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Chapter 18. Intensification in dialogue vs. narrative in a corpus of present-day English fiction

  • Signe Oksefjell Ebeling and Hilde Hasselgård
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Voices Past and Present - Studies of Involved, Speech-related and Spoken Texts
This chapter is in the book Voices Past and Present - Studies of Involved, Speech-related and Spoken Texts

Abstract

This chapter examines adverbial intensification of adjectives in present-day English fiction, with the aim of establishing whether dialogic and narrative passages differ in this regard. Although the corpus is relatively small, the study indicates that the frequency of intensification differs across these two subregisters of fiction. Findings of a more qualitative nature include slight differences in preferred choice of intensifiers in dialogue (very > so > too) vs. narrative (so > too > very). Moreover, dialogue has a preference for evaluative adjectives, while narrative shows more variation. A comparison with authentic speech uncovered few clear patterns except the predominance of some high-frequency adverb-adjective combinations. Nevertheless, the differences between fictional dialogue and narrative demonstrate that linguistic phenomena may vary both within and across registers.

Abstract

This chapter examines adverbial intensification of adjectives in present-day English fiction, with the aim of establishing whether dialogic and narrative passages differ in this regard. Although the corpus is relatively small, the study indicates that the frequency of intensification differs across these two subregisters of fiction. Findings of a more qualitative nature include slight differences in preferred choice of intensifiers in dialogue (very > so > too) vs. narrative (so > too > very). Moreover, dialogue has a preference for evaluative adjectives, while narrative shows more variation. A comparison with authentic speech uncovered few clear patterns except the predominance of some high-frequency adverb-adjective combinations. Nevertheless, the differences between fictional dialogue and narrative demonstrate that linguistic phenomena may vary both within and across registers.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors ix
  4. Foreword xi
  5. Chapter 1. Voices of English 1
  6. Part I. Early Modern English
  7. Chapter 2. Pragmatic noise in Shakespeare’s plays 11
  8. Chapter 3. Keywords that characterise Shakespeare’s (anti)heroes and villains 31
  9. Chapter 4. Revealing speech 47
  10. Chapter 5. Saying, crying, replying, and continuing 63
  11. Chapter 6. Interjections in early popular literature 79
  12. Chapter 7. Godly vocabulary in Early Modern English religious debate 95
  13. Chapter 8. Patterns of reader involvement on sixteenth-century English title pages, with special reference to second-person pronouns 113
  14. Part II. Late Modern English
  15. Chapter 9. Epistemic adverbs in the Old Bailey Corpus 133
  16. Chapter 10. Question strategies in the Old Bailey Corpus 153
  17. Chapter 11. Sure in Irish English 173
  18. Chapter 12. American English gotten 187
  19. Part III. Present-day English
  20. Chapter 13. Explaining explanatory so 207
  21. Chapter 14. Return to the future 227
  22. Chapter 15. Sort of and kind of from an English-Swedish perspective 247
  23. Chapter 16. From yes to innit 265
  24. Chapter 17. “If anyone would have told me, I would have not believed it” 283
  25. Chapter 18. Intensification in dialogue vs. narrative in a corpus of present-day English fiction 301
  26. Chapter 19. Orality on the searchable web 317
  27. Select list of publications by Merja Kytö 337
  28. Index 347
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.97.18ebe

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors ix
  4. Foreword xi
  5. Chapter 1. Voices of English 1
  6. Part I. Early Modern English
  7. Chapter 2. Pragmatic noise in Shakespeare’s plays 11
  8. Chapter 3. Keywords that characterise Shakespeare’s (anti)heroes and villains 31
  9. Chapter 4. Revealing speech 47
  10. Chapter 5. Saying, crying, replying, and continuing 63
  11. Chapter 6. Interjections in early popular literature 79
  12. Chapter 7. Godly vocabulary in Early Modern English religious debate 95
  13. Chapter 8. Patterns of reader involvement on sixteenth-century English title pages, with special reference to second-person pronouns 113
  14. Part II. Late Modern English
  15. Chapter 9. Epistemic adverbs in the Old Bailey Corpus 133
  16. Chapter 10. Question strategies in the Old Bailey Corpus 153
  17. Chapter 11. Sure in Irish English 173
  18. Chapter 12. American English gotten 187
  19. Part III. Present-day English
  20. Chapter 13. Explaining explanatory so 207
  21. Chapter 14. Return to the future 227
  22. Chapter 15. Sort of and kind of from an English-Swedish perspective 247
  23. Chapter 16. From yes to innit 265
  24. Chapter 17. “If anyone would have told me, I would have not believed it” 283
  25. Chapter 18. Intensification in dialogue vs. narrative in a corpus of present-day English fiction 301
  26. Chapter 19. Orality on the searchable web 317
  27. Select list of publications by Merja Kytö 337
  28. Index 347
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