[Lingtyp] questions about adverbs

[Natalia Levshina]

Dear Aminata,

I think it might be useful to check Carita Paradis's study of English
degree modifiers:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256398339_Degree_Modifiers_of_Adjectives_in_Spoken_British_English

It has nothing to do with African languages, but it offers a few useful
terminological distinctions. I fully agree with you that the term
"intensifiers" is too vague here. Adjectives that represent an ultimate
point on a scale are called "extreme" adjectives. Examples in English are
excellent, huge, minute, terrible, disastrous and brilliant. They have a
"superlative" meaning component in them and therefore are normally not used
in the superlative form, e.g. *hugest or *the most disastrous.

I also wanted to mention that the semantics of expressions like "completely
finished" and "extremely hard" from your list of examples is slightly
different. I don't know how well the English translations match the
original examples, but in English the modifier "completely" means the total
presence of some quality ("all or nothing", e.g. finished or not finished).
In Paradis' framework, such degree adverbs are called "maximizers". Other
examples are absolutely, perfectly, totally, entirely, utterly and
(sometimes) quite. In contrast, "extremely" presupposes a scale (a bit
hard, very hard, extremely hard). Reinforcing adverbs of this type are
called "boosters". In addition to extremely, this class includes very,
awfully, frightfully, highly, jolly, most and terribly. So there can be
subtle differences between the expressions in that regard.

By the way, Russian has expressions with colour adjectives (and some
others), such as "whiter than white", "darker than dark", which represent
the extreme degree (nothing can't be whiter or darker). They are used in
poetic contexts or idiomatically (turn whiter than white = turn very pale
with fear or other emotions).

Best wishes,
Natalia

On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 2:33 PM "Ekkehard König" <koenig at zedat.fu-berlin.de>
wrote:

> Dear Aminata,
>
> I have never seen adverbs of this kind before. Incidentally, I think the
> term "degree adverb" would be a good designation. In English and European
> languages upgrading expressions of this kind are usually called
> 'BOOSTERS'.
>
> Even though very different, your data remind me of the formation of
> adjectival compounds in Germanic languages (ice-cold, crystal clear,
> pitch-black, etc.). These are certainly based on comparisons, but spelling
> out the comparison might no longer make sense. I haven given you some
> English examples, but the phenomenon is much more wide-spread in German.
> Here are a few examples, with literal translations into English:
> bärenstark 'bear-strong', hundemüde 'dog-tired', brühwarm 'broth-warm',
> sauschlecht 'sow-bad', stockdunkel 'stickdark', etc. What is similar to
> your cases is that each adjective takes a different noun as booster, even
> though some may come to be used for several adjectives.
> (cf. Koenig, E. (2017) "The comparative basis of identification". In: M.
> Napoli & M. Ravetto (eds.) Exploring Intensification. Amsterdam:
> Benjamins.)
>
> So, here is a potentially related phenomenon, though not exactly what you
> are looking for.
>
> Very best,
>
> Ekkehard
>
>
>
>
>
> > Dear all,
> > I am currently workingon what are called “adverbs” (see words un bold) in
> > wolof literature. Wolof, spoken in Senegal (WestAfrica) has specific
> words
> > that only work with some colors: white, black, red and eachword-adverb
> > match only with its color, they are not commutable.
> >
> > weextàll:extremely white (it can't be whiter)
> >
> > ñuulkukk:extremely black (it can't be more black)
> >
> > xonqcoyy:extremely red (it can't be more red)
> >
> > Others words adverbs go with state verbs and are specific to them as
> well.
> > They are not commutable.
> >
> >
> > baax lool: extremely nice (it can't be nicer)
> >
> > bees tàq:really new (nobody has ever used it)
> >
> > dëgër këcc:extremely hard (it can't be harder)
> >
> > diis gann:really heavy (very difficult to carry)
> >
> > fatt taraj:extremely blocked (it can't be more blocked)
> >
> > fess dell:extremely full (it can't be fuller)
> >
> > forox toll:really acidic (it can't be more acidic)
> >
> > gàtt ndugur:really short (he can't be shorter)
> >
> > jeex tàkk:completely finished, ...
> >
> >
> > In Wolof they are called intensifiers but this term does not convince me
> > because it can be confusing. They do not intensify the verbs. These words
> > mean that the state or action of the verb is at its end of completude.I
> > would like to knowif there are languages that work like that and what is
> > the terminology usedfor this kind of construction. Can someone also
> > recommend me new documentationon the definition of the concepts of verbs,
> > adverbs, adjectives… in Africanlanguages?
> >
> > Thanks and regards.
> >
> > Aminata
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Lingtyp mailing list
> > Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
> >
>
>
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-- 
Natalia Levshina
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Wundtlaan 1, 6525 XD Nijmegen
The Netherlands
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