In our everyday life, we often have the time when some ideas need to be emphasized, and most of the time, we use those degree adverb. Those degree adverb are sometimes called intensifier,including amplifier and downtonner. The sentence "I will be terribly thankful to you[/i]" is unacceptable , as pointed out by Dr.Liang, but who can give me some sound explanations?Can anyone here offer any copies of the related literatures ?
研究习作：“I will be terribly thankful to you!”
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回复：研究习作：“I will be terribly thankful to you!”
Would you mind telling us if this is a homework assignment by Dr Liang or it's
just your own question? I wanted to make sure that we are not indirectly encouraging
people to get cheap answers without thinking themselves.
Yes, there are answers to this question, and there are research papers published in this area which you can probably easily get hold of.
Would you mind telling us if this is a homework assignment by Dr Liang or it's
just your own question? I wanted to make sure that we are not indirectly encouraging
people to get cheap answers without thinking themselves.
Yes, there are answers to this question, and there are research papers published in this area which you can probably easily get hold of.
回复：研究习作：“I will be terribly thankful to you!”
Before we go any further, let's get the fact straight: while "thankful to you" is less common than "thankful for you", both are apparently okay, so is "terribly thankful for you". Just Googled it (note that there are a lot of complements after "terribly thankful"):
snopes.com: Elderly man drives with body in windshield
My first reaction was 'Another reason I'm terribly thankful my mom took the keys away from my grandfather'. You really don't want to get me started on a ...
msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/97/t/000150/p/1.html - 72k - Cached - Similar pages
PEP Web - A Lion Hunter's Dreams
On waking from his dreams he is enormously relieved; he is 'terribly thankful' that it was only a dream, a consoling equivalent to the reassuring hypnagogic ...
www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=paq.016.0001a - Similar pages
LordRich.com: Thankful
I’m feeling terribly thankful at the moment. I’m thankful for two A*’s providing me with large sums of money for doing easy work and not asking questions. ...
lordrich.com/2006/03/30/thankful - 5k - Cached - Similar pages
inkforums :: Introspection time---What are you thankful for?
I am terribly thankful for my limited circle of friends - for they are all special to me. Have a wonderful day all. GWEG ? Member ...
community.inkfrog.com/index.php?action=vthread&topic=3057&forum=6&page=-1 - 13k - Cached - Similar pages
[PDF] Coastal wetland habitat dynamics in selected New South Wales estuaries
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
I am also terribly thankful to my small group of close. friends who know and understand me, and who have provided incredible support ...
dlibrary.acu.edu.au/digitaltheses/public/adt-acuvp29082005.32/01front.pdf - Similar pages
He-Man.org Forums - She-Ra DVD Cover Revealed!!!!!!!
I'm terribly thankful I will be able to purchase and watch She-Ra in the near future. It was a huge part of my childhood and I am glad ER and BCI are ...
www.he-man.org/forums/boards/printthread.php?t=135769&page=3&pp=25 - 35k - Cached - Similar pages
(’hise-’fit):
I’m terribly thankful and content that everyone is happy and healthy but I’m also a bit selfish and jealous that I can’t spend the day with MY mother and ...
www.hisefit.com/ - 24k - Cached - Similar pages
Michael Buerk Interview
When we landed, I knelt on the tarmac, terribly thankful that we had got there. After that, we went out for an extremely large meal and an awful lot of ...
www.warman.demon.co.uk/anna/mb_int.html - 14k - Cached - Similar pages
freakishly prompt - embracing my inner weirdo
In retrospect, she was terribly thankful that he had been with her when she walked into her apartment to find it trashed. Her first reaction had been ...
www.fubsy.net/blog/archive/2001/03/index.html - 157k - Cached - Similar pages
Before we go any further, let's get the fact straight: while "thankful to you" is less common than "thankful for you", both are apparently okay, so is "terribly thankful for you". Just Googled it (note that there are a lot of complements after "terribly thankful"):
snopes.com: Elderly man drives with body in windshield
My first reaction was 'Another reason I'm terribly thankful my mom took the keys away from my grandfather'. You really don't want to get me started on a ...
msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/97/t/000150/p/1.html - 72k - Cached - Similar pages
PEP Web - A Lion Hunter's Dreams
On waking from his dreams he is enormously relieved; he is 'terribly thankful' that it was only a dream, a consoling equivalent to the reassuring hypnagogic ...
www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=paq.016.0001a - Similar pages
LordRich.com: Thankful
I’m feeling terribly thankful at the moment. I’m thankful for two A*’s providing me with large sums of money for doing easy work and not asking questions. ...
lordrich.com/2006/03/30/thankful - 5k - Cached - Similar pages
inkforums :: Introspection time---What are you thankful for?
I am terribly thankful for my limited circle of friends - for they are all special to me. Have a wonderful day all. GWEG ? Member ...
community.inkfrog.com/index.php?action=vthread&topic=3057&forum=6&page=-1 - 13k - Cached - Similar pages
[PDF] Coastal wetland habitat dynamics in selected New South Wales estuaries
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
I am also terribly thankful to my small group of close. friends who know and understand me, and who have provided incredible support ...
dlibrary.acu.edu.au/digitaltheses/public/adt-acuvp29082005.32/01front.pdf - Similar pages
He-Man.org Forums - She-Ra DVD Cover Revealed!!!!!!!
I'm terribly thankful I will be able to purchase and watch She-Ra in the near future. It was a huge part of my childhood and I am glad ER and BCI are ...
www.he-man.org/forums/boards/printthread.php?t=135769&page=3&pp=25 - 35k - Cached - Similar pages
(’hise-’fit):
I’m terribly thankful and content that everyone is happy and healthy but I’m also a bit selfish and jealous that I can’t spend the day with MY mother and ...
www.hisefit.com/ - 24k - Cached - Similar pages
Michael Buerk Interview
When we landed, I knelt on the tarmac, terribly thankful that we had got there. After that, we went out for an extremely large meal and an awful lot of ...
www.warman.demon.co.uk/anna/mb_int.html - 14k - Cached - Similar pages
freakishly prompt - embracing my inner weirdo
In retrospect, she was terribly thankful that he had been with her when she walked into her apartment to find it trashed. Her first reaction had been ...
www.fubsy.net/blog/archive/2001/03/index.html - 157k - Cached - Similar pages
回复：研究习作：“I will be terribly thankful to you!”
动态语法 gave you some very good points above, as he has done some work before. I just tried a simple search in the 100 million words BNC corpus and the 4 million words of ICE corpus (ICE-GB, ICE-Singapore, ICE-India and ICE-Philippines), here is the result:
thankful:
359 in BNC; 40 in ICE
terribly thankful:
0 in either BNC or ICE (there is even no any record of "terribly" occurred in the context where "thankful" appeared )
thankful to:
43/359 in BNC (mostly "to do sth"); 13/40 in ICE (mostly "to person")
thankful for:
90/359 in BNC (mostly "for sth"); 13/40 in ICE (mostly "for sth")
Below is the list of adj/adv used to attribute "thankful":
always
deeply
equally
extremely
greatly
heartily
just
most
much
profoundly
profusely
properly
quite
really
sincerely
supremely
truly
very
almost
deliriously
mutinously
As you can see, except the last three words (which only occur once respectively in BNC) in the list, the rest 18 words are all in positive semantic prosody.
动态语法 gave you some very good points above, as he has done some work before. I just tried a simple search in the 100 million words BNC corpus and the 4 million words of ICE corpus (ICE-GB, ICE-Singapore, ICE-India and ICE-Philippines), here is the result:
thankful:
359 in BNC; 40 in ICE
terribly thankful:
0 in either BNC or ICE (there is even no any record of "terribly" occurred in the context where "thankful" appeared )
thankful to:
43/359 in BNC (mostly "to do sth"); 13/40 in ICE (mostly "to person")
thankful for:
90/359 in BNC (mostly "for sth"); 13/40 in ICE (mostly "for sth")
Below is the list of adj/adv used to attribute "thankful":
always
deeply
equally
extremely
greatly
heartily
just
most
much
profoundly
profusely
properly
quite
really
sincerely
supremely
truly
very
almost
deliriously
mutinously
As you can see, except the last three words (which only occur once respectively in BNC) in the list, the rest 18 words are all in positive semantic prosody.
回复：研究习作：“I will be terribly thankful to you!”
I have extracted the source text from BNC and ICE. You may want to try the search by yourself.
Note:
The file is in Excel sheet, you can find both BNC and ICE output there. Resave it as two plain text files before you want to use any concordance tools to search.
Here is the file: http://forum.corpus4u.org/upload/forum/2006052415175374.xls
I have extracted the source text from BNC and ICE. You may want to try the search by yourself.
Note:
The file is in Excel sheet, you can find both BNC and ICE output there. Resave it as two plain text files before you want to use any concordance tools to search.
Here is the file: http://forum.corpus4u.org/upload/forum/2006052415175374.xls
An possible explanation - de-lexicalisation, a process which I see as in parallel to grammaticalisation in grammar. You can call it grammaticalisation if you like.
"Terribly" is increasingly losing its lexical meaning related to terrible and is becoming an amplifier simply indicating degree or scale.
The typical degree adverb "very" mean "true" a long time ago - before you were born at least. But now it simply indicates degree. A similar processing is likely for terribly if it is used as an amplifier frequently enough - we can say this is the frequency effect.
"Terribly" is increasingly losing its lexical meaning related to terrible and is becoming an amplifier simply indicating degree or scale.
The typical degree adverb "very" mean "true" a long time ago - before you were born at least. But now it simply indicates degree. A similar processing is likely for terribly if it is used as an amplifier frequently enough - we can say this is the frequency effect.