So different and pretty cool! Recycling intensifiers in Toronto, Canada
- 1 July 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in English Language and Linguistics
- Vol. 12 (2), 361-394
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s1360674308002669
Abstract
This article presents a synchronic quantitative study of the intensifier system in Toronto, the largest urban centre in Canada. The data comprise nearly 10,000 adjectival heads, as inI wassohungry and I was gettingreallynauseous(TOR/2m). The distribution of intensifiers in apparent time provides startling evidence of change.Veryis quickly moving out of favour andreallyhas expanded dramatically. Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that other intensifiers are on the rise –soandpretty. Testing a series of contextual factors known to operate in the development of intensifiers (e.g. adjective function and type) as well as their intersection with social factors (e.g. age and sex) reveals evidence of ongoing delexicalization, but not as part of a continual longitudinal process. Instead, the profile of change reveals recycling, suggesting that the mechanisms of intensifier renewal may be more complex than previously thought.This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit:
- The modals of obligation/necessity in Canadian perspectiveEnglish World-Wide, 2007
- Frequency and variation in the community grammar: Tracking a new change through the generationsLanguage Variation and Change, 2007
- The lady was al demonyak: historical aspects of Adverb allEnglish Language and Linguistics, 2006
- Analysing Sociolinguistic VariationPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,2006
- Pure grammaticalization: The development of a teenage intensifierLanguage Variation and Change, 2006
- The Semantic Development of Scalar Focus ModifiersPublished by Wiley ,2006
- ''So cool, right?'': Canadian English Entering the 21st CenturyCanadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique, 2006
- Well weird, right dodgy, very strange, really cool: Layering and recycling in English intensifiersLanguage in Society, 2003
- Fairly pretty or pretty fair? On the development and grammaticalization of English downtonersLanguage Sciences, 2002
- The apparent time constructLanguage Variation and Change, 1991