Intensifying adverbs in the English language by

contributed to the structural description and semantic categorisation of intensifying adverbs. Huddleston and Pullum (2002) argue that intensifying adverbs are not to be viewed as a primarily grammatical or lexical category: they possess grammatical properties, although are insufficiently defined unless we describe their functional significance. Some of these early studies already referred to the processes of grammaticalisation and delexicalisation, which underlie the development of lexical intensifying means. According to Beltrama and Bochnak (2015), intensification helps highlight what is being said and is related to the basic human need to make an impact on the interlocutor. Wierzbicka (1972) connects intensification both with objective features of an object and the speaker who distorts the worldview in their mind.

. These studies have greatly contributed to the structural description and semantic categorisation of intensifying adverbs. Huddleston and Pullum (2002) argue that intensifying adverbs are not to be viewed as a primarily grammatical or lexical category: they possess grammatical properties, although are insufficiently defined unless we describe their functional significance. Some of these early studies already referred to the processes of grammaticalisation and delexicalisation, which underlie the development of lexical intensifying means. According to Beltrama and Bochnak (2015), intensification helps highlight what is being said and is related to the basic human need to make an impact on the interlocutor. Wierzbicka  (Hopper & Traugott, 2003, p. 122). This process is usually characterised by the appearance of new ways of intensification. For instance, the meaning to a high degree can be expressed by older, completely grammaticalised forms, such as very and newer, as well as more expressive forms, such as extremely and tremendously. The more a linguistic item is grammaticalised, the more it collocates with a variety of adjectives and verbs, which increases its frequency. The development of intensifiers is a good example of renewal as this process demonstrates how older and newer layers in a given context, the more expressivity it produces.
The fact that numerous intensifying adverbs have been added to the intensification system at different times allows grammarians to describe this system as having many 'layers' of intensifiers.
Thus, according to Ito and Tagliamonte (2003), the use of the intensifying adverb so goes back to Old English, while the intensifier right was one of the most popular in Middle English. Other intensifying adverbs have been added to the system in recent years, as, for instance, adverbs built from adjectives through -ly suffixation. Hopper (1991) foregrounds that in spite of the fact that new layers keep emerging, it is not necessarily that the old ones disappear: they may remain to coexist with the new ones. Ito and Tagliamonte (2003) highlight that despite the coexistence of the older and relatively new items, intensifiers are subjected to the influence of sociolinguistic factors. According to Stoffel (1901), at the beginning of the 20th century the intensifying adverb awfully was not yet considered part of normal conversations. Partington (1993)  Intensifying adverbs differ by their degrees of intensification on the intensity scale (Biber et al., 1999, p. 20 Maximisers denote the upper extreme on the intensity scale, as in: It's an old-fashioned, downto-earth club that operates entirely contrary to the grotesque excesses of the 1990s. It's polarising and creates the illusion that the clash of utterly biased accounts produces the truth. Many analysts and policymakers focus most closely on the so-called core CPI. I believe that he is fully aware of it. I was extremely ashamed of my situation. The problem with intensifying adverbs and their classification lies in their ability to be used for both purposes -amplifying and toning down the pragmatic influence depending on the speaker's intention (Quirk et al., 1985). Such difficulties often arise with the intensifying adverb quite, which can be used to indicate both functions, depending on the context. Quite usually means fairly if used as an amplifier, as in The film is quite good. British speakers also use the intensifying adverb quite in the meaning of absolutely before adjectives which express an extreme degree of quality. In similar cases, quite is stressed, as in His contribution to the science is quite remarkable.
'The fact that numerous intensifying adverbs have been added to the intensification system at different times allows grammarians to describe this system as having many 'layers' of intensifiers'

MATERIAL AND METHODS
To see what tendencies can be observed in the use of intensifying adverbs in the world Englishes and if they correspond to what scholars suggest, two corpora were used in the present study: The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the British National Corpus (BNC).
The analysis was conducted on spoken discourse and newspaper texts. The study presented in the present article was restricted to the analysis of the combination intensifier + adjective which is conditioned by its frequency. Bäcklund (1973) came to the conclusion that 72% of intensifying adverbs were used with adjectival heads. In addition, recent research on amplifiers by Barnfield and Buchstaller (2010), Reichelt and Durham (2017) (2008), and Barnfield and Buchstaller (2010), nine most common intensifying adverbs modifying adjectives were chosen for this study, namely: absolutely, so, totally, entirely, pretty, very, extremely, completely, and really. The part-of-speech feature available in the COCA and BNC helped make the search more precise. The present study takes into consideration the combination intensifier + adjective as a base for searching the most frequent intensifying adverbs modifying adjectives. For instance, the intensifying adverb so was searched for as so_j* to obtain results covering its frequency with adjectival heads, and this procedure was repeated for each intensifying adverb. (1) I totally support the administration with respect to that (2017, SPOK: CNN: Anderson Cooper).

After
(2) And I agree entirely with my esteemed colleague Joe that we should focus on the people 74 Training, Language and Culture (1) 'The Turner Diaries' is a horrible novel, racist novel that became a -it's almost a talisman to this movement, a very important motivating force (2017, SPOK: PBS NEWSHOUR 6:00 PM EST).
(2) Give it a try for dinner. These -these things are so easy (2017, SPOK: NBC).
However, these findings do not fully correspond to our COCA findings in terms of the order of the intensifying adverbs and their frequency.
In (2) Their belief in the product is so strong, they could almost boost its market outlook themselves (2) He did a wonderful job on it! And he was so nice to her when he was doing it (4 convs rec. by 'Enid' (PS08Y) on 27 Feb 1992).
The number of each of the selected items is listed in Figure 3 below, that clearly illustrates the proportion of the intensifying adverbs. Table 3 gives an insight into the data (in %) on every intensifying adverb under the analysis.
80 Training, Language and Culture appears to be the most common intensifying adverb, but its proportion proved to be one and a half times higher than in Ito and Tagliamonte's (2003) research -60.6% and 38.3% respectively.
In contrast, the proportion of very in British English is almost the same as in American English -60.6% and 54.8 % respectively. This leads us to suggest that very is not becoming redundant: even though the system of intensifying adverbs is continually undergoing renewal, it still occupies the dominant position, which is also proved by Fries (1940), Bäcklund (1973), Biber et al. (1999) and Ito and Tagliamonte (2003). In addition, the frequency of very is more than five times as great as the frequency of so (13.5%) and really (12.2%). Thus, its frequency is notable.
The difference between the proportions for so and really is insignificant and it is likely that so as well as really are gaining popularity in both British and American English. Barnfield   (1) There's a move to slow them down, but the hauliers say it could lead to a very dangerous situation (Central News autocue data).
(2) The Rambler's National President is so angry, he'll be leading a mass protest here in two weeks' time (Central television news scripts).
(3) There's enough explosive power in a really big display to make the twenty kegs of powder Guy  (9) His reluctant agreement to append an entirely unconvincing happy ending to the show is a coup de theatre that still seems strikingly modern more than 250 years after the premiere of this bracing comedy (The Daily Telegraph).
The frequency for each item is given in Figure 4 below. Table 4 gives an insight into the average frequencies of intensifying adverbs per 100,000 words.
Training, Language and Culture 83  On the whole, as is seen from the data, intensifying adverbs are two and a half times as frequent in spoken discourse as in newspaper language (174.33 and 70.61 instances per 100,000 words respectively), which proves the assumption made in the present article -the degree of intensification declines as the formality of language increases, and vice versa.

CONCLUSION
The results of the research are presented in Table 5 illustrating what intensifying adverbs are common both in British and American English. Notably, in spoken discourse the intensifying adverb very is the most frequently used out of nine selected intensifying adverbs (very, really, pretty, so, absolutely, extremely, totally, completely, entirely)       Thus, intensifying adverbs are from 5 to 1.5 times as frequent in spoken discourse as in the newspaper language. The present findings suggest that less intensification is used in written discourse whereas more intensification is employed in spoken discourse, which leads to the conclusion that the decline in intensification is higher as the formality of the register increases, and vice versa.