Kravtsova O. The category of superlativity of English adjective: functional and discursive aspects

The dissertation presents an all-encompassing analysis of the category of superlativity as a manifestation of the linguistic category of intensity. Comprehensive study of the category of superlativity and its specificity has enabled a systemic description of its linguistic message and formal aspects, as well as the analysis of the system of superlativity devices in modern English adjectives and related devices. In Chapter One, "The Category of Intensity and the Category of Superlativity as a manifestation of the linguistic Category of Intensity in Modern English", we define specific pragmatic and semantic features of these categories. Intensity is viewed a quantitative measure of evaluation of quality. The corpus of various linguistic devices of intensity includes intensifying adjectives, intensifying adverbs, gradable adjectives, intensifiers, which go with certain gradable words, phraseological intensifiers, exclamations etc. By employing a functional semantic approach, we have determined the structure of the functional-semantic field of superlativity in modern English and described its core and periphery components. The system of linguistic devices of the category of superlativity as a specific manifestation of the category of intensity have been analyzed in detail within grammatical, world-building, lexical, and phraseological dimensions. Two types of superlatives - "relative" and "absolute' - have been singled out.