Practically impossible: the development of an English approximator

Abstract

ABSTRACT Considerable attention has been paid in the literature to –ly adverbs, from an array of different perspectives, both synchronic and diachronic (e.g. Lorenz 2002; Paradis 2003; Paradis & Bergmark 2003; Tao 2007; Aijmer 2011; Defour 2012; Núñez-Pertejo 2013; Núñez-Pertejo & Palacios-Martínez 2014; Vandenbergen & Taverniers 2014). However, to date the adverb practically has not been the object of a great deal of discussion. Here we will show how this adverb has followed a line of development similar to that of other –ly adverbs, and hence emerges as a manner adverb with the meaning ‘in a practical manner’, ‘in practice’ (frequently opposed to ‘theoretically’ or ‘speculatively’), before evolving into a degree modifier of the approximating type with the meaning ‘almost’, ‘in effect’, ‘nearly’. This paper seeks to contribute to the history of practically by examining its process of subjectification (cf. Traugott 1995; Swan 1997), using a corpus–based methodology. To this end, the Corpus of Late Modern English Texts, version 3.0 (De Smet, Diller & Tyrkkö 2013) has been used, supplemented with additional evidence from the Old Bailey Corpus, version 2.0 (Huber, Nissel & Puga 2016a; 2016b).