A Corpus-based Study of Semantic Prosody Change: The Case of the Adverbial Intensifier

The concept of semantic prosody is elaborated most notably by Sinclair (1987, 1996a, 1998, 2003), Louw (1993, 2000), Stubbs (1996, 2001), and Partington (1998, 2004). The description of semantic prosody has been greatly facilitated by corpus linguistics. However, previous research has concentrated primarily on its synchronic aspect. This paper deals with semantic prosody both synchronically and diachronically, focusing on certain adverbial intensifiers (boosters). It argues that a diachronic perspective is necessary to make better sense of how adverbial intensifiers have developed the semantic prosodies they have now. In the study, four adverbial intensifiers are examined: terribly, awfully, horribly and dreadfully. Drawing on historical and modern corpus data, the study attempts to track the changes by comparing their frequencies in the company of pleasant and unpleasant words over different historical periods. Over the years they have diverged, to different extents, from the negative pole of semantic continuum and come to collocate with items with neutral or even positive connotations. Louw's (1993) claim that meaning can "rub off on" another word through habitual collocation can explain this linguistic phenomenon.