“So-called -ingly adverbs in Late Middle and Early Modern English”.

Bibliographical details

Iyeiri, Yoko. 2020. “So-called –ingly adverbs in Late Middle and Early Modern English”, in Corpora and the Changing Society: Studies in the evolution of English, ed. Paula Rautionaho, Arja Nurmi, and Juhani Klemola, pp. 199-222. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

This article discusses the expaned use of –ingly adverbs from the late Middle English to early Modern English periods. As it shows, not only the overall frequency but also the inventory of –ingly adverbs increases during this period. It also notes their functional expansion: from the modification of adjectives, adverbs and verbs to the modification of the whole sentence. On the other hand, –ingly adverbs of the commenting type as observed in contemporary English are still missing in the data explored. Furthermore, the article discusses –ingly adverbs of the “Harry Potter” type (cf. Broccias 2012),* pointing out that they were more widely, though not necessarily frequently, observed in the period under analysis than assumed in the previous literature.

*Broccias, Cristiano. 2012. Oriented –ingly adjuncts in late Modern English. In English Historical Linguistics 2008, vol. 2: Words, Texts and Genres, Hans Sauer & Gaby Waxenberger (eds), 147–164. Amsterdam: Benjamins.