Like I said again and again and over and over
-
Magnus Levin
Abstract
This study discusses an adverbial pattern which has so far been largely overlooked, namely ADV1 and ADV1, as in again and again, on and on and over and over. The paper is primarily based on the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The data show that these patterns follow typical paths of change, such as a movement towards more abstract meanings (metaphorization; over and over increasingly referring to repetition rather than to physical motion), lexicalization (e.g. up and up being used as a noun with idiosyncratic meaning in on the up and up), subjectification (e.g. on and on expressing negative connotations), iconic variation (again and again and again referring to multiple repetitions), simplification (loss of again after over and over), and the development of discourse functions (and on and on meaning “and so on”).
Abstract
This study discusses an adverbial pattern which has so far been largely overlooked, namely ADV1 and ADV1, as in again and again, on and on and over and over. The paper is primarily based on the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The data show that these patterns follow typical paths of change, such as a movement towards more abstract meanings (metaphorization; over and over increasingly referring to repetition rather than to physical motion), lexicalization (e.g. up and up being used as a noun with idiosyncratic meaning in on the up and up), subjectification (e.g. on and on expressing negative connotations), iconic variation (again and again and again referring to multiple repetitions), simplification (loss of again after over and over), and the development of discourse functions (and on and on meaning “and so on”).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- About the authors vii
- Introduction 1
- Like I said again and again and over and over 7
- Phrases in literary contexts 35
- On “true” portraits of Letters to Shareholders – and the importance of phraseological analysis 57
- The development of formulaic sequences in first and second language writing 83
- Lexical frames in academic prose and conversation 109
- 50-something years of work on collocations 135
- Index 165
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- About the authors vii
- Introduction 1
- Like I said again and again and over and over 7
- Phrases in literary contexts 35
- On “true” portraits of Letters to Shareholders – and the importance of phraseological analysis 57
- The development of formulaic sequences in first and second language writing 83
- Lexical frames in academic prose and conversation 109
- 50-something years of work on collocations 135
- Index 165
