English language and linguistics research seminar: Eleni Seitanidi, Lund University: Absolutely bonkers: a corpus-based study of the dialogic function of TOTALITY adverbs in spoken British English

At the seminar, I will present part of my ongoing work on the fourth study of my compilation thesis. In two previous studies, we found that when speakers use all-clefts, e.g., all you can do is make sure your application is good (Seitanidi et al., 2023), and everything-clefts, e.g., that’s everything that’s happened (Seitanidi et al., 2024), they block alternative perspectives by virtue of the exhaustive meaning of all and everything, which express totality. In the present study, we focus on adverbs expressing totality, e.g., absolutely, certainly, surely, and totally, in spoken British English (Paradis, 1997; 2008). In particular, we examine whether speakers use totality adverbs in order to acknowledge alternative perspectives, i.e., to be dialogically expansive, or to block them, i.e., to be dialogically contractive (Martin & White, 2005; Põldvere et al., 2016), given that they all express totality as well. We use data from the London – Lund Corpus 2 of spoken British English (Põldvere et al., 2021). Our preliminary findings suggest that some totality adverbs are more likely to involve a bounded contrast, e.g., totally, as in it was totally clear what you were doing but you might have just concentrated more clearly on satire, than others, e.g., absolutely, as in do you have any idea how many types of Kit Kat there are in Japan it's absolutely bonkers soy sauce ginger ale. Some totality adverbs, e.g., totally, indicate some contraction, but they may eventually expand the dialogic space by offering an alternative. Iconically, this can be illustrated as ><.

Keywords: dialogic contraction, dialogic expansion, degree adverbs, contrast, dialogue

References 

Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. R. (2005). The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Paradis, C. (1997). Degree modifiers of adjectives in spoken British English (Vol. 92). Lund University Press.

Paradis, C. (2008). Configurations, construals and change: expressions of degree. English Language and Linguistics, 12(2), 317-343. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002645

Põldvere, N., Fuoli, M., & Paradis, C. (2016). A study of dialogic expansion and contraction in spoken discourse using corpus and experimental techniques. Corpora, 11(2), 191–225. https://doi.org/10.3366/cor.2016.0092

Põldvere, N., Johansson, V., & Paradis, C. (2021). On the London–Lund Corpus 2: Design, challenges and innovations. English Language and Linguistics, 25(3), 459–483. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674321000186

Seitanidi, E., Põldvere, N., & Paradis, C. (2023). All-cleft constructions in the London-Lund Corpora of spoken English: Empirical and methodological perspectives. Journal of Pragmatics, 207, 78–92. 

Seitanidi, E., Põldvere, N., & Paradis, C. (2024). Everything-cleft constructions in spoken British English: A neglected construction. Functions of Language, 31(3), 289–326. Communication Source. https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.23014.sei