I’m Loving It – Marketing Ploy or Language Change in Progress?

Abstract

ABSTRACTBased on data from COCA and COHA, this article provides a corpus study of constructions with loving it (they’re loving it, he was loving every minute of it, … and loving it) in present-day and historical American English. It argues that loving it fulfils a double function: it interprets a specific part of the previous discourse, and adds evaluation by way of emphasis. To achieve emphasis, progressive loving it combines grammatical hyperbole (through the use of the progressive) and lexical hyperbole (through the use of the verb love). The interpretative function also derives from the use of the progressive and from the use of a restricted (activity-referential) function of it. The lexically hyperbolic use of love can in turn be traced back further in time. With the use of love to mean ‘like’ and the bleaching of this hyperbolic use over the twentieth century, the need arose to express a more emphatic meaning by subtly different means again, a function that progressive loving it fulfils today.