with lexical adjectives expressing negative semantic prosody. Near is used as a downtoner in later Middle and Early Modern English. However, degree adjunct uses are not well attested, thus pointing to incomplete grammaticalization. During the eighteenth century, the new -ly form (nearly) takes over the innovative downtoner function and the old form (near) is retained in the original locative sense, with some remnant downtoner uses. Next (to) grammaticalizes as a downtoner, but proceeds only to the degree modifier stage and involves a high degree of idiomaticization, thus suggesting incipient grammaticalization. As spatial adverbs, nigh/near/next (to)/nearly represent one of the well-known sources for the grammaticalization of degree adverbs. However, these forms seem to follow a pathway where the degree modifier use (adjective/participle modifier) precedes the degree adjunct use (verb modifier), contrary to the reverse pathway postulated for other degree adverbs.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":"49 1","pages":"39 - 60"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0075424220979126","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44223624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-10DOI: 10.1177/0075424221992101
Frank Polzenhagen
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 1994. Accent, standard language ideology, and discriminatory pretext in courts. Language in Society 23. 163-198. Mathews, Mitford M. 1951. A dictionary of Americanisms on historical principles. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Silverstein, Michael. 2003. Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. Language & Communication 23(3/4). 193-229. Winchester, Simon. 1998. The professor and the madman: A tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Moosic, PA: HarperCollins.
{"title":"Book Review: Corpus Linguistics and African Englishes","authors":"Frank Polzenhagen","doi":"10.1177/0075424221992101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424221992101","url":null,"abstract":"Lippi-Green, Rosina. 1994. Accent, standard language ideology, and discriminatory pretext in courts. Language in Society 23. 163-198. Mathews, Mitford M. 1951. A dictionary of Americanisms on historical principles. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Silverstein, Michael. 2003. Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. Language & Communication 23(3/4). 193-229. Winchester, Simon. 1998. The professor and the madman: A tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Moosic, PA: HarperCollins.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":"49 1","pages":"483 - 488"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0075424221992101","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45391604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-04DOI: 10.1177/0075424220986612
L. Ghesquière, F. Troughton
Exclamative constructions fronted by what are generally agreed to be one of the prototypical realizations of the English exclamative clause type. This paper argues that what acts as a degree modifier in these constructions and aims to investigate how what came to be an introductory degree marker of English exclamatives. It examines the diachronic relation between full exclamative what constructions (What a pity it is!) and verbless exclamative constructions (What a pity!), which are usually assumed to be the result of ellipsis. In addition, this paper comments on what’s role as a degree modifier and a marker of subjectivity and mirativity.
{"title":"What a Change! A Diachronic Study of Exclamative What Constructions","authors":"L. Ghesquière, F. Troughton","doi":"10.1177/0075424220986612","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424220986612","url":null,"abstract":"Exclamative constructions fronted by what are generally agreed to be one of the prototypical realizations of the English exclamative clause type. This paper argues that what acts as a degree modifier in these constructions and aims to investigate how what came to be an introductory degree marker of English exclamatives. It examines the diachronic relation between full exclamative what constructions (What a pity it is!) and verbless exclamative constructions (What a pity!), which are usually assumed to be the result of ellipsis. In addition, this paper comments on what’s role as a degree modifier and a marker of subjectivity and mirativity.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":"49 1","pages":"139 - 158"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0075424220986612","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44499543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-01DOI: 10.1177/0075424220987592
Annina Seiler
Eckert, Penelope. 2018. Meaning and linguistic variation: The third wave in sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Labov, William. 2001. Principles of linguistic change: Social factors. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Mitchell, Alexander George & Arthur Delbridge. 1965. The speech of Australian adolescents: A survey. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Niedzielski, Nancy A. & Dennis R. Preston. 2000. Folk linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Preston, Dennis R. 1993. The uses of folk linguistics. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 3(2). 181-259.
佩内洛普·埃克特，2018。意义与语言变异:社会语言学的第三次浪潮。剑桥:剑桥大学出版社。威廉·拉波夫，2001。语言变化的原则:社会因素。马登:布莱克威尔。亚历山大·乔治·米切尔和阿瑟·德尔布里奇1965年出版。澳大利亚青少年的语言:一项调查。悉尼:安格斯和罗伯逊。Niedzielski, Nancy A.和Dennis R. Preston. 2000。民俗语言学。柏林:穆顿·德·格吕特。Dennis R. Preston, 1993。民间语言学的应用。国际应用语言学杂志3(2)。181 - 259。
{"title":"Book Review: The Emergence and Development of English: An Introduction","authors":"Annina Seiler","doi":"10.1177/0075424220987592","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424220987592","url":null,"abstract":"Eckert, Penelope. 2018. Meaning and linguistic variation: The third wave in sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Labov, William. 2001. Principles of linguistic change: Social factors. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Mitchell, Alexander George & Arthur Delbridge. 1965. The speech of Australian adolescents: A survey. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Niedzielski, Nancy A. & Dennis R. Preston. 2000. Folk linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Preston, Dennis R. 1993. The uses of folk linguistics. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 3(2). 181-259.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":"265 ","pages":"349-352"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138505825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-19DOI: 10.1177/0075424220982352
A. Fabricius
{"title":"Book Review: English After RP: Standard British Pronunciation Today","authors":"A. Fabricius","doi":"10.1177/0075424220982352","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424220982352","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":"49 1","pages":"342 - 345"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0075424220982352","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41568857","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-15DOI: 10.1177/0075424220980046
L. Ghesquière
This paper explores how the originally descriptive adjective good (e.g., “a good man”) developed degree modifier (e.g., “a good scolding”) and quantity modifier (e.g., “a good many people”) uses. The work is innovative in exploring the intensification potential of unbounded rather than bounded adjectives and in distinguishing between degree and quantity modification, the latter only recently gaining attention in the cognitive-functional literature. The developmental path of good will be linked to its construal in terms of scalarity, the process of subjectification, and the categorial shift from modification to submodification.
{"title":"“A Good Deal of Intensity”: On the Development of Degree and Quantity Modifier Good","authors":"L. Ghesquière","doi":"10.1177/0075424220980046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424220980046","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores how the originally descriptive adjective good (e.g., “a good man”) developed degree modifier (e.g., “a good scolding”) and quantity modifier (e.g., “a good many people”) uses. The work is innovative in exploring the intensification potential of unbounded rather than bounded adjectives and in distinguishing between degree and quantity modification, the latter only recently gaining attention in the cognitive-functional literature. The developmental path of good will be linked to its construal in terms of scalarity, the process of subjectification, and the categorial shift from modification to submodification.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":"49 1","pages":"159 - 181"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0075424220980046","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42993484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-31DOI: 10.1177/0075424220982344
Aaron J. Dinkin
{"title":"Book Review: New England English: Large-Scale Acoustic Sociophonetics and Dialectology","authors":"Aaron J. Dinkin","doi":"10.1177/0075424220982344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424220982344","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":"49 1","pages":"338 - 341"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0075424220982344","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47097033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-31DOI: 10.1177/0075424220979143
K. Aijmer
Well has a long history and is found as an intensifier already in older English. It is argued that diachronically well has developed from its etymological meaning (‘in a good way’) on a cline of adverbialization to an intensifier and to a discourse marker. Well is replaced by other intensifiers in the fourteenth century but emerges in new uses in Present-Day English. The changes in frequency and use of the new intensifier are explored on the basis of a twenty-year time gap between the old British National Corpus (1994) and the new Spoken British National Corpus (2014). The results show that well increases in frequency over time and that it spreads to new semantic types of adjectives and participles, and is found above all in predicative structures with a copula. The emergence of a new well and its increase in frequency are also related to social factors such as the age, gender, and social class of the speakers, and the informal character of the conversation.
{"title":"“That’s well good”: A Re-emergent Intensifier in Current British English","authors":"K. Aijmer","doi":"10.1177/0075424220979143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424220979143","url":null,"abstract":"Well has a long history and is found as an intensifier already in older English. It is argued that diachronically well has developed from its etymological meaning (‘in a good way’) on a cline of adverbialization to an intensifier and to a discourse marker. Well is replaced by other intensifiers in the fourteenth century but emerges in new uses in Present-Day English. The changes in frequency and use of the new intensifier are explored on the basis of a twenty-year time gap between the old British National Corpus (1994) and the new Spoken British National Corpus (2014). The results show that well increases in frequency over time and that it spreads to new semantic types of adjectives and participles, and is found above all in predicative structures with a copula. The emergence of a new well and its increase in frequency are also related to social factors such as the age, gender, and social class of the speakers, and the informal character of the conversation.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":"49 1","pages":"18 - 38"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0075424220979143","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48537324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-01DOI: 10.1177/0075424220936327
J. Hasty
{"title":"Book Review: Colloquial English: Structure and Variation","authors":"J. Hasty","doi":"10.1177/0075424220936327","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424220936327","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":"48 1","pages":"402 - 407"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0075424220936327","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45613988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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