Ekkehard König | Freie Universität Berlin | Universität Freiburg
This paper argues that the ubiquitous cognitive process of comparing and the resultant judgements of similarity and dissimilarity also underlie the semantic processes of intensification and grading to a large extent. This comparative basis is visible both in the formal properties of many intensifiers and in central aspects of their semantics: Intensifiers may overtly encode a comparison (e.g. crystal clear, royally, outstanding) and an emotional reaction to a comparison (surprisingly, frightfully), or they may imply a comparison with a covert standard in endocentric expansions of simple adjectival predications. In order to gain a new perspective on their meaning, the relations between intensifiers, on the one hand, and demonstratives, exclamatives and comparative constructions, on the other, are analyzed and a semantic typology of comparative constructions is outlined and discussed in relation to the central hypothesis.
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Cited by (6)
Cited by six other publications
Hendrikx, Isa, Kristel Van Goethem & Natacha Buntinx
2024. Intensification strength in speech: language-specific preferences and differences between native and learner language. Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics 13
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