Effectiveness intensified

A process of conventionalisation?

From new to norm

Patrick Hanks talks about exploitation devices– metaphor, ellipsis, ways in which the “normal” can become exploited for new concepts, he says “today’s exploitations are tomorrow’s norms”

I will be looking at some examples of this gradual normalisation of some intensifiers

How coinage is normalised

• Partington (Irony conventionalised) hypothesises how

• i) someone coins a phrase whose effect relies on a clash in evaluative prosody;

• ii) other people like it so much it gets repeated

• iii) the clash eventually becomes one normal usage of the phrase

• Examples with ‘an outbreak of’ with positive collocates rather than negative

So… some intensifiers with similar properties

• They involve evaluation• They might involve more than one point of view and

thus involve an evaluative shift• They belong to the genres which imitate spoken

informal language for particular purposes • They are new enough for us to be able to observe the

gradual growth and to be aware of our primings independently of the OED and raise interesting issues about dictionary entries.

Something rotten

• In the dictionary we find • Rotten (adj. which MEDAL tells us is “often

used to talk about someone who has behaved in an unpleasant way and is used humorously” as in you rotten sod)

• so we are already into metaphorical exploitation, it’s not about decay.

• On inquiry of both Sibols a couple of patterns emerge for the unit something rotten

The almost literal

• There are no examples which are clearly literal in the Sibols, a couple which are borderline metaphorical:

• renowned for never putting a foot wrong, Owen may be about to step into something rotten. But

• Inside, the Fenice cannot quite mask the lingering whiff of corruption, doubt and something rotten

The metaphorical quotation

• A large number of the occurrences are, unsurprisingly, forms of the Shakespearian quotation

• The original has been taken and shaken in the usual way, as Partington and Morley have taught us

• in headlines with puns and via a number of variations on the theme.

Journos love quotations

• Two articles about the same story, both chose the same quotation:

Something rotten in the state of dentistry Home News Hoggart, • Something rotten in Valerie's teeth wars Liddle, Rod

• And:• Something rotten in the estate of Denmark Hill? Car smells tend to linger • Adams declares that there is "something rotten in the state of local

government", but fails to offer• that the young prince turns bling. He wears something rotten from the

place of Primark• ambitious trilogy which surveys the state of Denmark's class system, and

finds something rotten in

But also

• another pattern, creeping up in frequency, and another of the SiBol evaluative hype items

• 27 examples in Old Sybil and 40 in Young

• an intensifier with shifting evaluation, on the rise.

• From Old Sibol

• The young ladies fancied Mr Bingley something rotten. He, in his turn,

• And it shows up dandruff something rotten. I have no idea whether Cash

• "Daryl Hannah? She's lovely. I fancy her something rotten... she's meant

• Elms has always fancied himself something rotten.

• I had lunch with Vanessa last week. She fancies me something rotten.

• to go home; and, anyway, those glass slippers pinch something rotten by,

• diary seem dowdy, they show up my slouchiness something rotten. We've

• opt for Lady or Baroness. It will screw up the statistics something rotten.

• nubile girls. Any man who watched it would be teased something rotten,

• Lindsay Crouse plays the psychiatrist stitched up something rotten by Joe Mantegna and his cynically

From Young Sibol

But then JB went and upset his fans something rotten by announcing that the Gulf

She has, in short, queered the pitch something rotten. Yesterday, Mr John Patten,

The British contingent, meanwhile, is hamming it up something rotten. 'Vince]

In the flesh Bartoli works her audience something rotten with a touch of lazy, self-indulgent showing off -

all the letters are written by computer and that they're ripping off customers something rotten.

handed a note. ''I was on the jury,'' it said (more or less) ''and I fancy you something rotten. Let's meet for a drink.'’

She doesn't have a go at me, but I have a go at myself. I make fun of her something

rotten, far too frequently. I half know I'm doing it and I half don't

• Verb (+patient?) + something rotten.

• Post-modification of the verb adding force to the action

• a less clear prosody, connected with point of view, pleasurably painful?

• Notice the extension of contexts beyond spoiling and fancying

POVs and voyeurs

• so point of view is a key element.

• Also the feeling that there is an observer role, much of the data comes from film theatre or TV reviews, or there is some narrative element where an account is being provided.

Found with fancy

• In MEDAL you find it as an idiomatic unit with fancy and spoil

• Rotten2• fancy someone rotten (“British informal to be

sexually attracted to someone very strongly”) which suggests

• it is salient enough as a unit of meaning in the corpus to be mentioned

• It is found in the Macmillan corpus restricted to this collocation

In Sibol

• One can find• Make fun of, fancy, queered the pitch, hamming it up, works

her audience, ripping off customers, conning his audience, shows up, fancied himself, pinch, stitched up (audience) teased, screw up the statistics

• They are rigorously informal idiomatic units• These have pragmatic meanings, there is an observer stance in

all of them• There is a slight increase in intensifying use from old to young

Sibol.• It has a textual preference for end of sentence position or end

of clause position.

Observing and narrating

• the quotation derivatives and the borderline literal items suggest a negative prosody but something rotten at sentence end as a verb modifier is not totally negative

• ASP has already pointed out the shift between protagonist and observer (writer or speaker) in shifting SP and the examples here all have some possible shift between the two.

• All seem to mean a lot, intensely, and perhaps also very effectively, ’

decentering

• Is it schadenfreude or ruefulness? • can we just classify it as an intensifier with as yet

limited exploitation?• It is concerned with the effect on others, sometimes

negative effects but is not a wholly negative prosody.• It is definitely concerned with interaction between a

number of participants with (perhaps) conflicting aims.

• there is a decentred, relativist observer role, or there is some narrative element where an account is being provided

Semingly?

• A seme?

• in this case I would suggest it contains an idea of effectiveness or effect.

• (good or bad: effective)

• in this case does the effectiveness aspect starts to contribute (in delexicalised form) as an intensifier?

Another example: drop dead

• In Old Sibol many of the examples are about literally dropping dead. (from heart attacks etc.)

• 40 out of 105 occurrences have nothing to do with literal death but rather with the exaggerated effectiveness of someone’s appearance.

• Could we call this a prosodic clash? (she is so beautiful people drop dead a the sight of her). The most prolific exploitation is that of drop dead gorgeous but we also find cool, chic, glamour, beauty, insolence, swoon material

A unit of meaning

• In MEDAL it is to be found under the phrases with ‘drop’ (13 meanings given plus phrases, along with drop-down menu and drop-kick) as:

• drop-dead gorgeous adj. informal extremely attractive.

• Which suggests that in the Macmillan corpus it is restricted to that collocation, that it is a multi-word unit

Further exploitation

• In papers 2005 we find exploitation of the unit has been extended to contexts other than sheer physical human beauty

it occurs with stunning, catchy, chic, classic, cool, dreamy, elegant, expensive, fabulous, funny glitz, gorgeous (35), prices, sexy;

with beauty, elegance, glamour (both Hollywood and Euro-Trash) looks, couture, sexiness, sophistication,

• But also with: stateroom, humour, wisecracks, one-liners.

• And with: pissed, plain, rich, simple

intensifying

• It has been extended from fashion and physical appearance to cars, food, restaurants and the theatre and cinema. It’s ever-so Young-Sibol and a teensy bit New Irony. And very promotional.

• it is used to modify nouns and adjectives and as an adjective in its own right. A useful all purpose intensifier?

• The evaluation seems to waver but appears to involve some kind of observer admiration of thoroughness or effectiveness

Double prosody?

• that shopping institution famed for drop-dead gorgeous couture, some at drop-dead prices, is

• say, Mahler. You go there to get drop-dead pissed and have sex with as many people as possible

• there's nowhere for shoddy workmanship to hide in a drop-dead, plain black dress, so the cut and

• LuPone has the right raddled glamour and drop-dead insolence as she delivers such immortal lines

From Young sibol

• innovative use of first-person game play, and its drop-dead gorgeous 3-D graphics. who is 75, recalls the final age of drop dead Hollywood glamour to be happening, and the staging too often fails to capture the drop-dead humour, charged energy This is the David Beckham of footie franchises: drop-dead looks, chock-full of premium branding, Spider fooled into sex by drop-dead male Highfield, Roger A. You go there to get drop-dead pissed and have sex with as many people as possible there's nowhere for shoddy workmanship to hide in a drop-dead, plain black dress,

• I am tempted to confess I use four creams and am drop-dead rich, but decide she - have little in common beyond their drop-dead sexiness. Still, there are are the most powerful people around. So the women had to be drop-dead sexy as well as a to ruched silk. As well as a finale of drop-dead, silk satin goddess gowns, there were The best dishes are drop-dead simple: fried potatoes topped with chilli sauce,

• For drop-dead sophistication, head to Roland Mouret (020 7376 common request is for about 20 seats, an office area, kitchens and a drop-dead stateroom. The idea a blind date with a woman who was drop-dead stunning. She was only a year older than him, but and the dialogue brims with the sharp, drop-dead wisecracks that have

And another one….big time

• Most occurrences in SiBol involve the unit the big time, many also involve an adjectival unit big time politics, big time snooker etc

• But there is a growing use of an adverbial adjunct with intensifying meaning

• Sometimes positive sometimes negative

In MEDAL and SiBoL

• MEDAL • Big time (adv) spoken, used for

emphasizing how extreme or severe something is

• Do you have problems with it? Yeah big time.

• Old Sibol 332 in all 18 adverbial use• Young Sibol 588 in all 143 adverbial use

Big time• I'm frequently told that natural birth can suck, big-time, but for a weed like • vote on the European constitution, he says: "I'm going to say 'no' big time. • in me and I've repaid him by scoring. I respect him a lot now. Big time." 1 • Millwall manager Colin Lee said he was "cheesed off big time'' after Ben • always thought Guevara and Keane would have hit it off big time. They've e • Alan Smith. "F****** Fergie is a s***house. He's p****d me off big time. U • of time, passion and financial risk is likely to pay off big time. For more • The slight amount of fiddling around in the method pays off big time in • the robbery is laughably botched, and the cookie store takes off big-time, • Yes, yoga for young children is taking off big time. In the past six months, • to come. Despite its proud slogan, "We're ripping you off big time", many o. • And the trend is catching on big time among the young and the high life at • gle. If we don't manage to lift our game then we'll get caught out big time. It

• never held a job for more than a week, invariably falling out big time with• people, and those behind them, need to be caught and punished big time

Intensifying adjuncts of manner

• They provide evaluation and intensification• They might be said to prime us with a particular

semantic prosody good/bad: effective• They are new enough for us to be able to observe the

gradual growth and to be aware of our primings• They are still register specific co-ocurring with other

rigorously informal lexical items• They might even be a sign of an increasing insolating

tendancy of English

Hype

• They belong to the genres which imitate spoken informal language for particular purposes

• their increase in Sibol is a function of the increased space in promotional/review material which, like advertising, imitates the spoken language

• a sign that such an increase in promotional material (cf the Cardiff report and Flat Earth News) creates a need for new intensifiers to provide the necessary hype(erbole)

• The end (big time)