The fates of two English intensifiers: full and very

Focusing on the rivalry of the intensifiers full and very in Middle English, the present contribution exploits the evidence from the Innsbruck Corpus of Middle English Prose (Markus, 2008) in order to determine the regional and temporal conditioning of the competition, especially as regards the displacement of the intensifier function of full by very. Although the position of full was still strong at the the end of the Middle English period, the use of very, an original adjective, in the function of an intensive word was constantly growing. The decisive period in the competion must have been the turn of the Early New English period when very began to be used in the function of an intensifier on a wider scale.