Cover not available
Part of
Current Issues in Phraseology
Edited by Sebastian Hoffmann, Bettina Fischer-Starcke and Andrea Sand
[Benjamins Current Topics 74] 2015
► pp. 7–34

Like I said again and again and over and over

On the ADV1 and ADV1 construction with adverbs of direction in English

ORCID logo | Linnaeus University
| Malmö University
This study discusses an adverbial pattern which has so far been largely overlooked, namely ADV1 and ADV1, as in again and again, on and on and over and over. The paper is primarily based on the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The data show that these patterns follow typical paths of change, such as a movement towards more abstract meanings (metaphorization; over and over increasingly referring to repetition rather than to physical motion), lexicalization (e.g. up and up being used as a noun with idiosyncratic meaning in on the up and up), subjectification (e.g. on and on expressing negative connotations), iconic variation (again and again and again referring to multiple repetitions), simplification (loss of again after over and over), and the development of discourse functions (and on and on meaning “and so on”).
Keywords: lexicalization, metaphorization, phraseology, simplification, subjectification
Published online: 10 July 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.74.02lev
References (43)
Aijmer, K. 2002. English Discourse Particles: Evidence from a Corpus. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Altenberg, B. 1998. “On the phraseology of spoken English: The evidence of recurrent word-combinations”. InA.P. Cowie(Ed.), Phraseology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 101–122.Google Scholar
Aston, G. & Burnard, L. 1998. The BNC Handbook. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Baker, P. 2011. “Times may change, but we will always have money: Diachronic variation in recent British English”. Journal of English Linguistics, 39 (1), 65–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barlow, M. 2011. “Corpus linguistics and theoretical linguistics”. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 16 (1), 3–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biber, D. 2009. “A corpus-driven approach to formulaic language in English: Multi-word patterns in speech and writing”. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 14 (3), 275–311. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. & Finegan, E. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Brinton, L.J. & Traugott, E.C. 2005. Lexicalization and Language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bybee, J.L. 2006. “From usage to grammar: The mind’s response to repetition”. Language, 82 (4), 711–733. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Channell, J. 1994. Vague Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davies, M. 2008–: online. The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA): 425 million words, 1990–present. Available at: [URL] (accessedAugust 2012).Google Scholar
. 2009. “The 385+ million word Corpus of Contemporary American English (1990–2008+). Design, architecture, and linguistic insights”. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 14 (2), 159–190. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010. “The Corpus of Contemporary American English as the first reliable monitor corpus of English”. Literary and Linguistic Computing, 25 (4), 447–464. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010–: online. The Corpus of Historical American English (COHA): 400+ million words, 1810–2009. Available at: [URL] (accessedAugust 2012).Google Scholar
. 2011–: online. Google Books (American English) Corpus (155 billion words, 1810–2009). Available at: [URL] (accessedAugust 2012).Google Scholar
Ellis, N.C. 2008. “Phraseology: The periphery and the heart of language”. InF. Meunier & S. Granger(Eds.), Phraseology in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1–13. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Granger, S. & Meunier, F. 2008. Phraseology. An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Granger, S. & Paquot, M. 2008. “Disentangling the phraseological web”. InS. Granger & F. Meunier(Eds.), Phraseology. An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 27–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gries, St. Th. 2008. “Phraseology and linguistic theory: A brief survey”. InS. Granger & F. Meunier (Eds.), Phraseology. An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 3–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hudson, J. 1998. Perspectives on Fixedness: Applied and Theoretical. Lund: Lund University Press.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, R. 2008. “Construction after construction and its theoretical challenges”. Language, 84 (1), 8–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kouwenberg, S. (Ed.)2003. Twice as Meaningful. Reduplication in Pidgins, Creoles and Other Contact Languages. London: Battlebridge.Google Scholar
Leech, G., Hundt, M., Mair, C. & Smith, N. 2009. Change in Contemporary English. A Grammatical Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lindquist, H. & Levin, M. 2009. “The grammatical properties of recurrent phrases with body part nouns: The N1 to N1 pattern”. InU. Römer & R. Schulze(Eds.), Exploring the Lexis-Grammar Interface. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 171–188. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mair, C. 2006. Twentieth-century English. History, Variation and Standardization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moon, R. 1998. Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English. A Corpus-based Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Overstreet, M. 2000. Whales, Candlelight, and Stuff Like That: General Extenders in English Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary (OED) online. Available at: [URL] (accessedAugust 2012).
Pawley, A. & Syder, F.H. 1983. “Two puzzles for linguistic theory”. InJ.C. Richards & R.W. Schmidt(Eds.), Language and Communication. London: Longman, 191–226.Google Scholar
Sankoff, G. & Laberge, S. 1974. “On the acquisition of native speakers by a language”. InD. DeCamp & I. Hancock(Eds.), Pidgins and Creoles. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press, 73–84.Google Scholar
Sinclair, J. 1998. “The lexical item”. InE. Weigand(Ed.), Contrastive Lexical Semantics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1999. “A way with common words”. InH. Hasselgård & S. Oksefjell(Eds.), Out of Corpora. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 157–179.Google Scholar
Smith, G.P. 2002. Growing Up with Tok Pisin: Contact, Creolization and Change in Papua New Guinea’s National Language. London: Battlebridge.Google Scholar
Stubbs, M. 2002. “Two quantitative methods of studying phraseology in English”. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 7 (2), 215–244. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007a. “On very frequent phraseology in English: Structures, distributions and functions”. InR. Facchinetti(Ed.), Corpus Linguistics Twenty-five Years on. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 89–105. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007b. “Quantitative data on multi-word sequences in English: The case of the word ‘world’”. InM. Hoey, M. Mahlberg, M. Stubbs & W. Teubert (Eds.), Text, Discourse and Corpora. London: Continuum, 163–189.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, S. & Denis, D. 2010. “The stuff of change: General extenders in Toronto, Canada”. Journal of English Linguistics, 38 (4), 335–368. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Traugott, E.C. 1995. “Subjectification in grammaticalization”. InD. Stein & S. Wright(Eds.), Subjectivity and Subjectivisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 31–54. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010. “(Inter)subjectivity and (inter)subjectification: A reassessment”. InK. Davidse, L. Vandelanotte & H. Cuyckens(Eds.), Subjectification, Intersubjectification and Grammaticalization. Berlin: Mouton, 29–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Traugott, E.C. & Dasher, R.B. 2005. Regularity in Semantic Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Verhaar, J.W.M. 1995. Toward a Reference Grammar of Tok Pisin: An Experiment in Corpus Linguistics. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar
Wray, A. 2002. Formulaic Language and the Lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2008. Formulaic Language: Pushing the Boundaries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar