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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Isa Buchstaller
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in this diachronic study, we shed light on the development of the functions and structural properties of Adverb all, and suggest that degree modifiers in general should be analyzed in similar terms. We show that the harmonic relationship between Adverb all and its head is best accounted for in terms of boundedness rather than gradability (see Kennedy & McNally, 2005; Paradis, 2001). The stability over a millennium of indeterminacy between bounded and unbounded readings of Adverb all + head sequences, and of the ambiguity in many contexts between Adverb and Quantifier-floated all, shows that a division of labor over time between ambiguous meanings is not necessary (Geeraerts, 1997). Despite its long history, Adverb all has been treated as conversational or an innovation (Backlund, 1973; Waksler, 2001). We address the question why certain items like all come to be stereotyped as 'new' when in fact they are not.
Author(s): Buchstaller I, Traugott EC
Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)
Publication status: Published
Conference Name: 4th Annual Conference on Studies in the History of the English Language
Year of Conference: 2006
Pages: 345-370
ISSN: 1360-6743
Publisher: English Language and Linguistics, Cambridge University Press
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S136067430600195X
DOI: 10.1017/S136067430600195X
Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item
ISBN: 14694379
