1889: Intensive Forms (Semantics) Feb 16, 2020

There are lots of ways words can come in pairs, but when it comes to intensive forms, these pairs are entirely semantic. For instance, comparing 'shatter' to 'break', and the only similarity—as none exist in the grammar, etymology, phonology etc.—is that the latter is the intensive form of the former, that is 'break' is forceful whereas 'shatter' is not. In some languages, especially semitic languages, these pairs would be more obviously related, but that is not always necessary.

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