In:The Functional Perspective on Language and Discourse: Applications and implications
Edited by María de los Ángeles Gómez González, Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco Gonzálvez-García and Angela Downing
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 247] 2014
► pp. 169–186
The adverb truly in Present-Day English
Published online: 16 May 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.247.09sim
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.247.09sim
In comparison with the semantically and pragmatically related adverbs really,
actually and in fact, the adverb truly has been studied much less extensively.
One reason for the neglect may be its relatively low frequency. This is obvious if
one consults the British National Corpus (BNC). This article takes a close look
at truly on the basis of a sample of 200 instances from the BNC. It looks at the
relative frequency and meaning of the various syntactic patterns in which it
occurs in PDE. Lenker (2007) notes that in her diachronic corpus truly occurs
as a clause-integrated manner adverb, a clause-integrated emphasiser, a propositional
modifier, and a discourse marker. The present article compares these
findings with the usage of truly in PDE. It also examines parallels and differences
with the adverb really.
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Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Reuter, Kevin, Lucien Baumgartner & Pascale Willemsen
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