Anita Pavic Pintaric, Zrinka Frleta: UPWARDS INTENSIFIERS IN THE ENGLISH... 31
Anita Pavic Pintaric
Sveuciliste u Zadru anita.pintaric@unizd.hr
UDK 81'362:81'367.624 DOI: 10.4312/vestnik.6.31-48
Zrinka Frleta
Sveuciliste u Zadru zfrleta@unizd.hr
UPWARDS INTENSIFIERS IN THE ENGLISH, GERMAN AND CROATIAN LANGUAGE
1 INTRODUCTION
"Intensity1 is the quality of language which indicates the degree to which the speaker's attitude2 toward a concept deviates from neutrality" (Bradac, Bowers, Courtright 1979: 258). Due to the fact that intensity is a complex cognitive and language phenomenon, it can be quite challenging to differentiate between degrees of intensity. Intensity is usually divided into two spheres: alleviation (-intensity) and amplification (+intensity) (cf. Edel 1992: 602). The criterion for this division is usually the deviation from the norm,3 which means that intensity is described as a phenomenon upwards or downwards of the norm.4 However, it is further possible to distinguish between various degrees within both, the higher and the lower intensity. Studies, e.g. on evaluation, have shown that "upward direction and location seems to be more differentiated" (Seiler 1991: 53).5 This is the reason why we chose to investigate intensifiers of the upwards direction.
1	Intensity is sometimes referred to in linguistics as "grading", used to represent linguistic results of the process of comparison.
2	The attitude is based on a conscious or unconscious comparison, which has a certain scale. The degree of intensity depends on the position of objects on the scale (cf. Tafel 2001). More about scales in Van Os (1989: 23ff).
3	The norm of a feature is set by the society and culture. According to Livnat and Sovran (2001: 303) "human actions can be qualified, among other things, by the effort or intention invested in them; they can be situated in various circumstances and can also be judged according to certain norms" (authors give the following examples. almost finished, properly arranged, met secretly, answered seriously).
4	Grading below the norm in German linguistic literature is called "Abwartsgraduierung" (cf. Jachnow, Norman, Suprun 2001, Wingender 2005).
5	Seiler (1991: 53) mentions Ebert's evidence from Chamling (Kiranti. Nepal) and the proposition of the tentative generalization that all languages have designations for 'up', 'above' but not for 'down', 'below'.
32 VESTNIK ZA TUJE JEZIKE
2 BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY
Intensifiers are used in different types of discourse as modifying elements. Their function is "to reinforce or attenuate a variable feature in the element it applies to" (Paradis 1997: 41). This means that they occur in certain collocations with adjectives, adverbs, verbs, sometimes also nouns. Which element will be intensified "depends on the degree of intensification, the dimension they refer to, syntactic restrictions and specific lexical restrictions of collocation" (Dressler, Merlini Barbaresi 1994: 417). Due to the fact that there are many lexical items which can function as intensifiers, Van Os (1989: 83f) deals with them not as a word class but as a function class. He distinguishes between eight areas of intensity in the German language: absolute degree, approximative degree, extremely high degree, high degree, moderate degree, diminishing degree, minimal degree, negative degree. Although there have been numerous studies of intensifiers (e.g. Van Os 1989, Kammerer 2001, Jachnow 2001, Oebel 2012), their representation in German and Croatian grammars is still inadequate. They are represented or only mentioned among particles without describing possible degrees of intensity they express, their syntactic function or items they can be combined with (collocates). English grammars (e.g. Biber 1999, Gelderen 2010) deal with intensifiers as modifiers (adverbs together with adjectives). German grammars scarcely deal with intensifiers and mainly among particles as a subclass of grading particles (Gradpartikeln, cf. Duden 2009). Croatian grammars only list some intensifiers as adverbs among particles.
In this paper we aim to give the typology of adverb intensifiers in the German and Croatian language based on English as the starting point. We will investigate whether the differentiation of degree types is possible among adverbs of expressing the upwards intensity (for the easier understanding we refer to them as intensifiers in this paper) in the English, German and Croatian language. In the analysis, the framework of collocates suggested by Paradis (1997), Kammerer (2002)6 and the framework of syntactic functions suggested in Quirk, Greenbaum (1976) will be used in order to model the typology, and argue that (1) adverb intensifiers can be classified according to the degree of intensity in the three languages, (2) adverb intensifiers can be classified according to their function, (3) adverb intensifiers can be classified according to the semantic field of their collocates.
Intensifiers were excerpted from parallel corpora of the modern youth novels about Harry Potter (Harry Potter and Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets1). We compared the original text with the translations into German and Croatian.
6	Kammerer (2001) described intensifiers (Amplifikans) in the German language and gave a few suggestions for typology according to semantic and syntagmatic features, word-formation, etymology, syntactic functions.
7	Ever since the first novel Harry Potter and Philosopher's Stone (1997) appeared, Harry Potter has been the topic of different researches and with different critique (both positive and negative). The novels have been translated in more than 50 languages which makes them a great material for contrastive linguistic analysis.
Anita Pavic Pintaric, Zrinka Frleta: UPWARDS INTENSIFIERS IN THE ENGLISH... 33
These books were chosen because they deal with the fantastic world with many descriptions. It was expected that there would be many evaluative contexts in which intensifiers are used. Parallel corpora were chosen in order to find similarities and differences between intensifiers within the same context.
Many lexical means can be used for expressing intensity, but it is necessary to establish a clear criterion how to choose between different possible means of intensifying at hand. The corpus showed the necessity of extracting the intensifiers according to the following model proposed by Pavic Pintaric (2010, 2012): a) in the first step, meaning explications were taken into consideration in order to substitute upwards intensifiers with their hyperonyms, b) intensifiers and the elements they modify were determined in the text, c) after determining the corpus, intensifiers were analyzed descriptively according to their morphosyntactic traits and functions, d) the method of semantic fields was used in order to determine which collocates are modified with intensifiers.
Although intensifiers have been studied to a great extent in the English language, the terminology still varies (cf. Quirk, Greenbaum 1976, Paradis 1997). In this paper we propose the distinction based on the paraphrase of the meaning of intensifying adverbs. Accordingly, we distinguish between three semantic classes of upwards intensifiers: maximizers, boosters and moderators. Adverbs can be related to these classes according to the paraphrase of their meaning. Maximizers mean 'to the greatest extent', i.e. the intensity is expressed on the furthest upper part of the scale. Boosters mean 'to a great extent', i.e. the intensity of a property is on the upper part of the scale. Moderators denote the approximate range on the scale (Paradis 2000: 3) and mean 'to a considerable extent', i.e. the intensity moves upwards from the norm but not to a great extent (e.g. ziemlich in German or prilicno in Croatian, cf. Pavic Pintaric 2012).
Adjective collocates found with intensifiers can be classified according to Paradis (1997), as scalar, limit and extreme adjectives. Scalar adjectives are modified by moderators and boosters. Extreme and limit adjectives are found with maximizers. Scalar adjectives are fully gradable, extreme ones denote the ultimate point of the scale, whereas limit adjectives are not associated with a scale and are not gradable (do not build comparatives and superlatives).8
Each language was analyzed separately, and in the end the results were compared.
8 In this respect, Livnat and Sovran (2001: 310) apply the inherent semantic relation between the so called immanent adverbs and the modified verbs: "Immanent adverbs modify the verb by explicitly highlighting some of its meaning components. Such adverbs have close semantic ties to the meaning frames of their modified kernels." Radden and Dirven (2007: 151) give the following explanations: "Adjectives denoting complementary properties are less freely or not gradable and intensifiable, such as antonyms full and empty, dead and alive, adjectives of shape such as round and square, as well as the adjectives faithful and safe. We seldom or never speak of a fuller glass, the emptiest bottle, or a very dead man because these adjectives denote extreme or absolute properties. We may, however, want to express degrees between two extremes and make use of subset quantification, as in half (full), almost (round), completely (dead)."
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3 ADVERBS9 AS MEANS OF INTENSIFYING
There are many lexical means of intensifying. Bolinger (1972) wrote about adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs as "degree words" in the English language. He distinguishes between four types according to their position on the intensifying scale: boosters (upper part of scale), moderators (middle of the scale), diminishers (lower part of the scale), minimizers (lower end of the scale). Quirk and Greenbaum (1976: 214) distinguish between three semantic classes of intensifiers: emphasizers (e.g. definitely), amplifiers and downtoners. The latter two can be further divided into subclasses. Maximizers (e.g. completely) and boosters (e.g. very much) belong to amplifiers. Downtoners comprise moderators (e.g. kind of), diminishers (e.g. partly), minimizers (e.g. hardly), approximators (e.g. almost).10 For van Gelderen (2010: 15-16) adjectives and adverbs are semantically very similar because they modify another element: adjectives modify nouns, adverbs modify verbs and adjectives. These adverbs are called "degree adverbs". He also distinguishes "degree markers" (2010: 39), i.e. adverbs very, too, extremely, really, which always modify an adverb or adjective, never a verb. Radden and Dirven (2007: 151) mention intensifiers as modifiers when discussing "qualifying things", and go on to describe increasing degrees on the scale of intensity expressed by adverbs such as pretty, very, extremely, terribly, and awfully.
These intensifiers have largely lost their lexical meanings - they have been semanti-cally bleached. However, the original meanings of these grammaticalised forms are still recoverable: they relate to notions such as 'sincerity' of the speaker (very goes back to Latin verus 'true' and thus means 'truly'), 'excess' (extremely, exceedingly), and 'fear' (terribly, awfully). Thus intensity too tends to be understood metaphorically." (Radden and Dirven 2007: 151)
In German grammars degrees are mentioned in the context of grading adjectives as well as within the class of adverbs of manner. Erben (1961: 107-122) describes adjectives and adverbs as "das charakterisierende Beiwort" (characterising epithet) which denote the degree of the element next to them. Beside inflectional forms he mentions word formation (e.g. abgrund-tief, bild-schön) as well as "gradierende Beiwörter" (grading epithets) (ganz/sehr/außerordentlich/überaus/unbeschreiblich schön) as means of grading. Grading is possible in the downward direction ("Begriffsminderung") with weniger and wenigst, e.g. das ist weniger mühsam. The same principle can be found in Engel (1988: 561) with kaum and wenig(er) as alleviation, e.g. kaum (überzeugend), weniger
9	In the German language there are no formal differences between adjectives and adverbs (in the English language adverbs are derived from adjectives by adding the suffix -ly, a in the Croatian language with the suffix -o).
10	In general, intensifiers in English grammars are described in the sections about adverbs (of degree). See Biber et al. (1999), Eastwood (19963), Leech (1989), Quirk et al. (1985)
Anita Pavic Pintaric, Zrinka Frleta: UPWARDS INTENSIFIERS IN THE ENGLISH... 35
(empfehlenswert). Götze, Hess-Lüttich (2005: 294-295) deal with intensifying adverbs as a subclass of adverbs of manner, e.g. beinahe, besonders, teils.
Croatian grammars pay attention foremost to synthetic forms of grading. Baric et al. (1990) describe grading adjectives with positive, comparative and superlative. Word formation is also mentioned in examples of amplified adjectives (nov-novcat, pun-pun-cat) and diminutives (crn-crnkast, pun-punacak). Silic and Pranjkovic (2007: 255) give a list of "comparing (grading) particles", actually adverbs, which modify adjectives and adverbs, e.g. veoma, dosta, gotovo, skoro, jedva, etc. 11
4 UPWARDS INTENSIFIERS IN THE NOVELS ABOUT HARRY POTTER
The corpus consists of 264 sentences with intensifiers in the English language, 229 sentences in the German language and 227 sentences in the Croatian language. The sentences containing intensifiers were excerpted from each novel according to the model described in the introduction of this paper. The following subgroups of intensifiers were established: maximizers (comprising intensifiers with the meaning 'to the greatest degree possible', e.g. completely12; we denote them as the absolute degree), boosters (meaning 'very', e.g. German furchtbar13; we denote them as high degree), moderators (meaning 'considerably', e.g. Croatian poprilicno1^; we denote them as considerable degree).
4.1 The English language
There are 27 intensifiers in the English corpus. Seven intensifiers belong to the group of maximizers, denoting the greatest possible degree: absolutely (found in 2 sentences), completely (13), entirely (2), fully (4), perfectly (11), thoroughly (3), utterly (2). The following 18 intensifiers belong to boosters: awfully (2), deadly (3), deeply (4), extremely (13), furiously (10), greatly (1), grieviously (1), heartily (1), highly (4), horribly (3), immensely (3), madly (7), really (28), so (13), very (96), violently (2), wildly (10), worryingly (1). These numbers show that most intensifiers belong to boosters, which reflects the fact shown in previous research that this degree type is most creative and has emotional/expressive connotations (cf. Simon-Vandenbergen 2008: 1530).
11	The term intensifier in the sense of "the adverb of degree" is not common in Croatian grammars. Grammars and dictionaries deal with the term such as intensifying particle/word (pojacajna rijec/cestica) but the content is rather different.
12	Completely means "to the greatest degree possible; totally".
13	Furchtbar means "sehr, überaus, besonders" and is used to amplify adjectives and verbs.
14	Poprilicno means "u znatnoj mjeri, dosta; dobrano".
36 VESTNIK ZA TUJE JEZIKE
Among them, very is the commonest intensifier, together with really15 and so. Expressive intensifiers wildly, extremely and furiously are used quite often, which obviously depends on the topic and adventures in the novels. Among the group of moderators in our corpus, only quite (23) and pretty16 (2) are used. These intensifiers are specific, since they can belong to all three degrees on the upwards intensity scale. Thus, quite can be found in English dictionaries with the following meaning explications: "to a degree, to some degree, fairly, pretty, rather", or "actually, really" but also "to the greatest extent, completely, absolutely, entirely".17
4.1.1 Collocates
Collocates are important when analysing intensifiers, because they may imply the restrictions in the usage of intensifiers. Intensifiers mostly modify adjectives, which is not surprising, since "adjectives represent the category whose semantics lends itself best to gradation. For the same reason, adjectives are also the prototypical base for comparative and superlative" (Dressler, Merlini Barbaresi 1994: 417), and can be viewed, in our opinion, as the base for the intensification process. According to Nevalainen and Rissanen (2002: 362), intensifiers are "prototypically associated with gradable clause elements, adjectives and adverbs".
The maximizers in the corpus modify adjectives, verbs and adverbs. There are further possible groupings related to the collocate, the first one depending on the word-class of the collocate. Absolutely, fully, utterly modify only adjectives, completely and thoroughly intensify verbs and adjectives, entirely modifies a verb, whereas perfectly modifies adjectives and an adverb.
The boosters modify adjectives and verbs. Adjectives are intensified with awfully, deadly, deeply, extremely, grieviously, highly, immensely, quite, pretty, so verbs with furiously, madly and wildly. Both adjectives and verbs are intensified with horribly, whereas very modifies adjective, verbs and adverbs, really with adjectives and adverbs.
The moderators modify adjectives and adverbs: quite modifies adjectives and adverbs and pretty only adjectives. From the examples in the corpus, it is obvious that quite and pretty can be moderators and boosters, depending on the modified element. When the collocate is the adjective excellent it functions as a booster, since the meaning of the adjective refers to an outstanding quality or superior merit.
15	Really is, together with actually, are among the most frequently occurring -ly adverbs in the spoken part of the British National Corpus (BYU-BNC; Davies 2004) (cited from Gray 2012: 151).
16	Nevalainen and Rissanen (2002: 360) consider fairly and pretty as partial synonyms - they stem from "at least similar source domains, and hence historically parallel paths of adverbialization for the two central members of the moderator class, fairly and pretty".
17	See for example Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (20057). In that dictionary it is specified that quite is "not used with negative" meaning.
Anita Pavic Pintaric, Zrinka Frleta: UPWARDS INTENSIFIERS IN THE ENGLISH... 37
Adjective collocates can be distinguished into scalar, limit and extreme adjectives. The boosters modify scalar adjectives, as is obvious in the following examples: extremely easy / ugly / talkative / valuable / mean / dirty / strict / valuable, deadly dull / serious / quiet, very /pleased /funny /small / interested / large / happy / bad /fortunate / old / late / late / impressive, really upset / boring, perfectly friendly / normal / confident / happy / cheerful, truly awake. Very is used most often and can have a whole range of different collocates. The maximizers modify scalar adjectives: still, sick, happy. However, boosters are an open group, they have different collocations since they are used more often than intensifiers of other degree types.18
Some collocates co-occur with different intensifiers, which shows the possibility of overlapping of intensity degrees (depending on the expressivity and the meaning): very/really/pretty good; very/really bad, boring, funny; utterly/completely still; extremely/heartily/violently sick; perfectly/so/quite happy; quite/so angry; really/quite excellent.
Table 1. Word classes modified by intensifiers
Collocates	Maximizers	Boosters	Moderators
adjectives	absolutely, completely, fully, perfectly, quite, thoroughly, utterly	awfully, deadly, deeply, extremely, grieviously, highly, horribly, immensely, pretty, so, very	quite, pretty
Verbs	completely, entirely, thoroughly	furiously, horribly, madly, very, wildly	
Adverbs	perfectly	very	quite
The collocates belong to various semantic fields, as is represented in Table 2. Most adjective collocates belong to human psychic life (e.g. angry, brave, disgusted, stupid, surprised), physical state (e.g. injured, painful, sick), evaluation (e.g. bad, excellent, good), appearance (e.g. polished, ugly, well), weight and length (e.g. heavy, long), light (e.g. clear). Adverbs refer to spatial relations (e.g. deeply, tightly), movement (e.g. fast, slowly), sound (e.g. quietly), time (e.g. early, late). The verbal collocates refer to psychic life (get to know, hate, miss, think, upset), movement (bang, swing, nod, thud, tilt), seeing (look). This analysis shows that mostly emotions and reaction to other people's behaviour or appearance were modified in our corpus.
18 Compare also Altenberg (1991).
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Table 2: Semantic fields of collocates modified by intensifiers in the English language
Semantic fields of collocates	Maximizers	Boosters	Moderators
Psychic life	absolutely, completely, perfectly, thoroughly	awfully, deadly, deeply, extremely, furiously, heartily, highly, really, so, very	
Physical state	completely, fully, utterly	deadly, extremely, grievously, so, very, violently	
Evaluation	perfectly	extremely, greatly, horribly, immensely, quite, really, very	quite, pretty
Appearance	completely	extremely, highly, really, very	
Movement		horribly, madly, violently, wildly	
Weight and length		immensely, too, very	
Spatial relations		horribly, really, very	
Time		very,	quite
Sound		madly	
Light and shadow			quite
4.1.2 Syntactic functions of intensifiers
Intensifiers as degree modifiers "operate at the level of constituents rather than at the clause level" (Nevalainen/Rissanen 2002: 361). Intensifiers of the three subgroups function as parts of attributes, parts of predicates, parts of adverbials with an adjective or an adverb and as adverbials with a verb. The maximizers function as part of attributes (1), part of predicates (2), part of adverbials (3), and as adverbials (4). They mostly occur in preadjectival and postverbal position.
(1)	Nevertheless, Harry was determined to find out more about Riddle, so next day at break, he headed for the trophy room to examine Riddle's special award, accompanied by an interested Hermione and a thoroughly unconvinced Ron, who told them he'd seen enough of the trophy room to last him a lifetime. (CS, 234)
(2)	"The moment they start trying to move into each other's pots, we'll know they're fully mature," she told Harry. (CS, 251)
(3)	Hermione lay utterly still, her eyes open and glassy. (CS, 257)
(4)	He pulled the cloak over his head and his reflection vanished completely. (PS, 201)
Anita Pavic Pintaric, Zrinka Frleta: UPWARDS INTENSIFIERS IN THE ENGLISH... 39
The boosters function as part of attributes (5), part of predicates (6, 7 and 8). They occur in preadjectival position.
(5)	Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed. (CS, 148/149)
(6)	This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. (PS, 117)
(7)	He entered, looking deadly serious, and was followed by a second, very odd-looking man. (CS, 200)
(8)	Percy was deeply disapproving of this behavior. (CS, 210)
The moderators function as part of attributes (9), part of predicates (10 and 11). They occur in the preadjectival position.
(9)	Reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. (PS 302)
(10)	So with one thing and another, Harry was quite glad to reach the weekend. (CS, 104)
(11)	They stood still, their heads inclined toward Filch's voice, which sounded quite hysterical. (CS, 229)
4.2 The German language
There are 32 intensifiers in the German corpus which express upwards intensity in three subgroups. Eight intensifiers belong to the group of maximizers: durchaus (found in 4 sentences), ganz (41), gänzlich (1), höchst (3), total (1), völlig (16), vollkommen (9), vollständig (1). The following 23 intensifiers express the high degree and belong to boosters: allzu (1), auffallend (1), ausgesprochen (5), außerordentlich (1), äußerst (6), besonders (8), echt (1), einfach (1), furchtbar (1), fürchterlich (5), hellauf (1), herzlich (1), recht (16), richtig (6), sehr (65), so (3), tief (2), ungemein (4), ungewöhnlich (2), unglaublich (4), unheimlich (6), wahrhaft (2), wirklich (8). Only one moderator, ziemlich (16) is found in the corpus.
4.2.1 Collocates
The maximizers modify adjectives, verbs and adverbs. The intensifier durchaus modifies only verbs, vollkommen intensifies verbs and adjectives, total and völlig modify adjectives, ganz modifies adjectives and adverbs. Boosters modify adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Adjectives are intensified with auffallend, ausgesprochen, außerordentlich, äußerst, besonders, echt, einfach, furchtbar, hellauf, herzlich, höchst, recht, so, ungewöhnlich, unglaublich, wahrhaft, wirklich, verbs and adjectives with fürchterlich, richtig. The intensifier sehr modifies adjectives, verbs, adverbs and allzu only adverbs. The moderator ziemlich modifies adjectives. Some collocates co-occur with different
40 VESTNIK ZA TUJE JEZIKE
intensifiers, e.g. richtig/sehr/ganz/echt/besonders/wahrhaft gut, recht/sehr dunkel, recht/ganz einfach, fürchterlich/ganz falsch, besonders/ganz laut, wirklich/einfach genial, ziemlich/völlig erschöpft.
Table 3. Word classes modified by intensifiers
Collocates	Maximizers	Boosters	Moderators
adjectives	ganz, total, völlig, vollkommen	auffallend, ausgesprochen, außerordentlich, äußerst, besonders, echt, einfach, furchtbar, fürchterlich, hellauf, herzlich, höchst, recht, richtig, sehr, so, ungewöhnlich, unglaublich, wahrhaft, wirklich	ziemlich
verbs	durchaus, vollkommen	fürchterlich, richtig, sehr	
adverbs	ganz	allzu, sehr	
Most intensifiers modify human psychic life (e.g. dumm, enttäuscht, hassen, stolz, traurig), evaluation (e.g. einfach, schlecht, wertvoll), appearance (e.g. blass, fett, schön), physical state (e.g. erschöpft, hungrig, krank), spatial relations (e.g. vorn, hinten, nahe), time (e.g. selten), weather (e.g. sonnig), light and shadow (e.g. dunkel), size (e.g. groß, klein), length (e.g. lange), sound (e.g. laut). Although the German examples are actually translations of the English text, the tables show a difference in the usage of intensifiers and their collocates. The number of intenisfiers modifying psychic life and evaluation as well as the overall number of upwards intensifiers are more numerous in the German text, which could lead to the conclusion that there are a bit more possibilities to express the upwards intensity in the German language.
Table 4: Semantic fields of collocates modified by intensifiers in the German language
Semantic fields of collocates	Maximizers	Boosters	Moderators
Psychic life	durchaus, ganz, total, völlig, vollkommen	ausgesprochen, außerordentlich, äußerst, besonders, furchtbar, fürchterlich, hellauf, höchst, recht, richtig, seht, so, tief, ungewöhnlich, unglaublich, wirklich	ziemlich
Physical state	ganz, vollkommen	fürchterlich, richtig, sehr, wirklich	ziemlich
Appearance	ganz, vollkommen	auffallend, besonders, fürchterlich, sehr	
Anita Pavic Pintaric, Zrinka Frleta: UPWARDS INTENSIFIERS IN THE ENGLISH... 41
Semantic fields of collocates	Maximizers	Boosters	Moderators
Evaluation		besonders, echt, einfach, fürchterlich, recht, richtig, sehr, wirklich	Ziemlich
Light and shadow		recht, sehr, ungewöhnlich	
Weight and quantity		herzlich, unglaublich	
Time		allzu, recht	Ziemlich
Movement	durchaus		
Weather		sehr	
Size and length		recht	
4.2.2 Syntactic function
Intensifiers of the three degrees function as parts of attribute, parts of predicate, parts of adverbials and as adverbials. The maximizers function as part of predicates (12) and as part of adverbials (13):
(12)	Harry allerdings war vollkommen ratlos. (CS, 21)
(13)	»O nein, Sir, nein ... Dobby wird sich ganz fürchterlich bestrafen müssen, weil er zu Ihnen gekommen ist, Sir.« (CS, 18)
The boosters function as part of the attributes (14), part of predicates (15), part of adverbials (16):
(14)	Ron hockte da, als ob ihm schlecht wäre, und Hermine schien in recht kich-riger Stimmung. (CS, 245)
(15)	Und es wär echt gut, wenn ich eins von dir hätte -« er sah Harry flehentlich bittend an »-, vielleicht könnte dein Freund es schießen und ich stelle mich neben dich? (CS, 101)
(16)	Und nicht besser war es drinnen im Schloss, wo die Dinge so fürchterlich falsch liefen. (CS, 274)
The moderators functions as part of the attributes (17), part of predicates (18), part of adverbials (19):
(17)	»Einmal in zehn Jahren vielleicht«, sagte Griphook mit einem ziemlich gemeinen Grinsen. (PS, 85)
(18)	Bist wohl ziemlich hungrig? (PS, 113)
(19)	Als sich Onkel Vernon am Sonntagmorgen an den Frühstückstisch setzte, sah er müde und ziemlich erschöpft, aber glücklich aus. (PS, 48)
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4.3 The Croatian language
The Croatian corpus consists of 33 intensifiers, which express upwards intensity in three groups. Five maximizers were found in the corpus: dozlaboga (found in 1 sentence), krajnje (1), posve (2), potpuno (26), sasvim19 (5), totalno (1). As in the previous two languages, 24 boosters build the most numerous class: bjesomučno (1), doista (2), duboko (2), grdno (3), izrazito (1), jako (23), neobično/neuobičajeno (6), odvec/odviše (4), ozbiljno (2), pošteno (1), pretjerano (1), previše (2), silno (4), smrtno (1), snažno (1), strašno (3), stvarno (4), tako (6), upravo (2), užasno (1), vraški (1), vrlo (68), zaista (1), zbilja (17). The following 3 intensifiers belong to moderators: kudikamo (8),poprilično (5),prilično (3).
4.3.1 Collocates
The maximizers modify adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Intensifiers dozlaboga, krajnje, posve, totalno modify adjectives, sasvim modifies adjectives and adverbs, potpuno modifies adjectives, verbs and adverbs.
The boosters modify adjectives, adverbs and verbs. Adjectives are modified with duboko, odvec, smrtno, tako, vraški, zaista. Intensifiers doista, pretjerano modify adverbs, izrazito, neobično, previše, stvarno, vrlo, zbilja modify adjectives and adverbs. Verbs are modified with bjesomučno, grdno, ozbiljno, pošteno, snažno, užasno, whereas silno modifies verbs and adjectives, jako and strašno modify verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
The moderators modify adjectives, adverbs and verbs. Adjectives and verbs are modified with poprilično, adverbs and adjectives are modified with prilično, whereas kudikamo modifies comparatives.
The following collocates co-occur with different intensifiers: potpuno/posve budan; jako/stvarno/zbilja/vraški dobro; strašno/zbilja glup; potpuno/sasvim normalno; do-zlaboga/strašno/jako/silno smiješno.
Table 5. Word classes modified by intensifiers
Collocates	Maximizers	Boosters	Moderators
adjectives	dozlaboga, krajnje, posve, potpuno, sasvim, totalno	duboko, izrazito, jako, neobično, odveč, previše, silno, smrtno, strašno, stvarno, tako, vraški, vrlo, zaista, zbilja	kudikamo, poprilično, prilično
verbs	potpuno	bjesomučno, grdno, jako, ozbiljno, pošteno, silno, snažno, strašno, užasno	poprilično
adverbs	potpuno, sasvim	doista, izrazito, jako, neobično, pretjerano, previše, strašno, stvarno, vrlo, zbilja	prilično
19 Sasvim has the meaning of completeness but in collocations with positive evaluation good (dobro) it can be classified as a moderator.
Anita Pavic Pintaric, Zrinka Frleta: UPWARDS INTENSIFIERS IN THE ENGLISH... 43
The collocates belong to various semantic fields, as shown in Table 6: psychic life (e.g. glup, iskren, lud, preplašeni, razočarana), physical state (e.g. namučiti se, ukočiti se, umoran), evaluation (e.g. dobro, jednostavno, vrijedan), appearance (e.g. debela, lijepo, zgodna), spatial relations (e.g. duboko), weight (e.g. teško), length (e.g. dugačak), size (e.g. veliko), light and shadow (e.g. smračiti se), sounds (e.g. glasan, tiho), quantity (e.g. mnogo), colour (e.g. bijel, crven), time (e.g. rijetko). The number of upwards intenisfiers modifying the physical state is the highest in the Croatian language, which could lead to the conclusion that the class of boosters seems to be most accessible for new adverbs.
Table 6: Semantic fields of collocates modified by intensifiers in the Croatian language
Semantic fields of collocates	Maximizers	Boosters	Moderators
Psychic life	dozlaboga, krajnje, posve, potpuno, totalno	duboko, grdno, izrazito, jako, neobično, odviše, ozbiljno, pretjerano, previše, silno, smrtno, snažno, strašno, stvarno, tako, užasno, vrlo, zaista, zbilja	kudikamo, poprilično, prilično
Physical state	posve , potpuno, sasvim	doista, grdno, pošteno, silno, vraški, vrlo	
Evaluation	potpuno, sasvim	doista, jako, silno, vraški, vrlo, zbilja	poprilično
Appearance	potpuno	jako, neobično, vrlo	
Weight and length		jako, vrlo, zbilja	kudikamo
Sounds	sasvim	vrlo	
Time		vrlo	poprilično
Spatial relations		vrlo	poprilično
Colour	posve	neuobičajeno	
Quantity		strašno	
Light and shadow	potpuno		
Size		zbilja	
4.3.2 Syntactic function
Upwards intensifiers function as parts of predicate, parts of attribute, parts of adverbials and as adverbials. The maximizers function as parts of attributes (20), as parts of predicates (21), parts of adverbials (22):
(20)	Jedan čovječuljak u cilindru razgovarao je sa starim, potpuno celavim pip-ničarom... (PS, 58)
(21)	Ona je možda korektnija od Snapea, ali je krajnje stroga. (CS, 67)
(22)	„A sad cemo se sasvim tiho popeti na kat", reče Fred. (CS, 31)
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The boosters function as parts of attributes (23), as parts of predicates (24), parts of adverbials (25), as adverbials (26):
(23)	„I to, bome, vraški dobar čarobnjak, reko bi, kad se malo izvještiš." (PS, 44)
(24)	Eh, Dumbledore je zbilja strašan. (PS, 239)
(25)	„Društvo, danas idemo u staklenik broj tri!" reče profesorica Sprout, koja nekako nije djelovala veselo kao obično, nego izrazito kiselo. (CS, 76)
(26)	Nema smisla uznemiravati suprugu jer se ona strašno uzruja kad god joj se spomene sestra. (PS, 9)
The moderators function as parts of attributes (27), as parts of predicates (28), parts of adverbials (29):
(27)	Ron je imao kudikamo teže probleme. (CS, 80)
(28)	Premda je ovo po mnogo čemu bio velik napredak, Harry je bio poprilično potišten. (PS, 73)
(29)	Harry spazi da se ostali profesoriprilično ukočeno smješkaju. (PS, 103) 5 CONCLUSION
In this paper parallel corpus was used in order to show the typology of upwards intensifiers in three languages: English, German and Croatian. Although these languages belong to different language families, the typology of intensifiers proved to be very similar. Upwards intensifiers can be divided into three subgroups in the three languages according to the degree of intensity: maximizers (denoting the absolute degree), boosters (the high degree) and moderators (denoting the considerable degree), which can all be determined by hypero-nyms. Most intensifiers in all the three languages belong to the high degree meaning "very", which can lead to the conclusion that boosters can take on new adverbs most easily.
Intensifiers always modify another lexical item, a collocate, in this corpus adjectives, adverbs and verbs. Boosters in the Croatian language show the most possible modifying combinations with all three word classes.
Distinguishing collocates according to various semantic fields shows that the three languages mostly use upwards intensifiers to modify contents from the field of human psychic life, i.e. different intellect traits and emotional states. Boosters of the three languages are found in all semantic fields, and the Croatian language shows a bit more classification possibilities of semantic fields as well as the use of maximizers and moderators in more fields than the other two languages.
Intensifiers which modify adjectives function as parts of attributes, adverbials and predicates. Those with verbs function as adverbials, and those with adverbs function as parts of adverbials and predicates.
Anita Pavic Pintaric, Zrinka Frleta: UPWARDS INTENSIFIERS IN THE ENGLISH... 45
The results of this analysis show a high degree of similarity between the English, German and Croatian language. Since intensity belongs to main human cognitive categories, further comparisons with other languages would be welcome in order to improve the description and inclusion of intensifiers in grammar books and thus in foreign language teaching.
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ABSTRACT
Upwards Intensifiers in the English, German and Croatian Language
This paper investigates the upwards intensifiers (adverbs of intensifying) in the English, German and Croatian language. Intensity as an important human cognitive category, and language expressivity is differently treated in grammars and dictionaries of all three languages, especially with respect to different degrees of intensity. In this paper we argue that it is possible to model a typology of upwards adverb intensifiers in the three languages, according to their morphosyntactic and semantic aspects. When it comes to intensifiers, it is necessary to describe which collocates are modified by intensifiers and which semantic fields the collocates belong to. The results of the corpus analysis based on Harry Potter novels show that all the three languages express the category of the upwards intensity in the same way: the number of intensifiers is similar, the collocates mostly belong to the same semantic fields and word classes, they have similar syntactic functions.
Keywords: intensifiers, collocates, semantic fields, syntactic functions.
48 VESTNIK ZA TUJE JEZIKE
POVZETEK
Izražanje visoke stopnje jakosti v angleškem, nemškem in hrvaškem jeziku
V članku avtorici preučujeta izražanje visoke stopnje jakosti (prislove jakosti) v angleškem, nemškem in hrvaškem jeziku. Jakost je pomembna kognitivna kategorija, sredstva za izražanje jakosti pa so različno obravnavana v slovnicah in slovarjih omenjenih treh jezikov, še zlasti kar zadeva različne stopnje jakosti. Avtorici menita, da je mogoče izdelati tipologijo prislovov za izražanje jakosti v vseh treh jezikih, ob upoštevanju njihovih morfosintaktičnih in semantičnih as-pektov. Ko govorimo o prislovih za izražanje jakosti, je potrebno opisati, katere kolokacije spremljajo prislovi za izražanje jakosti in katerim semantičnim poljem te kolokacije pripadajo. Rezultati analize korpusa - romanov o Harryju Potterju - pokažejo, da se jakost v vseh treh jezikih izraža na enak način, število prislovov je podobno, kolokacije večinoma pripadajo istim semantičnim poljem in imajo podobne sintaktične funkcije.
Ključne besede: prislovi za izražanje jakosti, kolokacije, semantična polja, sintaktične funkcije