Title: A Study of “Emotive Intensifier + X” Construction

Abstract: Previous studies mainly focus on the “Degree Adverb + X” construction, and they seldom pay attention to “Emotive Intensifier + X” construction. Under the framework of Construction Grammar, by exploring the construction representation and its different forms and meanings of the structure of “Emotive Intensifier + X”, and analyzing its inheritance relationships with “Degree Adverb + X” construction, the following findings were made: 1) “Emotive Intensifier + X” may be interpreted as encoding equally degree meaning and attitude meaning, or as profiling degree meaning with a bleached attitude meaning; 2) “Emotive Intensifier + X” is related to “Degree Adverb + X” construction by subpart and metaphorical extension links, the latter motivating, dominating and coercing the former; 3) With the operation of metaphor mechanism, the potential high degree meaning of emotive intensifiers is selected for the meaning building of “Emotive Intensifier + X” construction.

Keywords: “Emotive Intensifier + X” construction, “Degree Adverb + X” construction, degree adverb, construction meaning

Author: Fen Liu, Professor, College of Foreign Studies, Changsha University, Changsha, Hunan, China