DWNT Downtoners
Definition
Degree adverbs that diminish: almost, barely, slightly, somewhat, rather, etc.
Detection Rules
Default downtoners rule (based on MFTE word list). Refines RB.
cql[word={words}]
Word list (15 items)
almost
barely
hardly
less
merely
mildly
nearly
only
partially
partly
practically
scarcely
slightly
solely
somewhat
mfte
cql[word={words}]
Word list (15 items)
almost
barely
hardly
less
merely
mildly
nearly
only
partially
partly
practically
scarcely
slightly
solely
somewhat
pybiber
pybiber matches by word form only (regex on token_tag blob) without filtering by POS. This counts e.g. “the only address” (JJ) alongside adverbial uses.
cql[word={words}]
Word list (13 items)
almost
barely
hardly
merely
mildly
nearly
only
partially
partly
practically
scarcely
slightly
somewhat
Normalization
Per words
Examples
He was barely able to stand after the long march.
The task was only slightly more difficult than expected.
She had practically given up hope by then.
Source: pybiber
He spoke barely above a whisper.
These tickets were only 45 pounds.
Source: le_foll_2024
It’s almost time to go.
Source: le_foll_2024
Sources
- biber_1988 — Biber, Douglas (1988) : Variation across Speech and Writing
- mfte — Le Foll, Elen & Shakir, Muhammad (2023/2025) : Multi-Feature Tagger of English (MFTE) — Python version
- pybiber — Brown, David West & Reinhart, Alex (2026) : pybiber — Python package for linguistic feature extraction and Multi-Dimensional Analysis
- xiao_2009 — Xiao, Richard (2009) : Multidimensional analysis and the study of world Englishes
- grieve_2023 — Grieve, Jack (2023) : Register variation explains stylometric authorship analysis
- bohmann_2019 — Bohmann, Axel (2019) : Variation in English Worldwide: Varieties and Genres in a Quantitative Perspective