Intensifiers in MLE: New trends and developments&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;

Paloma Núñez-Pertejo,Ignacio Palacios-Martínez

doi:10.35360/njes.436

Intensifiers in MLE: New trends and developments<sup>1</sup>

Paloma Núñez-Pertejo, Ignacio Palacios-Martínez

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.35360/njes.436

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Abstract

By the late 20 th century, a multiethnolect generally known as Multicultural London English (MLE) emerged in this city, reflecting many different countries, races and cultures. This paper is corpus-based and is concerned with the system of intensifiers in MLE, examining data primarily from the London English Corpus (LEC). In the analysis we draw contrasts between teen and adult language; other variables, such as speakers’ gender and ethnicity are also considered. Our findings broadly confirm partially previous studies, showing that so and really are the most common intensifiers among London teenagers, in contrast to very , which is the most frequent in adults. Secondly, we identify in teen talk two new intensifiers which have not been described as such in the literature: bare ( it's bare addictive ) and proper ( they were proper strict in school ); these have not been recorded in the language of adults. The paper concludes by discussing the possible reasons for the emergence of these two new intensifiers.

Highlights

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, large European cities such as London, Stockholm, Oslo, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and Madrid have seen high rates of immigration from a wide variety of countries, races and cultures, a process which, is repeated in many other urban centres across the world
In the analysis of the London English Corpus (LEC), we have identified a relatively significant number of these adjectives used as intensifiers which are not present in the adult samples
Adjective and adverb intensifiers across all the corpora: Comparisons between adult and teenagers data Our findings partially confirmed previous studies here, in the sense that adults on the whole use more intensifiers than teenagers (Paradis 2000; Stenström et al 2002; Macaulay 2005; Palacios-Martínez & NúñezPertejo 2012). This is clearly observed in all the corpora except for Linguistic Innovators Corpus (LIC); the fact that the adult sample is formed by speakers over 70 years may account for this

Summary

Introduction

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, large European cities such as London, Stockholm, Oslo, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and Madrid have seen high rates of immigration from a wide variety of countries, races and cultures, a process which, is repeated in many other urban centres across the world. “Intensifiers in MLE: New trends and developments.” Nordic Journal of English Studies 17(2):116155

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