Adverbs of degree in Early Middle Dutch1

Documentation and development

Bibliographic Data

ID21701181
AuthorsLourens Visser (0000-0002-9638-1826, University of Groningen), Jack Hoeksema (0000-0002-9464-9569, University of Groningen)
Year2022
Volume27
Issue2
Pages198-228
Publication date2022-10-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNederlandse taalkunde (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1384-5845 • E-ISSN: 2352-1171
PublisherAmsterdam University Press (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.5117/nedtaa2022.2.006.viss
OpenAlexW4296148514
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited8

Adverbs of degree are prone to undergo change, and new adverbs frequently emerge through grammaticalisation. These adverbs tend to adhere to various syntactic and semantic restrictions that govern their usage depending on their degree of grammaticalisation (Klein 1998). During the grammaticalisation process, they first tend to expand in function and then become more specialised (Bolinger 1972, Klein 1998). This article provides documentation for the usage of the different adverbs of degree in Early Middle Dutch, and draws comparisons with Modern Dutch in order to shed light on the changes that led to the present situation. Using data from the Corpus Gysseling (2013), the present study focuses on eight adverbs. These include adverbs of high degree (harde, vele, sere, grotelike, utermaten), low degree (een deel, iewet), a negative polarity item (buere) and a modifier of comparatives. Some of these are still around in Modern Dutch, but with differences in distribution (veel) or in register (zeer), while others have disappeared (een deel). We present evidence that distributional patterns may be preserved even when the adverbs themselves are replaced by other expressions. We also found that the high degree adverbs show greater distinctions than those of low degree

Adverb · Grammaticalization · Linguistics · Physics · Verb · History · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy

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