ABSTRACT

This study takes a corpus-based approach to investigating ongoing change in the Australian English adjective amplifier system based on the Australian component of the International Corpus of English (ICE). The paper analyzes changes in amplifiers across apparent time, with special attention being placed on amplifier–adjective–bigram frequencies, to provide insights into cognitive mechanisms underlying lexical replacement. Specifically, the paper analyzes why the innovative variant really was successful in replacing the traditional amplifier very, while other rivals (e.g. so or pretty) were not. Lexical diversity scores and distinctive collexeme analyses confirm that, in contrast to other rival variants, really specializes on and collocates with a few high-frequency adjectives (HFAs) while being dispreferred by low frequency adjectives. The results of a mixed-effects regression analysis show that the use of really is socially stratified with young speakers preferring really over other variants. In addition, the multivariate analysis shows that the replacement of very by really is a female-dominated change and that the use of really is enhanced by priming. The paper argues that collocating with HFAs leads to deeper entrenchment which, in turn, serves as an advantage in situations where speakers choose between rivalling innovative variants.

摘要

本研究采用基于语料库的方法来调查基于国际英语语料库(ICE)的澳大利亚部分的澳大利亚英语形容词放大器系统的持续变化。该论文分析了放大器在明显时间上的变化，特别关注放大器-形容词-双元组频率，以深入了解词汇替换的认知机制。具体而言，分析为什么创新的变种确实是成功的取代了传统的放大器非常，而其他竞争对手（如这样或相当）则没有。词汇多样性得分和独特的collexeme 分析证实，与其他竞争变体相比，真的很擅长搭配一些高频形容词（HFA），而被低频形容词所不喜欢。混合效应回归分析的结果显示，使用真年轻扬声器宁愿是社会分层真的比其他变体。此外，多变量分析显示，更换非常的实在是一个女性为主的变化，使用的确实是由吸增强。该论文认为，与 HFA 搭配会导致更深层次的巩固，这反过来又在演讲者在竞争性创新变体之间进行选择的情况下发挥优势。