Of right heirs, right idiots and bad data. The diachrony of the intensifying adjective right

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article draws attention to noun-intensification, in particular to the intensifying adjective right, as in a right idiot, a right mess. Drawing on corpus data for Present-day and historical English, the study describes the Present-day English use of this intensifier and then delves into its history. It is shown here that the intensifying function is attested much earlier than suggested by the OED (mid-twentieth century), with relevant examples from the sixteenth century onwards, particularly in Restoration comedy. Its disappearance from the historical record is an effect of the ‘bad data’ issue: the intensifying adjective right has always been associated with very informal, even bawdy, spoken language, a register which was not regarded adequate for the stage or for any other form of literature in the Augustan and Victorian periods. The article also proposes a developmental pathway for the intensifier at issue which shows some parallels with those followed by other noun-intensifiers such as complete or very and highlights the importance of both intralinguistic (e.g. grammaticalisation and subjectification) and extralinguistic issues (the impact of the Reformation, drama conventions and censorship) for this development.