Correlation between Degree Modifiers and their Effect on Meaning: Iraqi EFL learners' Perception

Abstract

Abstract 
 
 The semantics of degree modification and its effect on mutating the meaning of structures they appear in have held considerable appeal for specialists in areas ranging from lexical semantics to language pedagogy. Although the general concept of degree modifiers received a lot of attention in the twentieth century studies in linguistics, it has been treated only theoretically. The pedagogical side of degree modifiers seems to be a neglected topic. This paper is an attempt at addressing this gap in the literature. The main aim of this research is to examine students' knowledge in the functions of the degree modifiers and their semantic effect. The paper investigates whether the effect of degree modifiers on meaning is distinguished to the same extent by fourth year students majoring in English. To this end, the researcher designed a multiple choice question test to determine whether students are able to find the correlation between the type of degree modifier used and the meaning of the given sentences. Data analysis was performed using a number of descriptive measures in addition to a T-test and a Chi-square test. The results show that the Iraqi English major students face severe difficulty in distinguishing differences in meaning resulting from using degree modifiers in different contexts. The results also show a gradation in difficulty across the different types of modifiers.