On the subjectivity of intensifiers

Intensification is a means of indexing the speakers’ perspective. This paper attempts to show the semantic development of particular intensifiers following Langacker’s framework of subjectivity. In this framework, the focus lies on the way the conceptualizer construes an event or a situation as an observer or as an experiencer with degrees of control over it. Although this is a synchronic description, it also reflects diachronic findings.