A Corpus-based Comparative Analysis Of Gender Differences Reflected In English Intensifiers

Based on corpus study, this paper adopted quantitative and qualitative approachesfor detecting the relationship between gender and English intensifiers and exploringthe underlying reasons for such differences.To demonstrate this relationship, the author utilized the BNC spoken corpus witha comparatively natural and large body of data which was dealt with for the purpose ofestablishing two novel spoken corpora according to the category of gender. Using thismethodology, it was understood probable to uncover significant gender differences infrequency concerning English intensifiers. As a result, marked differences betweenwomen and men were found in the frequency of English intensifiers. Concerning somewords, women used much more often than men while it was possible for men to useother intensifiers more frequently than women. Besides, qualitative analysis followingquantitative study is also carried out to provide further insight into and illustrations ofthe differences between men and women in the application of English intensifiers.Finally, the reasons for these differences were explored and analyzed from differentperspectives.The study, combining with quantitative and qualitative approaches based on corpus, explored the gender difference reflected in English intensifier. Therefore, it notonly added the research methods and enriched the studies of gender language but alsowas expected to be helpful to other fields including human communication, TEFL andso on.