TTHE SYSTEM OF GERMAN INTENSIFIERS IN A CORPUS OF MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN

The present thesis presents a study conducted using corpus linguistics and variationist methods in order to explore the system of intensifiers in a corpus of Middle High German. The data consisted of a sample of adjectives from different texts from the Middle High German period (1050-1350). The study of intensifiers (e.g. sehr ‘very’, wirkick ‘really’, ganz ‘quite’) has been a topic of much discussion, mainly in English. On the contrary, there is little research on the system of German intensifiers (e.g. sehr, wirklich, ganz). The analysis of data resulted in amplifiers being the most frequent type of intensifiers. Besides the thesis drew the distribution of the most frequent variants found in the sample, and the overall occurrence of intensifiers among different text types. Furthermore, the results suggest that the rate of intensification is relatively low and remains low throughout most of the Middle High German period, but is higher in courtly texts and religious legends than in other types of texts. These findings were comparable to the previous research done, suggesting that intensification of adjectives in German behaved similarly to what have been observed in English.