From 'quickly' to 'fairly': on the history of rather Export

@article{citeulike:3007805, abstract = {In this article I describe the semantic and syntactic development of the moderator <em>rather</em> from Old to Present-day English using a variationist approach. <em>Rather</em> originates in an Old English comparative adverb indicating speed, and hence time, but the loss of the indication of speed and movement can already be traced in the Old English period. In Middle English the 'preferential' senses of <em>rather</em> (e.g. the type 'I would rather do X than Y') become more common than the temporal senses. This contrastive meaning constitutes the unmarked use of <em>rather</em> in Early Modern English, but it gradually weakens in the course of the Modern English period. The moderator use becomes popular in the second half of the eighteenth century. The semantic development outlined above goes hand in hand with a syntactic development from an original adjunct into a subjunct and conjunct, and finally into a modifier of adjectives and adverbs.}, author = {Rissanen, Matti}, citeulike-article-id = {3007805}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1926564}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002657}, day = {2}, doi = {10.1017/S1360674308002657}, journal = {English Language and Linguistics}, keywords = {english, historical\_linguistics, language, lexicography, linguistics, words}, number = {02}, pages = {345--359}, posted-at = {2008-07-16 09:13:21}, priority = {0}, title = {From 'quickly' to 'fairly': on the history of rather}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002657}, volume = {12}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:3007805 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3007805 N2 - In this article I describe the semantic and syntactic development of the moderator <em>rather</em> from Old to Present-day English using a variationist approach. <em>Rather</em> originates in an Old English comparative adverb indicating speed, and hence time, but the loss of the indication of speed and movement can already be traced in the Old English period. In Middle English the ‘preferential’ senses of <em>rather</em> (e.g. the type ‘I would rather do X than Y’) become more common than the temporal senses. This contrastive meaning constitutes the unmarked use of <em>rather</em> in Early Modern English, but it gradually weakens in the course of the Modern English period. The moderator use becomes popular in the second half of the eighteenth century. The semantic development outlined above goes hand in hand with a syntactic development from an original adjunct into a subjunct and conjunct, and finally into a modifier of adjectives and adverbs. IS - 02 JF - English Language and Linguistics EP - 359 TI - From 'quickly' to 'fairly': on the history of rather VL - 12 SP - 345 KW - english KW - historical_linguistics KW - language KW - lexicography KW - linguistics KW - words AU - Rissanen, Matti PY - 2008//02/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1360674308002657 ER -