Cross-categorial degree modification in Afrikaans: An analysis of the high-degree modifier 'baie'

Abstract

A central question within the study of gradability in natural language is whether different grammatical categories – adjectives, verbs, and nouns – are gradable in the same way. One means of addressing this question is by examining wide-distribution modifiers that combine with gradable predicates of all of these categories.

This thesis examines one such modifier: 'baie' "very/a lot" in Afrikaans. At first glance, 'baie' appears to have a maximally wide distribution, as it can modify gradable predicates of all categories. However, it is shown that 'baie' is in fact polysemous: two distinct instances of the modifier can be distinguished on the basis of semantic and syntactic tests. One modifies gradable adjectives, and the other modifies the remaining gradable categories. Semantic and syntactic analyses of these two instances of 'baie' are provided. Additionally, competition between 'baie' and the Afrikaans modifier 'veel' "a lot" in excessive and equative constructions is explained on the basis of the inherent evaluativity of the relevant instance of 'baie'. The thesis also speculates as to how these two distinct versions of 'baie' may have developed.

The thesis’ key contribution is its questioning of whether modifiers with a maximally-wide distribution really exist, or whether other modifiers that, like 'baie', have previously been analysed as single items might in fact be polysemous; and portion out the modification of different grammatical categories between apparently identical but semantically and syntactically distinct items. The analysis presented here also makes fruitful use of a distinction between the gradability of gradable adjectives and gradable verbs, which are modified in terms of quality/intensity, and the gradability of other gradable categories, which are modified in terms of quantity/frequency. Finally, this study is also the first, to my knowledge, to focus on degree modification in Afrikaans.