Creation of an intensifier in progress: a study of the Japanese adverb hutuuni

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the emergent new usage of the Japanese adverb hutuuni. For most speakers of Japanese, this adverb means ‘ordinarily, usually, normally’, but among young adult speakers of Japanese, it has come to be used as an intensifier. Based on blog and conversation data as well as two surveys, the paper identifies wide ranging new senses of hutuuni, such as ‘very’, ‘fairly/pretty’, ‘contrary to or more than what I expected’, ‘not flattery’, and ‘honestly, speaking a true mind’. Focusing on its intensifier function, Imoto, Ryō. 2011. ‘Futsūni kawaī’-kō [A study of ‘Futsūni cute]. Shōgaku Ronshū 79(4). 59–75 proposes a scale analysis. Noticing that hutuuni typically occurs in a context where the expected level is set low, he argues that the function of hutuuni is to upgrade the level to the hutuu ‘standard’ level. He states that the intensifier usage is not the result of the semantic change of hutuu. The present study, on the other hand, suggests that the intensifier usage of hutuuni involves both syntactic and semantic change. Syntactically, hutuuni which is a verb modifier has come to modify adjectives, which has contributed to its new intensifier function. Semantically, we propose two possible paths to a degree word/intensifier for hutuuni, in line with the framework of the ‘subjectification’ and ‘intersubjectification’ of meaning proposed in Traugott, Elizabeth Closs. 2003. From subjectification to intersubjectification. In Raymond Hickey (ed.), Motives for language change, 124–139. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.