| Description |
This thesis summarizes decades of debate on the nature of the restitutive/repetitive ambiguity of English again, critically examines previous research testing hypotheses concerning the diachronic and future development of again, in particular investigating predictions made utilizing the theoretical Visibility Parameter that again is following a trajectory of losing its restitutive semantic sense. This thesis especially builds on the corpus-based diachronic research of again performed by Beck et al. and Gergel and Beck, which found evidence for the decline and loss of restitutive and counterdirectional again. Finally, this thesis produces an original corpus study with the aim of (a) confirming the findings of previous studies, and (b) making a plausible case for the adverb back and re- verbforms as candidates for influencing the decline of restitutive and counterdirectional readings of again. I conclude by suggesting future research into the nature of counterdirectional adverbs, the formal definition of counterdirectionality, and the nature of counterdirectionality’s apparent privileged relationship with the Visibility Parameter. |
