Fromtwig-skinnytoKate Moss skinny: expressing degree with common and proper nouns

Abstract

This article provides a constructional (CxG) analysis of N-ADJ compounds in which the noun receives a degree reading (e.g. bullet-straight, Kennedy-handsome). A semantic analysis based on similes and scale matching is provided, and the recent history and increased productivity of the construction are examined in light of data from both the Corpus of Historical American English and a range of present-day corpora. The article introduces new evidence of the increased functional flexibility of both common and proper nouns in English and discusses the ongoing conventionalisation of proper noun degree modifiers in both American English and other varieties of English. The results of the study suggest that the recent introduction of proper noun degree modifiers has been supported by both constructional (semantic) change and macro-trends that have affected English usage more generally.

Corpus Linguistic Onomastics: A Plea for a Corpus-Based Investigation of Names

“…Keyword analysis can be used to compare corpora documenting different text genres, time periods or regional varieties, for example, thus allowing the analyst to gain a better understanding of how usage context shapes the use of names (van Dalen-Oskam 2013; see Motschenbacher 2019 for a study in which proper nouns turn out to be substantially involved in the discursive construction of a person before and after his public coming out as a gay man). More generally, a comparison of several corpora dating from different time periods can shed light on language change and the historical development of name-related phenomena (see Vartiainen 2019).…”

Synthetic Intensification Devices in Old English

“…We also find formations parallel to German bitterernst ('bitter-serious' = 'very serious') and Dutch ijskoud ('cold as ice,' 'ice-cold'), entailing metaphors or similes (Rainer 2015(Rainer :1342, which tend to be more emotionally charged than other intensifying formations (Napoli & Ravetto 2017:342). Huddleston andPullum (2002:1656) label them "comparative/intensifying" compounds, where the comparison "denote[s] an absolute degree of the quality, emotionally expressed" (Marchand 1969:85): icecold 'very cold,' crystal-clear 'very clear' (Cacchiani 2017), informal dirt-poor or butt-ugly, and formations with proper nouns such as Kate Moss skinny (Vartiainen 2019) and phrases, as in straight-out-of-the-oven hot (Günther, Kotowski & Plag 2020).…”