Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi,

does anyone know what such constructions as "the very first ...", "ever growing/changing etc. are called and where I could find an extensive list of them? To my mind, I'd call them linguistic enhancers. Does such a term ever exist or have I just coined it?

Thank you!

Bogdan

This reminds me of when I just started teaching in Turkey. Turkish has the word çok which is used for anything vaguely big or intensive. Turkish dictionaries usually translate it as very, which is not really a good translation. In fact, it doesn't really translate. In Turkish if you say, "çok problem" it means a very big problem (problem is an English loan word in Turkish.) The result of this is that Turks like to say, "It is very problem."

I can remember telling my students that you can't use very with a noun only to realise later that you can in the sense that you've just mentioned to indicate the exact or extreme point. The very beginning, the very middle, the very end, etc.

I don't know what the term for this is. The important thing is to get the students to understand the meaning of this form. Calling it very+noun, a few concept questions and exercises/games usually works for me.

You've taught in Turkey, Andrew? That's fantastic! I also taught in Istanbul for two years. Remember when they used to translate "cok kalabalik" as "very people"? Funny stuff! Thanx for the tips!

Bogdan (by the way, they used to pronounce my name as "boktan" in Turkish. Know what that means?)

Aren't you referring to intensifiers?

Incidentally Arabic uses the word 'fi' can also simply be an affirmation.

Yes, they are indeed called intensifiers.

Thanks!

Bogdan

They are intensifiers when used with adjectives, I'm not certain that they are intensifiers when used directly before nouns.

Intensifiers when used before an adjective are clearly a type of adverb. Before a noun they seem to behave more like adjectives, although not quite like adjectives. I don't really know what to call them in such circumstances.

They're interesting words.

Bo wrote:Hi,

does anyone know what such constructions as "the very first ...", "ever growing/changing etc. are called and where I could find an extensive list of them? To my mind, I'd call them linguistic enhancers. Does such a term ever exist or have I just coined it?

Thank you!

Bogdan

"Very" in "the very first" is a redundancy similar to "rarely ever". Both have no place in formal use. However, the forms have been used in informal use for a few hundred years and quite acceptable there. Used mostly for emphasis and modification of an adjective or adverb.

I don't want to comment on what constitutes the general class of "enhancers"; but just to say that the Oxford Dictionary gives "very" as both an adjective and an adverb.

It is derived from the Latin words "verus", the adjective "true", and "vero", the adverb "truly", and was used that way in Middle English. So you have the 13th century rendering of the christian Nicene Creed calling Christ "very God of very God" -- now translated "true God of true God". With time, "very" became increasingly used to also mean "the exact" or "the actual" thing described; so in Richard III you have Queen Margaret saying to Queen Elizabeth:
"Thus hath the course of justice whirl'd about,
And left thee but a very prey to time".
And the translation of Luke 19:40, has Christ saying to his critics: "If these (my followers) were silent, the very stones would cry out."

Until not so long ago "very" even had a superlative, as in "he would start a fight over the veriest trifle!"

However, Gilbert and Sullivan, it seems, didn't think "being well acquainted with matters" grammatical was as necessary as math to be "the very model of a modern major general'.

Intensifier it verily may be, but "very" still works as the simple adjective meaning "true". If your local library has the Shorter (!) Oxford Dictionary (2 volumes) you'll find the very essence of the history of the word all there

Norm

Quintessential Norm Ryder. Very satisfying!

Larry Latham

Thanks, Larry; but only the facetious bits were mine. As I said in my post, the rest is SOD all - as our UK colleagues might say (if such language were tolerated in this forum)

Norm