Browsing by Subject "gender"

Pro gradu -tutkielmassani analysoin HBO-tuotantoyhtiön Baltimoreen sijoittuva The Wire -televisiosarjan kahden hahmon, Omar Littlen ja Felicia “Snoop” Pearsonin, murteellista kielenkäyttöä tyylillisen analyysin keinoin. Tutkimani hahmot ovat alaluokkaisia mustia homogangstereita, jotka ovat mukana huumejengeissä ja katukulttuurissa. Tarkastelen näiden hahmojen puheessa esiintyviä diskurssipartikkeleita yo ja man ja niiden eri käyttötapoja, kirosanojen diskursiivista käyttöä sekä muita “mustien käyttämälle englannille” (African American Vernacular English eli AAVE) tyypillisiä tyylikeinoja. Pääasiallinen metodini on Baugh'n (1983) kehittämä puhetilannetyyppien luokittelumalli, jonka pohjalta puhetyylin muodollisuutta analysoidaan tilanteen osanottajien keskinäisen suhteen perusteella. Lähestymistapani on intersektionaalinen, mikä tarkoittaa useiden eri sosiaalisten ja yhteiskunnallisten muuttujien samanaikaisen vaikutuksen huomioonottamista yksilön asemaa ja toimintaa tarkastellessa. Esittelen teoriaosiossa sukupuolen, rodun ja luokan yhteenkietoutumista käsitteleviä teorioita sekä Butlerin (1990) teorian sukupuolen performatiivisesta luonteesta. Tarkastelen erityisesti maskuliinisuuden performoimista ja sitä, kuinka se kytkeytyy rotuun ja luokkaan. Tutkimuksessani keskityn murteelliseen kielenkäyttöön (AAVE) yhtenä tärkeimmistä mustan rodullisen identiteetin ja luokkataustan merkitsijöistä tv-sarjassa, jossa mustia henkilöhahmoja esiintyy kaikkien yhteiskunnan kerroksien edustajina. Sidon tyylillisen analyysin aineistoni – käsikirjoitetun dialogin – muotoon. Teoretisoin sarjan tuottajien ja käsikirjoittajien tekemien murteellisten valintojen merkitystä sukupuolen, luokan ja rodun esittämiselle populaarikulttuurissa ja otan pohdinnassani huomioon tarkastelemieni hahmojen paikantumisen amerikkalaisessa yhteiskunnassa ja kulttuurissa. Eräs havainnoistani on, että koska tarkastelemani hahmot eivät rakenna maskuliinisuuttaan valtavirtaisen maskuliinisuuden representaatioiden peruselementin eli heteromieheyden varaan, merkittäväksi tekijäksi näiden hahmojen maskuliinisuuden performoimisessa nousee alempiin luokkiin yhdistetty ja rodullistettu kielenkäyttö.

Social and cultural interaction is a very important aspect of the modern society. Body modifications are a clear sample of this kind of interaction. The process of body modifying has been started as a cultural issue many ages ago and remains current nowadays. The thesis explores modern nature of body modifications in terms of Helsinki, Finland. Body modifications are the phenomenon that has always existed in the human civilization and it should be studied properly as any developing social tendency. That research covers such aspects as motivation and inspiration for having a body modification and relation of the modern society to body modified people. The research is conducted in 2016-2018 in Helsinki. I used qualitative research method in order to analyze deeper every particular case. The base of the research is ten personal interviews conducted on the same questionnaire. The respondents have different gender, age, professional area and personal background, the only common point for them is living in Helsinki at the moment of the interview. The questionnaire consists of eight questions. The first questions explore the modifications that the respondent has: the age when the respondent got the first modification, the motivation for body modifying, the meaning and kind of current body modification. The second part of the questionnaire explores the respondent’s personal aspects. Facing criticism in the society, relationship with a family and friends, identity formation in terms of the body modifying and regret issues are in the list of questions. The interviews also divided according to gender factor. Five of the interviews are male and five are female. The gender factor has a great influence on the research. The interviews were analyzed in two groups, female and male. The results of each group were compared for the comparative analysis. The comparative analysis showed that women face criticism toward their appearance more often than men and stereotypes on the base of appearance are also more connected with femininity image. There is also a correlation between the gender and location, size or kind of a body modification that the respondents have. In terms of that research I explored so-called “the blue disease” that means addiction to the process of modifying body. According to the results, the age when the first body modification was made might have effect on following inclination to “the blue disease”. For proving of my hypothesis I used other sources in the field of tattoos and gender studies. Its overview and correlation between these studies and my research helped me to clarify the data I collected from the interviews. At its broadest, we can say that society becomes more and more tolerant to body modified people though some gender related stereotypes are still exist. Body modifications develop and change. Its historical sacral and social meaning remains in some way but nowadays body modifications are more about the perception of beauty and ways of self-expression. New kinds of body modifications such as eye balls tattoo or silicone implants appear often, so the body modification phenomenon will remain current for a long time.

In my master’s thesis (pro gradu) I analyze three novels that are set in the future: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, The Circle by Dave Eggers, and Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. I suggest that while the novels share a great deal of tropes with such dystopian classics as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Geroge Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Yevgeni Zamyatin’s Мы (trans. We), they also differ from these novels to a significant degree. For this reason, I suggest approaching them as corporatocratic dystopias. In the analysis of generic dystopian characteristics in the novels, I refer to Erica Gottlieb’s (2001) notions of dystopian fiction. Another important literary concept in my study is satire, in the analysis of which I refer to Dustin H. Griffin’s (1994) views on satire as a playful and questioning genre. Central for all dystopias is the notion of a dystopian waning: the implied author of a dystopia exaggerates and ridicules in order to warn a contemporaneous reader against dystopian developments that take place in the reader’s own reality. The elementary difference between the three novels I analyze and Gottlieb’s characterizations concerns the novels’ description of tyranny. Traditionally, dystopias depict the supremacy of a state or a political party. In the novels I investigate in my thesis, the negative developments that take place in society are closely linked to the fact that corporations have gained power at the cost of political rulers, i.e. to the birth of a corporatocracy. I approach the question of power with the help of Antonio Gramsci’s (1975/1992) two dimensions of power: hegemony and dominance. I argue that unlike earlier dystopias, in which tyranny manifests itself in coercive deeds of dominance, the kind of corporatocracy the three novels depict functions to a great extent through hegemony, which is based on consent. In the three novels, corporations renew and uphold their power by maintaining excessive consumerism and mediatisation in society. In the analysis of these developments, I turn to Jürgen Habermas’ (1962/1989) views on mediatisation, and to Jean Baudrillard’s (1970/1998 and 1981/1994) and Joseph D. Rumbo’s (2002) conceptions on consumer society. The effects of consumerism penetrate also the private sphere in the novels, and thus questions about the body, sex, gender and sexuality are central to my thesis. Additionally, the novels seem to suggest that corporatocracy threatens reciprocity and togetherness between people, and alienates them from nature and from religion. I approach these themes with the help of Baudrillard’s theorisations on the body in consumer culture and Luce Irigaray’s (1985) discussions on patriarchy and women as commodities. The central outcome of my study is that the characters in the novels do not merely appear as identifiable victims of corporatocracy, or as fearless heroes who challenge the tyranny. Rather, as members of their fictional societies, the characters also contribute to the establishment of corporatocracy. I suggest that the dystopian warning all three novels eventually communicate leads directly to the behaviour, norms and ideologies of the characters, and finally, to human nature. Thus, through their characters, the implied authors of these novels encourage their readers to critically assess also their own roles as members of society.

Tutkielma käsittelee sukupuolirooleja ja poliittisia teemoja joita ilmenee 1960-luvun yhdysvaltalaisissa supersankarisarjakuvissa. Tutkielmassa alkuperäisaineistona käytän kahden yhdysvaltalaisen sarjakuvajulkaisijan, Marvelin ja DC:n, sarjakuvia. Nämä sarjakuvat ovat Journey into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, The Avengers, Action Comics, Batman, Detective Comics, Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane, Wonder Woman, ja World’s Finest. Sarjakuvien tulkitsemisen apuna käytän joitakin kulttuurintutkimuksen ja sukupuolentutkimuksen teorioita. Näistä tärkeimmät tutkielman sisällön kannalta ovat käsitteet sukupuolesta, feminiinisyydestä ja maskuliinisuudesta. Esittelen lyhyesti sarjakuvateollisuuden historian Yhdysvalloissa noin 1930-luvulta 1960-luvulle, jonka jälkeen tulkitsen alkuperäisainestoani. Supersankarisarjakuvissa esiintyy lähinnä valkoihoisia, keskiluokkaisia amerikkalaisia sankareita, jotka taistelivat rikollisuutta ja kommunismia vastaan. Suurimmaksi osaksi tarinat esittävät perinteisiä sukupuolirooleja ja länsimaisia arvoja. Kommunismi on tarinoissa paha, ja vain amerikkalaiset sankarit pystyvät tehokkaasti vastustamaan sen uhkaa. Latinalaisen Amerikan kansat ja kaikki alkuperäiskansat delegoidaan toissijaiseen asemaan, ja heidän ei anneta päättää asioistaan itse. Amerikkalaisten supersankareiden puuttuminen muiden maiden asioihin esitetään kiistatta hyvänä asiana. Suurin osa hahmoista on valkoihoisia, ja kaikki ei-valkoihoiset hahmot ovat usein stereotyyppisiä ja yksiulotteisia hahmoja. Maskuliinisuus liittyy erottamattomasti isänmaallisuuteen ja valmiuteen puolustaa länsimaisia arvoja ja demokratiaa. Feminiinisyys sitoutuu vahvasti avioliittoon, perheyksikköön ja huolenpitoon. Vaikka kaikki hahmot voivatkin saada feminiinisiä ja maskuliinisia ominaisuuksia, naishahmot saavat harvoin olla yhtä vahvoja ja kykeneviä kuin heidän miespuoliset kollegansa. Naispuoliset supersankarit joutuvat usein kamppailemaan feminiinisten ominaisuuksiensa kanssa. Mieshahmot taas kamppailevat vahvistaakseen jatkuvasti omia maskuliinisia ominaisuuksiaan, ja torjuakseen feminiiniset vaikutukset. Miesten homososiaaliset suhteet asetetaan etusijalle miesten ja naisten välisiin suhteisiin nähden, koska mieshenkilöiden on rajoitettava feminiinistä vaikutusta elämässään. Miespuoliset supersankarit kammoavat erityisesti avioliittoa. Tästä huolimatta kuvatut suhteet ovat heteronormatiivisia, ja kustantajat eivät halua esittää homoseksuaalisuutta. Kertomuksissa vahvistetaankin konservatiivisia arvoja, ja supersankarit ovat yhteiskunnan auktoriteettien kanssa samalla puolella.

The sex/gender model used in biological archaeologies to investigate human remains and past lives is one that relies on the epistemological and ontological separation of sex and gender. Despite this separation the model ends up treating these concepts synonymously due to the taken-for-granted binary nature of sex which in a deterministic manner eventuates into an equally binary gender. This thesis develops a theoretical framework for an archaeological concept of gender that operates without the division, binarism and determinism implicit in the sex/gender model. Pursuing answers to the questions whether it is possible to approach both sex and gender in archaeology in a nonbinary way, and if so, what is an archaeologically feasible alternative, it seeks to devise a method to approach sex and gender in mortuary archaeology beyond the deterministic binary. This thesis is firmly theory-oriented and the writings of various authors within the discipline of archaeology, feminism and queer studies comprise the necessary material. The theories pertaining to the field of feminism are intersectionality and queer theory, which eschew normativity and essentialism and call for gender diversity. Respective to archaeology, the theories influencing this thesis derive from new materialisms to whom the rejection of divisions and dichotomies is characteristic. In this regard, of particular note are the writings of new materialist and feminist theorist Karen Barad. Applying her theories concerning the relational, entangled and mutually constitutive nature of matter and meaning to the topic of sex and gender is central in devising a nonbinary new materialist perspective to be used for the purpose of a more open and inclusive mortuary archaeology. This thesis reveals that the dualistic division between nature and culture has resulted in a separate conceptual development and different strategies of engagement concerning sex and gender. The reason why sex is seen as a biological fact and gender as a cultural meaning proves false when both are affected equally by nature and culture, with the body serving as a nexus-point in which these two forces converge. Applying Barad’s insight reveals that binary sex is not an inherent quality of the body, but one that is produced through a scientific biomedical apparatus. Sex and gender exist in a state of inseparability when undetermined, but when subjected to a determination process, they become mutually exclusive phenomena, thereby disrupting sex-to-gender determinism. In their separate state, both are constitutive of matter and meaning, which is why gender made determined through intersectionality can be used to study gendered understandings through the materiality of the body, exempt from binary views. Analysing a topical bioarchaeological publication concerning a female Viking warrior through the approach that does not depend on the sex binary reveals that a scientific biomedical apparatus is subject to criticism on multiple fronts. Though the case study should be credited with rejecting gender role stereotypes, it demonstrates determinism and binarism as well as homogeneity and universalism in terms of categories. Failing to imagine possibilities beyond a fixed binary also results in the exclusion of alternate ways of knowing and being. The open-ended approach proposed in this thesis not only seeks to grant these possibilities opportunities to exist, but counsels cognisance towards the exclusions apparatuses enact. Embracing speculation, it also holds ambiguity and vagueness to be meaningful qualities pertaining to gendered archaeology. Regarding the mortuary setting, binary sex determinations need not be abandoned, but they should be used alongside this nonbinary approach.

This thesis analyses the position of working-class women in Victorian Spiritualism, and how they transcended class positions using their role as mediums. Spiritualism was a religious movement that was popular in both North America and Europe during the Victorian era, and women were especially important to the movement because of their “innate” connection to the natural and supernatural realms. As the movement primarily focused on communication to and from the spirit world, women acted as intermediaries by using their bodies as “vessels” and through this attained positions of power and respect. Recent scholarship has mostly focused on the contributions of middle-class women towards this movement; however, working-class women were also greatly involved in Spiritualist circles. Working-class women were held to a different societal standard however, due to sexual and moral qualities that had been prescribed upon them by the middle class. There were many working-class women Spiritualists but how they were introduced to the movement and how they operated within it differed to their middle-class peers. This thesis examines why Spiritualism was appealing to working-class women, because they would not have used the movement to gain access to the public sphere (as was the case with middle-class women). Working-class women were already present in the public sphere and thus there must have been another reason why they were drawn to the movement. As is shown in the thesis, many Spiritualists also identified as Socialists; the two movements shared many similarities, including a vision of a utopic future where classes and genders were equal as well as a distrust for the middle-class Christians of their society. Another question examined is how working-class women viewed their own position in Spiritualism, which brings forth issues of agency and consciousness. Through examining sources from the mediums themselves as well as newspapers I am able to construct an understanding that working-class mediums knew that in order to be respected in the Spiritualist community they had to downplay their own involvement as well as emphasize their lack of interest in worldly goods. A portion of this thesis focuses on the differing treatment of public and private mediums – those women who were private mediums were commonly regarded as less likely to be fraudulent and more respected than those who were public – public, in this instance, meaning those mediums who took payment for séances and extended their circle beyond that of their family and friends. Working-class women in Spiritualism remain emblematic of contradictions that were so prevalent in Victorian society – the body of the working-class woman was thought to be her strength and her connection to the spirit realm, but it was only through giving up her agency and acting as a mouthpiece for these spirits was she respected and taken seriously. Research methods I have used include an examination of historical sources, mainly being newspapers, accounts from people present at séances and an autobiography from one of the most prominent mediums of the time. I have also included a brief overview of intersectionality and why it is important for this thesis, as well as an analysis of power. From my thesis I hope to show the Spiritualist movement from the perspective of working-class women as well as how they used it to attain their own agency.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the representations of women in the activism of 19th-century freethinking feminists and the underlying motives thereof. I analyse the representations offered by Harriet Martineau in her writings on the Contagious Diseases Acts – legislation regulating prostitution – consisting of the four letters to the London Daily News in 1869, electoral placards and personal letters written c. 1871. In examining the different representations of women, I use content analysis to categorise Martineau’s rhetoric in her writings on the middle-class activists and lower-class sex workers. The three key concepts for this thesis are freethought, gender, and representation. By freethought I refer to the ideology of the organized 19th-century secularist movement that lobbied for the separation of political, cultural, and moral life from religion. I use the term gender as theorized by Joan Scott, conceptualising it as a constitutive element of social relationships based on perceived differences and as a way of signifying relationships of power. In utilizing the term representation, I use Stuart Hall’s definition of representation as “the process by which members of a culture use language to produce meaning”. The representations of women in Martineau’s writings on the Acts are varied and conflicting. I identify three representations of middle-class women: self-sacrificing patriots, moral guardians, and intellectual educators. Each is used to justify women’s move into politics. The emphasis on self-sacrifice and moral guardianship employs the dominant ideology of femininity in which women were passive but at the centre of the morality of the nation. However, at the same time Martineau challenges the dominant idea of femininity in presenting the female activists as active agents and intelligent educators. I identify three representations of lower-class sex workers: passive victims, sinners, and fellow English women. In the victimizing rhetoric, Martineau utilizes the common idea of the sex worker’s fallenness to evoke sympathy. However, she never differentiates between the sex workers by virtue, presenting all as victims of society. Most radically she portrays them as English women, equal subjects of the British law. This egalitarian representation challenges the hierarchical structure underpinning the victimizing rhetoric. I suggest Martineau’s representations draw from two distinct aspects: her middle-class background and her freethinking mission of bettering society through education. Her moral background explains the more traditional depictions of women. However, I argue that her belief in necessarianism motivates her egalitarian view of sex workers as fellow Englishwomen. I suggest that Martineau’s over-arching agenda was to educate the public. This is apparent in her appeals to the duty of citizens to learn and enlighten others.

This thesis examines what kinds of comments customer servants receive as well as discusses how they react to them. The comment types have been divided into positive, negative or uncomfortable ones and they are either work, persona or appearance-related. The focus in on the differences gender might cause. The theoretical approaches to this thesis are multifaceted: pivotal theories from the fields of sociology, linguistics and gender studies are used. Customer workers must balance emotional labor, performativity of gender and facework in their work life, and these phenomena shape their experiences as customer workers. The data for the study was collected by a questionnaire. The questionnaire asked questions about language use, workplace circumstances and policies and customer interaction. There were all in all 35 questions. Some were closed, some open and some multiple choice questions. The requirement for answering was to have worked in customer service. Most of the 458 respondents identified as women. The gathered data was analyzed mainly quantitatively. However, the open answers enabled the responses to be analyzed qualitatively as well, which gave more insights to the experiences of the customer workers. The results indicated that customer servants receive gendered comments and also respond to them according to gender norms. Female service workers receive more appearance-related comments than male service workers. The feminization of the customer service industry limits the ways to react, which results in submissive behavior. First and foremost, the customer worker needs to protect the customer’s face, because the customer has more power in the encounter. Besides gender, also the workplace affected the comments the workers receive. Workers in grocery stores receive more uncomfortable and negative comments than their colleagues in other workplaces. The workplace affects the way the workers react to the comments, too. However, the reasons for these differences between workplaces need further research. While gender and workplace have effects on the comments and the reactions, experience level impacts the feelings of the workers. The more experienced workers feel they are good at their jobs and they feel more respected by the customers than their less experienced colleagues.

Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on tarkastella kolmen igbo-nigerialaisen kirjailijan romaania igbojen keskeisen kosmologisen elementin (chi’n) kautta. Tutkimus on osa postkoloniaalista kirjallisuustutkimusta, jonka tarkoituksena on selvittää, millä tavoin igbojen kulttuurin eri elementit ovat muuttuneet länsimaisen kolonialismin ja erityisesti kristinuskon vaikutuksesta. Tutkimuksen päämääränä on selvittää, millä tavoin nämä kolmea eri sukupolvea edustavat kirjailijat käsittelevät oman kulttuurihistoriansa tärkeintä kosmologista elementtiä ja mitkä heidän kuvaustensa mahdolliset merkitykset igbo-nigerialaiselle kirjallisuuskulttuurille ovat. Tutkimus keskittyy erityisesti teoksissa kuvattuun maskuliinisen ja feminiinisen suhteeseen kolonialismia edeltävältä ajalta postkoloniaaliseen aikaan. Aineistona käytetään kirjallisuustutkimuksen lisäksi antropologista, historiallis-poliittista, kuin myös folkloristista ja luonteeltaan jopa teologista tutkimusta. Tutkimus on jaettu kahteen osaan, joista ensimmäinen käsittelee chi’n historiallisia juuria ja kolonialismin vaikutusta igbojen kulttuuriin sekä Chinua Acheben esikoisromaania edellä mainittujen valossa. Tutkimuksen toinen osa käsittelee kahden naiskirjailijan, Buchi Emechetan sekä Chimamanda Ngozi Adichien teoksia vastauksina Acheben teokselle. Tutkimuksen teoreettisena kehyksenä toimii erityisesti antropologinen ja folkloristinen tutkimus. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu siis kenttätutkimuksissa kootusta aineistosta, jonka valossa romaaneja tulkitaan. Keskeiseen asemaan nousee igbojen uskonnosta löytyvä duaalisuus, joka ilmenee parissa chi ja eke. Tämä duaalinen luonne on tärkeä osa igbojen maailmankatsomusta, jonka mukaan millään asialla tai olennolla ei ole koskaan vain yhtä puolta. Igbojen mukaan muun muassa ihminen rakentuu kahdesta osasta: chi’stä ja eke’stä, joista ensimmäinen on henkinen (maskuliininen) elementti ja jälkimmäinen fyysinen (feminiininen) elementti. Kaikki tutkimuksessa käytetty aineisto tukee hypoteesia, jonka mukaan igbo yhteisöjen maailma jakautuu tämän duaalisuuden ympärille: yhteiskunta on selkeästi jakautunut miesten ryhmiin ja naisten ryhmiin, jotka kuitenkin päättävät yhteisöä koskevista asioista yhdessä. Tutkimuksen perusteella kaikki kolme romaania edustavat kristillisjuutalaistunutta kuvaa kolonialismia edeltävästä kosmologiasta, koska niissä esiintyy kristillisen teologian pohjalta rekonstruoitu versio igbojen kosmologisesta pääelementistä, chi’stä. Tutkimuksen valossa, kosmologian tasapainottava, feminiininen elementti, eke, on kolonialismin vaikutuksen kautta menettänyt merkityksensä naisille produktiivisen roolin määrittävänä kosmologisena kategoriana. Chi’n rooli kristillis-juutalaisena ”henkilökohtaisena jumalana” romaaneissa taas vahvistaa maskuliinisen valtaa feminiinisestä igbojen länsimaistuneessa kulttuurissa.

While there is a plethora of research on intensifiers spanning several decades, the previous research on modern English intensifiers heavily focuses on the most prevalent ones, such as really and very. Therefore, the present study examines eight less studied intensifiers: amazingly, extra, fully, highly, massively, mega, super, and truly. Earlier research suggests that age and gender have an effect on the way we speak and that these social variables also play a role in the use of intensifiers, whether that be the frequency of usage or the choice of a particular intensifier. Thus, the present study investigates how age and gender affect the frequency of intensifier usage and the intensifier choice within the scope of the chosen set of intensifiers in present-day spoken British English. The study falls under the field of sociolinguistics. The research questions are as follows: How frequent are the intensifiers amazingly, extra, fully, highly, massively, mega, super, and truly in present-day spoken British English? What is the relation between the gender and age of the speaker and the frequency of intensifier use? What is the relation between the gender and age of the speaker and the speaker’s choice of intensifier? The study employs a quantitative, corpus-based approach. The data is collected from the core sub-corpus of the Spoken BNC2014. The Spoken BNC2014 consists of spoken interactions in British English in the 2010s. The core sub-corpus includes 6,169,296 words and there are 250 speakers. It has been created for sociolinguistic studies. The data is analyzed by comparing absolute and relative frequencies and by employing a log-likelihood test to determine possible statistical significance of the findings. The absolute frequencies of the chosen intensifiers vary from 10 to 96. While super is clearly the most frequent out of the selected intensifiers, it is still far from the most frequent ones of British English. The results show that females employ more intensifiers than males and that the most frequent intensifier users are the speakers aged 25 to 44. While the same age group dominates intensifier use among the females, for the males, the most frequent user group is the age group 0-24. Gender and age also influence the choice of the intensifier. Amazingly, extra, highly, massively, and super are more frequent in female speech. Fully, mega, and truly are more popular in male speech. Super is popular across all age groups and both genders, but highly is substantially more frequent in female speech. The findings shed light on the usage of less-examined intensifiers. The results support previous research findings in that age and gender seem to affect the frequency of intensifier use and the choice of the intensifier. The findings serve as a base for future research on the eight intensifiers, which can be extended to include, for instance, other social factors and varieties of English.