Intensifiers in MLE: New trends and developments 1

Abstract

By the late twentieth century, a multiethnolect generally known as Multicultural London English (MLE) emerged in this city, reflecting many different countries, races and cultures. This paper is corpus-based and is concerned with the system of intensifiers in MLE, examining data primarily from the London English Corpus (LEC). In the analysis we draw contrasts between teen and adult language; other variables, such as speakers' gender and ethnicity are also considered. Our findings broadly confirm partially previous studies, showing that so and really are the most common intensifiers among London teenagers, in contrast to very, which is the most frequent in adults. Secondly, we identify in teen talk two new intensifiers which have not been described as such in the literature: bare (it's bare addictive) and proper (they were proper strict in school); these have not been recorded in the language of adults. The paper concludes by discussing the possible reasons for the emergence of these two new intensifiers.

‘That's proper cool’

“…The remaining were neutral. These findings corroborate the findings of Núñez–Pertejo and Palacios–Martínez (2018: 136) who found that ‘the proportion of adjectives expressing negative semantic prosody is far higher than with a positive orientation’. They also note that ‘these adjectives serve to describe a human quality or condition which in most cases is portrayed by the speaker as negative.…”

“…he's always been proper thin, hasn't he? [BNC2014S, S0458] that's a proper romantic story [BNC2014S, S0014] it's proper cheesy [BNC2014S, S0133] it's like a proper scary job [BNC2014S, S0084] While a few studies make reference to the intensifier proper (Barnfield & Buchstaller, 2010: 272; Stratton, 2018: 807), to date, only Núñez–Pertejo and Palacios–Martínez (2018) have investigated its current use and frequency. As the authors point out (2018: 122), ‘there are no monographic studies in the literature on [its] use as [an] intensifier[ .…”

“…. ], which may be indicative of the current emergence of new uses and functions in this area of intensification.’ In their study, Núñez–Pertejo and Palacios–Martínez (2018) examined the intensifier proper , along with the intensifier bare , in Multicultural London English. They found that proper was used mostly by younger speakers ages 16–19.…”

“That’s well good”: A Re-emergent Intensifier in Current British English

“…The quantitative data suggests that well does not only (or in the first place) spread to more adjectival categories but that the increase in frequency is due to the restriction to a few common adjectives, in particular good. However, it can be noted that these speakers often preferred intensifiers such as bare (“it’s bare addictive”) or proper (“they were proper strict in school”) (Núñez-Pertejo & Palacios-Martínez 2018:116).…”

“…On the appearance of the intensifier pure in the speech of adolescents in Glasgow, see Macaulay (2006). On the new proper among London adolescents with a multicultural background, see Núñez-Pertejo and Palacios-Martínez (2018).…”