The competition between the intensifiers dead and deadly
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Zeltia Blanco-Suárez
Abstract
The present paper aims at shedding light on the diachronic evolution of two death-related intensifiers, dead and deadly, showing their subjectification and grammaticalisation over time. Data from the Middle English Dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary, and three electronic databases (Early English Books Online, Eighteenth Century Fiction, and Online Books Page) are used to carry out a collocational analysis of both adverbial forms. A detailed study of the collocations of dead and deadly reveals different contexts of variation between the zero and the -ly counterparts. The paper additionally argues that these contexts of variation are not always random, and in certain cases owe to semantic considerations, while other occurrences of dead and deadly seem to point towards highly fossilised uses.
Abstract
The present paper aims at shedding light on the diachronic evolution of two death-related intensifiers, dead and deadly, showing their subjectification and grammaticalisation over time. Data from the Middle English Dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary, and three electronic databases (Early English Books Online, Eighteenth Century Fiction, and Online Books Page) are used to carry out a collocational analysis of both adverbial forms. A detailed study of the collocations of dead and deadly reveals different contexts of variation between the zero and the -ly counterparts. The paper additionally argues that these contexts of variation are not always random, and in certain cases owe to semantic considerations, while other occurrences of dead and deadly seem to point towards highly fossilised uses.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction 1
-
Sequence and order
- Sequence and order 13
- Mom and Dad but Men and Women 35
- Sequences of size adjectives in text 47
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Competing constructions
- The competition between the intensifiers dead and deadly 71
- Has go -V ousted go-and -V? 91
- The construction cannot help -ing and its rivals in Modern English 113
- From reduction to emancipation 133
- Complex prepositions and variation within the PNP construction 153
-
Emerging patterns
- A finer definition of neology in English 177
- A corpus-based study of gender assignment in recent English loanwords in Norwegian 209
- The return of the prefix? New verb-particle combinations in blogs 223
-
Correlating patterns and meaning
- Modality and the V wh pattern 247
- Assessing corpus search methods in onomasiological investigations 271
- Author index 293
- Subject index 297
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction 1
-
Sequence and order
- Sequence and order 13
- Mom and Dad but Men and Women 35
- Sequences of size adjectives in text 47
-
Competing constructions
- The competition between the intensifiers dead and deadly 71
- Has go -V ousted go-and -V? 91
- The construction cannot help -ing and its rivals in Modern English 113
- From reduction to emancipation 133
- Complex prepositions and variation within the PNP construction 153
-
Emerging patterns
- A finer definition of neology in English 177
- A corpus-based study of gender assignment in recent English loanwords in Norwegian 209
- The return of the prefix? New verb-particle combinations in blogs 223
-
Correlating patterns and meaning
- Modality and the V wh pattern 247
- Assessing corpus search methods in onomasiological investigations 271
- Author index 293
- Subject index 297
