1887
Volume 3, Issue 2
  • ISSN 1877-7031
  • E-ISSN: 1877-8798
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Abstract

While the study of Mandarin Chinese intensifiers has been prolific, the methodologies used have been limited to comparative and grammaticalization studies, revealing little about the discourse-pragmatic usages of individual intensifiers. Utilizing a balanced corpus composed of 15 different prototypical genres, the associative strength of 12 commonly used intensifiers in each genre was statistically determined based on their frequency distribution. The results reveal a clear preference pattern of intensifiers across a range of “written” and “spoken”-based genres. Upon the premise that the genre preferences of intensifiers stem from matching dimensions of communicative intent/discourse context between genre and intensifier, genre-analysis was conducted to unveil the core “stances” each intensifier might possibly project. In conclusion, it is argued that genre-analysis based on empirical corpus data provides a valid alternative means to uncover seemingly “covert” aspects of language use.

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/content/journals/10.1075/cld.3.2.01lim
2012-01-01
2025-04-19
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Corpus Linguistics; genre-analysis; intensifiers; Mandarin; stance markers
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