Death-related intensifiers in the history of the English language: grammaticalisation and other proccesses of language change

The experience of death is, anthropologically, of the most genuine concern for all cultures and societies worldwide, since it marks the most extreme limits of human existence. With such an impact on our routines, it should come as no surprise that it can be effectively exploited as a source of inten...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Blanco Suárez, Zeltia
Tipo de recurso: tesis doctoral
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (USC)
Repositorio:Minerva. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:minerva.usc.gal:10347/16430
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10347/16430
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Materias::Investigación::57 Lingüística::5702 Lingüística diacrónica::570201 Lingüística histórica
Descripción
Sumario:The experience of death is, anthropologically, of the most genuine concern for all cultures and societies worldwide, since it marks the most extreme limits of human existence. With such an impact on our routines, it should come as no surprise that it can be effectively exploited as a source of intensification in language, perhaps even cross-linguistically. Although some studies have addressed the uses of specific intensifiers from the semantic field of death (cf. Claridge 2011 on dead and Margerie 2011 on to death), a comprehensive diachronic corpus-based study of death-related intensifiers is still missing. This dissertation, therefore, sets out to fill this gap by accounting for the semantic evolution of the intensifiers dead(ly), mortal(ly), and to death, covering from the Middle English period (1100-1500) to Present-day English.