Reflexivity and Intensification in English
A Study of Texts and Contexts
©2007
Dissertation
XII,
208 Seiten
Reihe:
Arbeiten zur Sprachanalyse, Band 46
Zusammenfassung
Present-Day English is unique among the Germanic languages in employing the same forms (himself, herself etc.) both as reflexive pronoun and intensifier. While a lot of attention has been directed at the grammaticalization of the compound reflexive, the emergence of the compound intensifier has remained largely mysterious. This study is a detailed investigation of the domains of reflexivity and intensification throughout the history of English. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the possible source contexts for SELF-forms in Old and Middle English. Backed up with a wide range of data from early Middle English, the compound intensifier is traced to discourse-pragmatic motivations: expressive strategies linked to specific discourse traditions become rapidly grammaticalized once the former Old English standard gave way to large-scale variation in Middle English.
Details
- Seiten
- XII, 208
- Erscheinungsjahr
- 2007
- ISBN (Paperback)
- 9783631543573
- Sprache
- Englisch
- Schlagworte
- Englisch Reflexivität (Linguistik) Steigerungspartikel Grammatikalisierung Reflexivität Intensifikator Diskurstradition
- Erschienen
- Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2007. XII, 208 pp., 20 fig., 20 tables
- Produktsicherheit
- Peter Lang Group AG