Home Linguistics & Semiotics Coordinated constructional intensifiers: patterns, function and productivity
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Coordinated constructional intensifiers: patterns, function and productivity

  • Valentina Piunno
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
Productive Patterns in Phraseology and Construction Grammar
This chapter is in the book Productive Patterns in Phraseology and Construction Grammar

Abstract

This investigation proposes a corpus-based description of a particular type of Italian phraseological construction, having a coordinated syntactic structure and playing the role of an intensifier. Through the analysis of data extracted from a corpus of Italian, the contribution aims at i) identifying and analysing different types of coordinated constructional intensifiers, ii) showing a formal representation of their syntactic-semantic schemas, iii) classifying them into different types on the basis of their functional, syntactic and semantic properties. The paper is structured as follows: the first section contains a brief description of the main types of intensifying strategies identified in the literature, deserving a special attention to Italian lexical strategies. The second section is devoted to the description of the general theoretical framework of this contribution, and to the analysis and definition of constructional intensifiers. The third section briefly describes the methods of data extraction and analysis. The fourth section is devoted to the analysis of Italian coordinated intensifying constructions, which are classified into completely and partially filled units, according to a set of parameters (i.e. lexical variation, syntactic cohesion, idiomaticity and lexicalisation). Then, the set of coordinated constructional intensifiers is evaluated against the presence of an abstract scheme, semantic and syntactic analysability, semantic predictability, productivity, and schematicity.

Abstract

This investigation proposes a corpus-based description of a particular type of Italian phraseological construction, having a coordinated syntactic structure and playing the role of an intensifier. Through the analysis of data extracted from a corpus of Italian, the contribution aims at i) identifying and analysing different types of coordinated constructional intensifiers, ii) showing a formal representation of their syntactic-semantic schemas, iii) classifying them into different types on the basis of their functional, syntactic and semantic properties. The paper is structured as follows: the first section contains a brief description of the main types of intensifying strategies identified in the literature, deserving a special attention to Italian lexical strategies. The second section is devoted to the description of the general theoretical framework of this contribution, and to the analysis and definition of constructional intensifiers. The third section briefly describes the methods of data extraction and analysis. The fourth section is devoted to the analysis of Italian coordinated intensifying constructions, which are classified into completely and partially filled units, according to a set of parameters (i.e. lexical variation, syntactic cohesion, idiomaticity and lexicalisation). Then, the set of coordinated constructional intensifiers is evaluated against the presence of an abstract scheme, semantic and syntactic analysability, semantic predictability, productivity, and schematicity.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Content VII
  4. Phraseology, patterns and Construction Grammar 1
  5. Part I: Productive patterns: monolingual
  6. Comparative constructional idioms 29
  7. Between phraseology and conversational routines 53
  8. Families of constructions in German 79
  9. Constructional phrasemes in Modern Greek: structure and meaning 107
  10. Coordinated constructional intensifiers: patterns, function and productivity 133
  11. Preposition-noun combinations of TIME in German 165
  12. Part II: Productive patterns: bi- and multilingual
  13. Russian constructions with nu i in parallel corpora 191
  14. Phraseology in technical texts 215
  15. Cross-language transfer of formulae 235
  16. German-into-Basque translation of verbal patterns 265
  17. Veni, vidi, veggie 287
  18. Index 315
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110520569-006

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Content VII
  4. Phraseology, patterns and Construction Grammar 1
  5. Part I: Productive patterns: monolingual
  6. Comparative constructional idioms 29
  7. Between phraseology and conversational routines 53
  8. Families of constructions in German 79
  9. Constructional phrasemes in Modern Greek: structure and meaning 107
  10. Coordinated constructional intensifiers: patterns, function and productivity 133
  11. Preposition-noun combinations of TIME in German 165
  12. Part II: Productive patterns: bi- and multilingual
  13. Russian constructions with nu i in parallel corpora 191
  14. Phraseology in technical texts 215
  15. Cross-language transfer of formulae 235
  16. German-into-Basque translation of verbal patterns 265
  17. Veni, vidi, veggie 287
  18. Index 315
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 2.10.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110520569-006/html?licenseType=restricted
Scroll to top button