Intensifying adverbials are concerned with the semantic category of degree. An intensifying adverbial indicates a point on an abstractly conceived intensity scale, and the point indicated may be relatively low or relatively high. Intensifying adverbials include two subsets:
1) Amplifiers: those that scale upward from an assumed norm with an enhancing effect,
2) Downtoners: those that scale downward from an assumed norm with a lowering effect. The notion of scaling up or down an imaginary intensity scale requires that the item or unit that an intensifying adverbial modifies be gradable (Quirk, et al, 1985).
[1] Loar, J. K. (2011). Chinese syntactic grammar: functional and conceptual principles. New York: Peter Lang.
