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Intensifying words in learners' Finnish and in dictionaries

Publication

Abstract

This paper deals with nine most frequent intensifying words in Finnish: aika, aivan, erittäin, hyvin, ihan, melko, oikein, todella and varsin. In spite of the fact that intensifying words form interpretative scales, the aim of this article is to search for some objective one on the basis of a small questionary made with several native speakers of Finnish.

The secondary aim is to look for new means to present this feature to the learners of Finnish. The study shows how learners use intensifying words themselves, what do they find in dictionaries and what more can be found in language corpus.

The corpus analysis deals with three words from the above mentioned list: erittäin, melko and varsin showing their collocational tendencies.