抄録
This paper examines the factors that have contributed to the category shift observed in the English phrase schematically represented as “all X wants/likes, ” from its basic usage as an NP that occurs as the subject or the copula complement, to the derived adverbial usage as an intensifier. I maintain that the factors include reanalysis triggered by the sentential position of the phrase that allows for ambiguity as well as the very restricted types of context in which the phrase occurs. Properties of the phrase relating to the category shift are presented through an examination of spontaneous examples from two major corpora. Also, several properties of the intensifier usage that reveal subjectivity are pointed out.
