[Corpora-List] cheerfully unaware

Tue Mar 21 11:37:58 UTC 2006

This usage does seem to have made it into some dictionaries.

The COBUILD Dictionary (3rd edition, 2001) has this third sense for 
'cheerful':

3. If you describe someone's attittude as cheerful, you mean they are 
not worried about something, and you think that they should be.
e.g. There is little evidence to support
* cheerfully e.g. ...cheerfully ignoring medical advice which which 
could have prolonged his life.

The OED (2nd edition, online) also hints at this with 'blithely' in the 
defininition of 'cheerfuly':

cheerfully
1. In a cheerful manner; with liveliness or gladness; blithely, 
willingly, readily, gladly, joyously.
...

blithely
...
3. Heedlessly, carelessly; taking no account of the consequences. Freq. 
used to intensify following adj. with negative connotation.

Monika Bednarek wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> I have a question about the collocation of CHEERFULLY with negative and 
> negated adjectives, such as:
> 
> 
> carried on with the arrangement she was making,  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> unaware of how great a change in attitude that
>  
> and paper, she and Francis and a  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> unreliable string of volunteers threw together every month a
>  
> But her guest was  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> unrepentant."I forgot -- I was never
>  
> and you can eat the freshest of fish in  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> informal, unlicensed restaurants.Take your own wine
>  
> the style, the language are all put in  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> irreverent quotation marks and they are perceived against
>  
> The  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> ramshackle atmosphere of the King's Head is an unlikely
>  
> I was always completely but  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> rotten, however, and despite various faltering adult
>  
> "They were all  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> sick, enticed by the little paper bags, except
>  
> chef stands in good stead, his apron  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> stained, a generous plate of souvlaki in hand.
>  
> reaching the last four.No-one was more  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> downhearted than their Barbarian captain Kari Tapper,
>  
> She was just  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> fat, her obesity partly disguised by the fact that
>  
> The ristorante was  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> garish, with red-checked tablecloths, plastic flowers,
>  
> been stencilled with designs that were mildly but  *cheerfully* 
> <http://es-otto.unizh.ch/cgi-binbnc2/disp6.pl?lemmaScheme=lancaster&thMode=M545%B7332%AA%AAAafter%B7P0%B7L%B7T%B7H545%AA%AAP45%B7500%B7479%AA%AAP50%B7450%B7437%AA%AAP50%B7400%B7387%AA%AAP50%B7350%B7341&qname=hq000342&ot=after&queryID=mbednarek11%20>  
> crazy so that to look at them for long made the eyes
> (from BNC)
> 
> Do these all share one meaning or are there subtle meaning differences? 
> And if so, how would you best paraphrase this meaning/these meanings, or 
> (even better) translate them into German? What kind of semantic shift 
> from CHEERFUL ('happy' or 'giving you a feeling of happiness', according 
> to OALD) is going on here?
> 
> Thanks very much - Monika Bednarek
> 

-- 
Martin Wynne
Head of the Oxford Text Archive and
AHDS Literature, Languages and Linguistics

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