Variable use of intensifiers in Ottawa English

Area of Science:

• Sociolinguistics
• Corpus Linguistics
• English Language Studies

Background:

• Investigates the variable use of intensifiers in Ottawa English.
• Applies the variationist approach to sociolinguistic analysis.
• Examines the role of intensifiers in language change and variation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the correlation between social and linguistic factors and intensifier choice.
• To identify the most frequent intensifiers in Ottawa English.
• To understand the delexicalization patterns of intensifiers.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from the Ottawa English Corpus.
• Quantitative analysis of intensifier usage.
• Correlation of intensifier choice with social factors (age, gender) and linguistic factors (syntactic position, semantic class, adjective values).

Main Results:

• "Really," "so," "very," and "pretty" are the most common intensifiers.
• Intensifier usage shows specific associations with certain adjective types, indicating delexicalization.
• Women and younger speakers use intensifiers more frequently than men and older speakers.

Conclusions:

• Intensifier usage in Ottawa English is influenced by social and linguistic factors.
• Common intensifiers like "really," "so," "very," and "pretty" are delexicalized.
• Language variation and change are evident in the diachronic recycling and renewal of intensifiers.