Lexico-functional categories and complex collocations
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Silvia Cacchiani
Abstract
The lexico-functional category of intensifiers comprises core items expressing degree (very), and less grammaticalized, polyfunctional items which form a gradient from central to peripheral (bloody, desperately, thumpingly). Building on previous work on intensifiers, I queried the British National Corpus using the SketchEngine to provide evidence for considering occurrence in complex collocations as a parameter along which individual intensifiers vary with respect to each other: whereas occurrence in complex collocations extending to the right turns out to be a clue to the extent of grammaticalization, semantic prosody, and pattern of intensification of the intensifier (very vs. easily), ability to modify intensifiers in collocations extending to the left reflects the type and extent of expressivity and involvement of the intensifier.
Abstract
The lexico-functional category of intensifiers comprises core items expressing degree (very), and less grammaticalized, polyfunctional items which form a gradient from central to peripheral (bloody, desperately, thumpingly). Building on previous work on intensifiers, I queried the British National Corpus using the SketchEngine to provide evidence for considering occurrence in complex collocations as a parameter along which individual intensifiers vary with respect to each other: whereas occurrence in complex collocations extending to the right turns out to be a clue to the extent of grammaticalization, semantic prosody, and pattern of intensification of the intensifier (very vs. easily), ability to modify intensifiers in collocations extending to the left reflects the type and extent of expressivity and involvement of the intensifier.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Part I. Setting the scene
- Technology and phraseology 15
- Corpus-driven approaches to grammar 33
- Valency – item-specificity and idiom principle 49
- Fowler’s Modern English Usage at the interface of lexis and grammar 69
- The psycholinguistic reality of collocation and semantic prosody (1) 89
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Part II. Considering the particulars
- The lexicogrammar of present-day Indian English 117
- The semantic and grammatical overlap of as and that 137
- The historical development of the verb doubt and its various patterns of complementation 153
- The grammatical properties of recurrent phrases with body-part nouns 171
- A corpus-based investigation of cognate object constructions 189
- Revisiting the evidence for objects in English 211
- Lexico-functional categories and complex collocations 229
- Polysemy and lexical priming 247
- Local textual functions of move in newspaper story patterns 265
- Loud signatures 289
- Index 317
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Setting the scene
- Technology and phraseology 15
- Corpus-driven approaches to grammar 33
- Valency – item-specificity and idiom principle 49
- Fowler’s Modern English Usage at the interface of lexis and grammar 69
- The psycholinguistic reality of collocation and semantic prosody (1) 89
-
Part II. Considering the particulars
- The lexicogrammar of present-day Indian English 117
- The semantic and grammatical overlap of as and that 137
- The historical development of the verb doubt and its various patterns of complementation 153
- The grammatical properties of recurrent phrases with body-part nouns 171
- A corpus-based investigation of cognate object constructions 189
- Revisiting the evidence for objects in English 211
- Lexico-functional categories and complex collocations 229
- Polysemy and lexical priming 247
- Local textual functions of move in newspaper story patterns 265
- Loud signatures 289
- Index 317
