Кaraban A. The Development and Functioning of Quantitative Quality Feature Modifiers in the English Language of the 9th-19th c.

The thesis researches the specifics of the evolution and functioning of the lexico-semantic group of English quantitative modifiers of qualitative meaning (QMQM) from the 9th till the 19th centuries inclusive. The status of QMQM was refined as half-grammaticalised lexical units serving to communicatively highlight quality as important speech information in the epistemic interpretation of the speaker. QMQM from the very beginning were derived formations which were based on the tropeic reinterpretation of adverbs and lexicalization of functional words due to the ellipticisation of complement. Intensification and approximation of qualitative meaning was accompanied by the layering of subjective epistemologically modal semes. After the restructurisation of the main meanings of the verb forms of the indicative mood and the increase of the role of adjectivised parts of speech QMQM became one of the key factors of the communicative highlighting of quality as a predicative element in utterance.