This paper explores the development and establishment of intensificatory tautology (specifically, size-adjective clusters, e.g., “great big plans,” “little tiny room”) in the history of English. The analysis suggests that size-adjective clusters appear in the Late Middle English period as a result of the functional-structural reorganization of the English noun phrase. It is only towards the end of the Early Modern English period that they start to become (relatively) productive in the language, and in Present-Day English that they acquire a wide(r) intensifying functional range (i.e., adjective modifier, emphasizer, degree intensifier) and become associated with informal, spoken-based registers. More broadly, the paper suggests that more research is needed as regards the role of collocation in processes of intensifier creation in the noun phrase and, more generally, as regards how collocation interacts with word-formation processes in this context.

本文探讨了英语重言式的发展和建立（特别是大小形容词类，例如“宏伟的大计划”，“小小的房间”）。分析表明大小由于英语名词短语的功能结构重组，形容词类出现在中后期英语时期。直到现代英语早期，他们才开始在该语言中变得（相对）富有成效，而在当今英语中，他们获得了广泛的强化功能范围（即形容词修饰语，强调词，学位强化剂），并与非正式的基于口语的语录相关联。从更广泛的意义上讲，本文提出需要更多研究关于搭配在名词短语中强化词创建过程中的作用，更普遍的是关于在这种情况下搭配如何与单词形成过程相互作用的研究。