1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Studies in Language. International Journal sponsored by the Foundation “Foundations of Language”
  4. Volume 40, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 40, Issue 1
  • ISSN 0378-4177
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9978
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Usage-based models of language have proposed a dynamic, organized system based on analogy, or the recognition of similarity. The potential role of analogy between similar forms or constructions, however, is not often discussed. If we aim to illustrate grammaticalization and other diachronic processes not through one construction at a time — but by quantitatively assessing the relationship constructions — we may better address the role of analogy as a mechanism of change. This quantitative, diachronic, corpus-based examination of language-internal constructional analogy is based on four forms in Spanish: ‘highly’, ‘enormously’, ‘extraordinarily’, and ‘extremely’. These forms all occur in at least two basic constructions, in which they function as modifiers of verbs and as modifiers of modifiers. Analogical “transference” of paths of change between forms is proposed as a cross-linguistic language-internal process. Not only do forms compete with each other, but they also may borrow the path another has taken.

© 2016 John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/sl.40.1.02aar
2016-05-09
2025-04-22

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/sl.40.1.02aar
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aaron, Jessi Elana
    2010 Pushing the envelope: Looking beyond the variable context. Language Variation and Change22(1). 1–36. doi: 10.1017/S0954394509990226
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394509990226 [Google Scholar]
  2. Aitchison, Jean
    1991 Language change: Progress or decay?Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Altenberg, Bengt
    1991 Amplifier collocations in spoken English. In Stig Jihansson & Anna-Brita Stenström (eds.), English computer corpora: Selected papers and research guide, 127–147. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Anscombre, Jean-Claude
    2009 Des adverbes d’énonciation aux marqueurs d’attitude énonciative: Le cas de la construction tout + Adjectif. Langue Française161. 59–80. doi: 10.3917/lf.161.0059
     https://doi.org/10.3917/lf.161.0059 [Google Scholar]
  5. Arce Castillo, Angela
    1999 Intensificadores en español coloquial. Anuario de Estudios Filológicos22. 37–48.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Arjona, Marina
    1990 El adverbio muy y otros intensificadores en el habla popular de México. Anuario de Letras28. 75–96.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Axenti, Eufrosinia
    2002 El papel de la polisemia de unas estructuras morfosintácticas en el campo semántico-funcional de la intensidad absoluta. Estudios de Lingüística16. 385–389.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Bäcklund, Ulf
    1973 The collocation of adverbs of degree in English. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Barbieri, Federica
    2008 Patterns of age-based linguistic variation in American English. Journal of Sociolinguistics12(1). 58–88. doi: 10.1111/j.1467‑9841.2008.00353.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00353.x [Google Scholar]
  10. Berg, Thomas
    1998 Linguistic structure and change: An explanation from language processing. Oxford: Clarendon.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Bolinger, Dwight L
    1972 Degree words. The Hague and Paris: Mouton. doi: 10.1515/9783110877786
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110877786 [Google Scholar]
  12. Borst, Eugene
    1902 Die Gradadverbien im Englischen (Anglistische Forschungen 10). Heidelberg: Carl Winter’s Universitätsbuchhandlung.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Boye, Kasper & Peter Harder
    2012 A usage-based theory of grammatical status and grammaticalization. Language88(1). 1–44. doi: 10.1353/lan.2012.0020
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2012.0020 [Google Scholar]
  14. Bradac, J. , A. Mulac & S. Thompson
    1995 Men’s and women’s use of intensifiers and hedges in problem-solving interaction: Molar and molecular analyses. Research on Language & Social Interaction28(2). 93–116. doi: 10.1207/s15327973rlsi2802_1.
     https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi2802_1 [Google Scholar]
  15. Brown, Esther & Mayra Cortés-Torres
    2013 Puerto Rican intensifiers: Bien/muy variables. In Ana M. Carvalho & Sara Beaudrie (eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, 1–19. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Bybee, Joan
    2010 Language, usage and cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511750526
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511750526 [Google Scholar]
  17. 2003 Mechanisms of change in grammaticization: The role of frequency. In Brian Joseph & Richard Janda (eds.), Handbook of historical linguistics, 602–623. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. doi: 10.1002/9780470756393.ch19
     https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756393.ch19 [Google Scholar]
  18. Bybee, Joan & John L. McClelland
    2005 Alternatives to the combinatorial paradigm of linguistic theory based on domain general principles of human cognition. The Linguistic Review22. 381–410. doi: 10.1515/tlir.2005.22.2‑4.381
     https://doi.org/10.1515/tlir.2005.22.2-4.381 [Google Scholar]
  19. Bybee, Joan & Dan I. Slobin
    1982 Rules and schemas in the development and use of the English past tense. Language58. 265–289. doi: 10.1353/lan.1982.0021
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1982.0021 [Google Scholar]
  20. Cegala, D.J
    1989 A study of selected linguistic components of involvement in interaction. Western Journal of Speech Communication53. 311–326. doi: 10.1080/10570318909374309
     https://doi.org/10.1080/10570318909374309 [Google Scholar]
  21. De Cesare, Anna-Maria
    2003 Una funzione del tutto particolare, quella di assolutamente e simili. Revue Romane38(2). 179–214.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. De Smet, Hendrik
    2012a The course of actualization. Language88(3). 601–633. doi: 10.1353/lan.2012.0056
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2012.0056 [Google Scholar]
  23. 2012b Spreading patterns: Diffusional change in the English system of complementation. New York: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812752.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812752.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  24. Defour, Tine
    2012 The pragmaticalization and intensification of verily, truly and really: A corpus-based study on the developments of three truth-identifying adverbs. In Manfred Markus , Yoko Iyeiri , Reinhard Heuberger & Emil Chamson (eds.), Middle and Modern English corpus linguistics: A multi-dimensional approach, 75–92. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/scl.50.09def
     https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.50.09def [Google Scholar]
  25. Dixon, R.M.W
    1977 Where have all the adjectives gone?Studies in Language1(1). 19–80. doi: 10.1075/sl.1.1.04dix
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.1.1.04dix [Google Scholar]
  26. Fettig, Adolf
    1934 Die Gradadverbien im Mittelenglischen (Anglistische Forschungen 79). Heidelberg: Carl Winter’s Universitätsbuchhandlung.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Fischer, Olga
    2007 Morphosyntactic change: Formal and functional perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. 2013 An inquiry into unidirectionality as a foundational element of grammaticalization: On the role played by analogy and the synchronic grammar system in processes of language change. Studies in Language37(3). 515–533. doi: 10.1075/sl.37.3.03fis
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.37.3.03fis [Google Scholar]
  29. Fuentes Rodríguez, C
    2008 Operadores de intensificación del adjetivo: Cantidad y evaluación. RILCE: Revista de filología hispánica24(1). 1–24.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Gaarder, A.B
    1966 Los llamados diminutivos y aumentativos en el español de México. PMLA81(7). 585–595. www.jstor.org/stable/461214. (8 Dec 2015). doi: 10.2307/461214
     https://doi.org/10.2307/461214 [Google Scholar]
  31. García Z.C. & A.C. Muñoz
    1997 Morfosintaxis de “la exageración” en el habla coloquial antioqueña. Lingüística y Literatura18(32). 115–128.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Giancole Ramat, Anna & Caterina Mauri
    2012 Gradualness and pace in grammaticalization: The case of adversative connectives. Folia Linguistica462. 483–512. doi: 10.1515/flin.2012.017
     https://doi.org/10.1515/flin.2012.017 [Google Scholar]
  33. Givón, Talmy
    1991 The evolution of dependent clause morpho-syntax in Biblical Hebrew. In Elizabeth Closs Traugott & Bernd Heine (eds.), Approaches to GrammaticalizationVolume II, 257–310. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/tsl.19.2.14giv
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.19.2.14giv [Google Scholar]
  34. Goldberg, Adele E
    2006 Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. González-Díaz, V
    2008 Recent developments in English intensifiers: The case of very much . English Language and Linguistics12(02). 221–243. doi: 10.1017/S1360674308002608
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002608 [Google Scholar]
  36. Haiman, John
    1994 Ritualization and the development of language. In William Pagliuca (ed.), Perspectives on grammaticalization, 3–28. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cilt.109.07hai
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.109.07hai [Google Scholar]
  37. Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva
    2003 On contact-induced grammaticalization. Studies in Language27(3). 529–572. doi: 10.1075/sl.27.3.04hei
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.27.3.04hei [Google Scholar]
  38. Hopper, Paul & Elizabeth Closs Traugott
    2003 Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781139165525
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139165525 [Google Scholar]
  39. Hosman, L.A
    2006 Powerful and powerless language forms: Their consequences for impression formation, attributions of control of self and control of others, cognitive responses, and message memory. Journal of Language and Social Psychology25(1). 33–46. doi: 10.1177/0261927X05284477
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X05284477 [Google Scholar]
  40. Huddleston, Rodney
    1975 Review: Degree words. Journal of Linguistics11(2). 316–319. doi: 10.1017/S0022226700004655
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226700004655 [Google Scholar]
  41. Huddleston, Rodney & Geoffrey K. Pullum et al.
    (2002) The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  42. Ito, R. & S. Tagliamonte
    2003  Well weird, right dodgy, very strange, really cool: Layering and recycling in English intensifiers. Language in Society32(2). 257–279. doi: 10.1017/S0047404503322055
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404503322055 [Google Scholar]
  43. Kastovsky, D
    1976 Review: Intensification and semantic analysis. Foundations of Language14(3). 377–398.
     [Google Scholar]
  44. Kennedy, G
    2003 Amplifier collocations in the British National Corpus: Implications for English language teaching. TESOL Quarterly37(3). 467–487. doi: 10.2307/3588400
     https://doi.org/10.2307/3588400 [Google Scholar]
  45. Klein, H
    1998 Adverbs of degree in Dutch and related languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/la.21
     https://doi.org/10.1075/la.21 [Google Scholar]
  46. Kuha, M
    2005 Investigating the Spread of “so” as an intensifier: Social and structural factors. InProceedings of the Twelfth Annual Symposium about Language and Society – Austin April 16-18, 2004, 217–227. Texas Linguistic Forum. studentorgs.utexas.edu/salsa/proceedings/2004/Kuha.pdf. (8 Dec 2015).
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Lakoff, Robin
    1973 Language and woman’s place. Language in Society2. 45–80. doi: 10.1017/S0047404500000051
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500000051 [Google Scholar]
  48. 1975 Language and woman’s place. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
     [Google Scholar]
  49. 1990 Talking power. New York, NY: Basic.
     [Google Scholar]
  50. Langacker, Ronald W
    2000 A dynamic usage-based model. In Michael Barlow & Suzanne Kemmer (eds.), Usage-based models of language, 1–63. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
     [Google Scholar]
  51. Lenker, Ursula
    2008 Booster prefixes in Old English – an alternative view of the roots of ME forsooth . English Language and Linguistics12(02). 245–265. doi: 10.1017/S136067430800261X
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S136067430800261X [Google Scholar]
  52. Labov, William
    1984 Intensity. In Deborah Schiffrin (ed.), Meaning, form and use in context: Linguistic applications, 43–70. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  53. Lorenz, Gunter
    1999 Adjective intensification—learners versus native speakers: A corpus study of argumentative writing. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
     [Google Scholar]
  54. Macaulay, R
    2006 Pure grammaticalization: The development of a teenage intensifier. Language Variation and Change18(3). 267–283. doi: 10.1017/S0954394506060133
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394506060133 [Google Scholar]
  55. Mancera Rueda, A
    2009 Una aproximación al estudio de los procedimientos de intensificación presentes en el discurso periodístico. Revista de Estudios Filológicos17. www.tonosdigital.es/ojs/index.php/tonos/article/view/307/218. (8 Dec 2015).
     [Google Scholar]
  56. Mehedindţi, T.S
    2013 El español coloquial: La expresión del valor superlativo. Annals of “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University: Linguistics, Literature and Methodology of Teaching12(1). 53–63. limbi-straine.ucdc.ro/doc/anale1_2013.pdf#page=53. (8 Dec 2015).
     [Google Scholar]
  57. Méndez-Naya, Belén
    2008a Special issue on English intensifiers. English Language and Linguistics12(2). 213–219. doi: 10.1017/S1360674308002591
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002591 [Google Scholar]
  58. 2008b On the history of downright . English Language and Linguistics12(2). 267–287. doi: 10.1017/S1360674308002621
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002621 [Google Scholar]
  59. Murphy, Bróna
    2010 Corpus and sociolinguistics: Investigating age and gender in female talk. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/scl.38
     https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.38 [Google Scholar]
  60. Nevalainen, T
    2008 Social variation in intensifier use: Constraint on -ly adverbialization in the past?English Language and Linguistics12(2). 289–315. doi: 10.1017/S1360674308002633
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002633 [Google Scholar]
  61. O’Barr, W.M
    1982 Linguistic evidence: Language, power, and strategy in the courtroom. New York, NY: Academic.
     [Google Scholar]
  62. Ogura, Mieko & William S.-Y. Wang
    1996 Snowball effect in lexical diffusion: The development of -s in the third person singular present indicative in English. In Derek Britton (ed.), English historical linguistics, 119–141. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cilt.135.10ogu
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.135.10ogu [Google Scholar]
  63. Pahta, P
    2006a This is very important: A corpus study of amplifiers in medical writing. In M. Gotti & F. Salager-Meyer F. (eds.), Advances in medical discourse analysis: Oral and written contexts, 357–381. Bern: Peter Lang.
     [Google Scholar]
  64. 2006b  Ful holsum and profetable for the bodi: A corpus study of amplifiers in Medieval English medical texts. Diachronic Perspectives on Domain-specific English40. 207–228.
     [Google Scholar]
  65. Paradis, Carita
    2000  It’s well weird: Degree modifiers of adjectives revisited: The nineties. In John M. Kirk (ed.), Corpora galore: Analyses and techniques in describing English, 147–160. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
     [Google Scholar]
  66. 2008 Configurations, construals and change: Expressions of DEGREE. English Language and Linguistics12(02). 317–343. doi: 10.1017/S1360674308002645
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002645 [Google Scholar]
  67. Pelkey, Jamin
    2013 Analogy, automation and diagrammatic causation: The evolution of Tibeto-Burman *lak*. Studies in Language37(1). 144–195. doi: 10.1075/sl.37.1.04pel
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.37.1.04pel [Google Scholar]
  68. Peters, Hans
    1994 Degree adverbs in Early Modern English. In Dieter Kastovsky (ed.), Studies in early Modern English, 269–288. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  69. Poplack, Shana & Elisabete Malvar
    2007 Elucidating the transition period in linguistic change: The expression of the future in Brazilian Portuguese. Probus19(1). 121–169. doi: 10.1515/PROBUS.2007.005
     https://doi.org/10.1515/PROBUS.2007.005 [Google Scholar]
  70. Quirk, Randolph , Sidney Greenbaum , Geoffrey Leech , & Jan Svartvik
    1972 A grammar of contemporary English. London: Longman.
     [Google Scholar]
  71. Rissanen, M
    2008 From ‘quickly’ to ‘fairly’: on the history of rather . English Language and Linguistics12(02). 345–359. doi: 10.1017/S1360674308002657
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002657 [Google Scholar]
  72. Salazar-García, V
    2008 Degree words, intensification, and word class distinctions in Romance languages. Studies in Language32(3). 701–726. doi: 10.1075/sl.32.3.11sal
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.32.3.11sal [Google Scholar]
  73. Sancho Cremades, P
    2008 La sintaxis de algunas construcciones intensificadoras en español y en catalán coloquiales. Verba35. 199–233.
     [Google Scholar]
  74. Sawada, O
    2010 Pragmatic aspects of scalar modifiers. Chicago: University of Chicago PhD dissertation.
     [Google Scholar]
  75. Serradilla Castaño, Ana
    2006  Bien + adjectivo como perífrasis de superlativo en español: Particularidades semánticas y sintácticas. Verba33. 215–233.
     [Google Scholar]
  76. Sowa, J
    2009 “Sweet as!”: The intensifier as in New Zealand and Australian English. English Today25(02). 58. doi: 10.1017/S0266078409000212
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078409000212 [Google Scholar]
  77. Stenström, Anna-Brita
    1987 What does really really do?In James Monaghan (ed.), Grammar in the construction of texts, 65–79. London: Frances Pinter.
     [Google Scholar]
  78. 1999  He was really gormless—she’s bloody crap: Girls, boys and intensifiers. In Hilde Hasselgård & Signe Oksefjell (eds.), Out of corpora: Studies in honour of Stig Johansson, 69–78. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
     [Google Scholar]
  79. 2000  It’s enough funny, man: Intensifiers in teenage talk. In John M. Kirk (ed.), Corpora galore: Analyses and techniques in describing English, 177–190. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
     [Google Scholar]
  80. Stoffel, Cornelis
    1901 Intensives and downtoners (Anglistische Forchungen 1). Heidelberg: Carl Winter’s Universitätsbuchhandlung.
     [Google Scholar]
  81. Tagliamonte, S.A
    2008 So different and pretty cool! Recycling intensifiers in Toronto, Canada. English Language and Linguistics12(2). 361–394. doi: 10.1017/S1360674308002669
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002669 [Google Scholar]
  82. Tanghe, S
    2013 Acerca de los intensificadores vaya y qué: Un estudio comparativo. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies90(7). 751–770. doi: 10.3828/bhs.2013.46
     https://doi.org/10.3828/bhs.2013.46 [Google Scholar]
  83. Torres Cacoullos, Rena
    2002  Le: From pronoun to intensifier. Linguistics40(2). 285–318.
     [Google Scholar]
  84. Torres Cacoullos, Rena & James A. Walker
    2009 The present of the English future: Grammatical variation and collocations in discourse. Language85(2). 321–354. doi: 10.1353/lan.0.0110
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.0.0110 [Google Scholar]
  85. Traugott, Elizabeth Closs
    2008 Grammaticalization, constructions and the incremental development of language: Suggestions from the development of degree modifiers in English. In Regine Eckardt , Gerhard Jäger , & Tonjes Veenstra (eds.), Variation, selection, development—Probing the evolutionary model of language change, 219–250. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
     [Google Scholar]
  86. Traugott, Elizabeth Closs & Graeme Trousdale
    2010 Gradience, gradualness and grammaticalization: How do they intersect?In Elizabeth Closs Traugott & Graeme Trousdale (eds.), Gradience, gradualness and grammaticalization, 19–44. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/tsl.90.04tra
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.90.04tra [Google Scholar]
  87. Trousdale, Graeme
    2012 Grammaticalization, constructions and the grammaticalization of constructions. In Kristin Davidse , Tine Breban , Lieselotte Brems , & Tanja Mortelmans (eds.), Grammaticalization and language change: New reflections, 167–198. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/slcs.130.07tro
     https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.130.07tro [Google Scholar]
  88. Tsujimura, N
    2001 Degree words and scalar structure in Japanese. Lingua111(1). 29–52. doi: 10.1016/S0024‑3841(00)00027‑9
     https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-3841(00)00027-9 [Google Scholar]
  89. Warner, Antony
    1993 English auxiliaries: Structure and history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511752995
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511752995 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/sl.40.1.02aar
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): analogy; constructions; intensifiers; language change; Spanish

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error