2.2 Reuze- as an Intensifying Prefixoid

Whereas in the compounds reuzenlied ‘song of/about the giants’, lit. ‘giants-song’ or reuzesterk ‘as strong as a giant’, lit. ‘giant-strong’ in 1 the lexical meaning of reus ‘giant’ is still available, this is not the case for the nominal compounds in 2a, nor for the adjectival compounds in 2b.

1. (2)

   1. a. reuzekerel ‘fantastic guy, terrific chap’, lit. ‘giant-guy’; reuzeblunder ‘whopping blunder’, lit. ‘giant-blunder’; reuzehonger ‘great appetite’, lit. ‘giant-appetite’; reuzespektakel ‘enormous spectacle’, lit. ‘giant-spectacle’, etc.

   2. b. reuzeleuk ‘very nice’, lit. ‘giant-nice’; reuzehandig ‘very useful’, lit. ‘giant-useful’; reuzesaai ‘very boring’, lit. ‘giant-boring’; reuzeslim ‘very smart’, lit. ‘giant-smart’; reuzeklein ‘very small’, lit. ‘giant-small’, etc.

In these compounds, reuze- merely expresses a semantic intensification of the compound's right-hand member: It means very, enormous(ly), fantastic and not just very big.

When a morpheme looks like a part of a compound and can still be used as a lexeme (in the present case, reus ‘giant’), but expresses a more general and abstract value (in the present case, an intensifying value) within the compound, it is referred to as an affixoid (Booij Reference Banga, Hanssen, Neijt and Schreuder2009:208). Drawing on Stevens (Reference Norde2005:73) and Leuschner (Reference Lehmann2010:865–866), we can add the following criteria for “affixoid-hood:” Affixoids are usually very productive (see also Meesters Reference Leuschner, Dammel, Kürsner and Nübling2004 on the serial productivity of Dutch affixoids), which is the case of Dutch reuze- as illustrated by 2; they do not express grammatical relations, and are generally in competition or in complementary distribution with true affixes (for example, reuzeleuk/ superleuk/megaleuk ‘very nice’). According to these criteria, reuze- can be considered an intensifying prefixoid in the examples in 2.

Since Dutch compounds generally have fore-stress and Dutch prefixes are not necessarily stressed, it could be hypothesized that affixoids may undergo loss of stress (see Van Goethem Reference Van de Velde, De Smet and Ghesquière2008). However, as Booij (Reference Amiot and Van Goethem2005:117) observes, affixoids are generally not characterized by phonological weakening. This is especially true about intensifying prefixoids, which are always stressed in Dutch.Footnote ³ This implies that the distinction between the compounds in 1, where reuze(n)- should still qualify as a noun, and the word formations in 2, where reuze- acts as an intensifying prefixoid, should essentially be made on semantic grounds. As a matter of fact, in contrast to the compounds in 1, the semantics of the nominal compounds in 2a and the adjectival compounds in 2b can generally not be described by referring to a giant: reuzeleuk does not mean ‘as nice as a giant’ and a reuzeblunder is not ‘a blunder (as one) of a giant’. This clearly indicates the semantic specialization of the prefixoid reuze-. However, the borderline is not always so well defined, as evidenced by reuzehonger, which means ‘great appetite’, but could still be interpreted as ‘an appetite like that of a giant’.

Finally, it should be observed that according to the modern Dutch spelling rules, the linking morpheme -n-, typical of N+N compounds, should be deleted when reuze- (and comparable elements such as klasse- lit. ‘class’ in klassespeler ‘first-class player’, lit. ‘class-player’ and bere- ‘bear’ in berehonger ‘great appetite’, lit. ‘bear-appetite’) is no longer recognized as a noun but has developed an intensifying value.Footnote ⁴

2.3 Reuze as an Adjective and Adverb

It is noteworthy that reuze can also be used as a free morpheme, namely, an adjective or an adverb, while preserving its linking morpheme -e- and its intensifying meaning, both typical of its bound use as a prefixoid (see section 2.2).Footnote ⁵ In order to illustrate, classify, and quantify the relative frequencies of these uses, we took a sample of 100 occurrences of the free morpheme reuze from the (Belgian and Dutch) news archives on news.google.com, all published during the period between June 18 and July 18, 2011. In 77% of these examples, reuze is used adverbially, mostly with scope over adjectives (49%), as shown in 3, although it can also have scope over verbs or verbal expressions (28%), as shown in 4.

1. (3)

   1. a. Mijn zoontje en ik hebben een reuze leuke middag gehad!

      ‘My son and I had a great afternoon!’ (lit. ‘a giant nice afternoon’)

   2. b. De inwoners moeten dus behalve voor de vuilnisbak ruimte zoeken voor de gele vuilniszakken, en dat vinden ze reuze onhandig.

      ‘So the residents not only have to find a place for the garbage can but also for the yellow rubbish bags and they think that is very impractical.’ (lit. ‘giant impractical’)

2. (4)

   1. a. Eerst riepen frisse papa-ministers als Wouter Bos en Camiel Eurlings dat het allemaal reuze mee zou vallen en in de VS zou blijven en bovendien tot de huizenmarkt beperkt zou blijven.

      ‘Newly turned papa-ministers such as Wouter Bos and Camiel Eurlings first shouted that it would all turn out much better than expected (lit. ‘that it all giant would turn out’) and would stay in the U.S. and moreover would be limited to the housing market.’

   2. b. Om uiteenlopende redenen regende het afzeggingen, maar de vijf mensen die wél meededen aan de 18 kilometer lange scootmobieltocht in Terneuzen en omgeving hadden het gistermiddag reuze naar hun zin.

      ‘Because of various reasons cancellations poured in, but the five people who did participate in the scooter trip of 18 kilometers in Terneuzen and the surrounding area enjoyed it very much yesterday afternoon.’ (lit. ‘had it giant to their liking’)

In the remaining 23% of the examined cases, reuze is used adjectivally, in which case its attributive use (22%) in 5 is much more common than the predicative one (1%) in 6.

1. (5)

   1. a. De uitbreiding van de electorale faciliteiten tot heel Vlaanderen, via de unitaire kieskring, is een reuze stap achteruit.

      ‘The extension of the electoral facilities to the whole of Flanders, via the unitary electoral district, is a giant step backwards.’

   2. b. Vanavond is er als extra attractie een reuze vuurwerkspektakel.

      ‘Tonight there will be a giant firework show as an additional attraction.’

   3. c. De binnenstad staat immers op een reuze betonnen plaat van 12 ha tussen twee heuvelruggen, waaronder alle gemotoriseerd verkeer moet parkeren zodat het ganse centrum overdag een grote voetgangerszone is.

      ‘The town center is indeed built on a gigantic slab of concrete (lit. ‘giant concrete sheet’) of 12 ha between two ranges of hills, under which all motorized traffic has to park so that the entire center is a large pedestrian zone by day.’

2. (6) Ik heb het één keer mogen meemaken en dat was reuze!

   ‘I had the luck to experience it once and that was great!’

   (lit. ‘giant’)

Reuze is not an isolated case of an intensifying prefixoid that has developed free uses; other examples are given in 7 (see Van Goethem & De Smet, to appear).

1. (7)

   1. a. Verouderd hotel, maar top sfeertje hier! (NLCOW2012)

      ‘Old-fashioned hotel, but great atmosphere here!’ (lit. ‘top atmosphere’)

   2. b. Je bent echt kei getalenteerd. (NLCOW2012)

      ‘You are really very talented.’ (lit. ‘boulder talented’)

   3. c. Ketnet is bere bere bere. (WebCorp 2012)

      ‘Ketnet is fun, fun, fun.’ (lit. ‘Ketnet is bear, bear, bear.)

   4. d. De wijn eindigt met een lange, elegante afdronk. Te vergelijken met een échte klasse Champagne. (WebCorp 2012)

      ‘The wine rounds off with a long, elegant aftertaste. Comparable to a true first-class champagne.’ (lit. ‘class’)

Before investigating the diachronic developments of the free uses of Dutch reuze (section 3), we want to discuss some important observations concerning the status and spelling of reuze in Modern Dutch.

2.4. Some Observations on the Synchronic Uses

The status of these free (adverbial and adjectival) uses, as well as their relation to the morphological use of reuze(n)-, deserves some special attention. In particular, in what follows we comment on (i) the existing spelling variations, and (ii) on the possible influence of readability on the spelling of complex expressions with reuze.

First, the spelling of complex expressions with reuze(n)(-) is subject to considerable variation and ambiguity, which signals that the language user does not have clear intuitions about the grammatical status of reuze. For instance, reuze is separated from stap ‘step’ in example 5a, suggesting that it is used as an attributive adjective. It can also be joined to the noun, with or without a linking morpheme -n- (reuzenstap, reuzestap ‘giant(s) step’), in which case the spelling is symptomatic of its status as noun or prefixoid, respectively (see sections 2.1 and 2.2). Semantically, however, all of the three spelling patterns convey similar meanings, as shown by the web examples in 8, where reuze()(n)stap ‘giant(s) step’ is used in the same syntactic construction (een reuze()(n)stap vooruit ‘a giant step forward’) within comparable semantic contexts.

1. (8)

   1. a. De komst van de endoscoop betekende al een reuze stap vooruit in de chirurgie.Footnote ⁶

      ‘The invention of the endoscope already meant a giantstep forward in surgery.’

   2. b. De overname van Mannesmann (…) door Vodafone Airtouch bracht draadloze communicatie een reuzestap vooruit.Footnote ⁷

      ‘The takeover of Mannesmann by Vodafone Airtouch put wireless communication a giant step ahead.’

   3. c. Pilletje tegen jetlag! Een nieuwe sensationele doorbraak, een reuzenstap vooruit in de medische wereld!Footnote ⁸

      ‘A pill against jetlag! A new sensational breakthrough, a giant step forward in the medical world!’

A second observation concerning the different synchronic uses of reuze is that it often appears separately when combined with “complex” compounds (namely, compounds with more than two members), such as vuurwerkspektakel ‘firework show’ in 5b or (lexicalized) noun phrases, such as betonnen plaat ‘slab of concrete’ in 5c. As a matter of fact, since 14 out of the 22 examples (63.6%) of attributive reuze in our synchronic data set exemplify this phenomenon, it is very probable that this separation is motivated by a concern for the readability of these complex expressions. A similar motivation could be involved in example 3b: It seems that reuze is often separated from adjectives beginning with a vowel to avoid readability problems caused by a vowel clash (for example, reuzeonhandig ‘very impractical’, lit. ‘giant-impractical’). Thus, it might be argued that the free uses of reuze are, in fact, just instances of the prefixoid (written separately), not only on semantic grounds (similar intensifying value), but also on formal grounds.

Table 1 (below) presents the number of hits of a Google search from January 25, 2012 for the different spellings of reuze combined with adjectives and nouns with and without an initial vowel. In order to avoid semantic interference, a selection was made of closely related adjectives and nouns, with synonymous (interessant/boeiend ‘interesting’; angst/ schrik ‘fear’) and antonymous (onhandig ‘impractical’/handig ‘practical’) meanings. The results indicate a general strong preference for splitting, which is even stronger in the case of a possible vowel clash.

Although the readability factor should, without any doubt, be taken into consideration when explaining the rise of the free uses, it does not account for the fact that separation also frequently occurs when reuze precedes nouns or adjectives beginning with a consonant (see example 3a and the examples reuze handig ‘very practical’, reuze boeiend ‘very interesting’ and reuze schrik ‘great fear’ in table 1). Similarly, the readability factor does not account for the fact that adverbial reuze can have scope not only over adjectives but also over verbs and verbal expressions, as in 4. In contrast, prefixoid reuze can only have scope over adjectives and (to a lesser extent) over nouns. In addition, as an adjective, reuze can be used not only attributively but also predicatively, as in 6. The adverbial use with scope over a verb or verbal expression and the predicative adjectival use are not (directly) reminiscent of the prefixoid use, which clearly suggests that reuze is used as a true adverb and adjective.

Table 1.

Spelling in case of vowel clash.

Another argument can be found in example 5c, where reuze has scope over the noun phrase betonnen plaat ‘slab of concrete’. Even if Dutch prefixoids can combine with complex compounds (for example, hoofdverblijfplaats ‘main residence’, lit. ‘head-residence-place’), they, unlike Dutch adjectives, cannot have scope over entire (lexicalized) phrases. Compare, for example, belangrijke economische sector ‘important economic sector’ with *hoofd economische sector lit. ‘head economic sector’ or *sleutel economische sector lit. ‘key economic sector’, even though the literal English translation is unproblematic.Footnote ⁹ Therefore, reuze should be considered a true adjective in cases such as 5c, and not just a prefixoid, written separately for reasons of readability.

3.1 Reuze(n)- in N+N and N+Adj Compounds (from the 17th Century On)

From table 2 and the data provided by the WNT, it can be derived that from the 17th until the 18th century, reuze(n)- only occurred as the left-hand member of N+N compounds, as shown in 9. In these first occurrences, reus/ze(n)- always referred to a creature of gigantic stature (literal lexical meaning).

1. (9)

   1. a. De blyschap kort den tyt, godinnen scheppen goden. Een reuzenafkomst trotst het hemelsch gezagh.

      (J. van den Vondel 11, 31 [1667])

      ‘Gladness shortens time, goddesses create gods. Descent from the giants (lit. ‘giant-descent’) defies the celestial authority.’

   2. b. De strijd van ‘t Reuzerot tegen den dondergod Jupijn is die van Lucifer tegen God. (J. van den Vondel, Hekeldichten, [1682])Footnote ¹²

      ‘The battle of the race of giants (lit. ‘giant-race’) against the god of thunder Jupiter is the one of Lucifer against God.’

   3. c. Reeds sliepen de windjes, en het geboomte (…) was met eene reuzengedaante in den stillen vloed geschilderd.

      (E.M. Post, Het land, in brieven, [1787])

      ‘Already were the winds sleeping, and the trees (…) were painted with a gigantic stature (lit. ‘giant-stature’) in the silent tide.’

From the 19th century on, these N+N compounds become particularly productive and a semantic shift occurs: The left-hand member of the compound acquires a qualifying value (very big, gigantic, great). This gradual metonymic transition manifests itself in the WNT’s semantic description of a compound such as reuzenkind (lit. ‘giant child’): Kind van een reus (Halma [1710]) en vand. groot en zwaar kind (Kuipers [1901]) ‘child of a giant (Halma [1710]) and hence big and heavy child (Kuipers [1901])]’ (WNT, s.v. reus^I).Footnote ¹³Reuzenarm lit. ‘giant arm’ also combines the literal and the qualifying meaning: In addition to the meaning arm (als) van een reus ‘arm (like that) of a giant’ (WNT, s.v. reus^I) exemplified in 10a, the WNT dictionary mentions as a second meaning zeer grote arm ‘very big arm’ (WNT, s.v. reus^I) given in 10b.

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   1. a. Een ander menschensoort (…) Sterke schouders, reuzenarmen, schraagden ‘t mateloos geweld. (D.J. Lennep 235 [1823])

      ‘Another human race (…) Strong shoulders, giant arms, supported the immense violence.’

   2. b. Zij (Maria) wenkt: de krijg valt stil; zij komt heur stad beschermen, Die voor heur altaar bad, en ‘t steunde in reuzenarmen. (V. Ackere, Winterbl. 318 [1868])

      ‘She (Mary) beckons: the war stops; she comes to protect her city, which prayed for her altar and supported it with gigantic arms.’ (lit. ‘giant-arms’)

According to the diachronic information provided by the WNT, all compounds that combine both meanings developed the literal lexical meaning before the qualifying one. For instance, in the case of reuzen-bed, lit. ‘giant bed’, the meaning grafheuvel (=bed (als) van een reus) ‘sepulchral mound, tumulus’ (=‘bed (like that) of a giant’) (WNT, s.v. reus^I) in 11a precedes the qualifying value zeer groot bed ‘very big bed’ (WNT, s.v. reus^I) in 11b.

1. (11)

   1. a. Hoedaenighe verheevene graven, (…), ende by de inzaeten reusen-bedden genoemd.

      (V. Slichtenhorst, Geld. Gesch. 1, 78 a [1654])

      ‘Such elevated tombs, (…), called giant beds by the inhabitants.’

   2. b. Ik had ‘t over de dilligence, dat is dat reuzebed van boven.

      (Naeff, Veulen 140 [1903])

      ‘I was talking about the stage coach, that is that giant bed from upstairs.’

In a final step of the semantic change, a number of 19th and 20th century's compounds are found, where only the derived qualifying value remains. A reuzenkunstenaar ‘giant artist’ in 12, for example, refers to a very important and very big artist, and conveys a metaphorical qualifying meaning, in which the original meaning referring to a giant is no longer available.

1. (12) Drie eeuwen zijn er thans in ‘t ruim des tijds vervlogen Sinds Vlaandren aan Europe een reuzenkunstnaar schonk (betr. Rubens). (J. V. Rijswijck Jr. 1, 11 [1877])

   ‘Three centuries have passed now in the space of time since Flanders donated a giant artist to Europe (about Rubens).’

In addition to this qualifying value, a classifying interpretation emerges from the second half of the 19th century on. When combined with names of animals, plants, and fruits, as in 13, compounds with reuze(n)- refer to species and varieties of very big dimensions.

1. (13)

   1. a. De schelp van de reuzenmossel is somtijds vijf voet breed, en wordt van 400 tot 500 pond zwaar.

      (Alb. d. Nat. 1859, 1, 32 [1859])

      ‘The shell of a giant mussel is sometimes 5 feet wide, and can weigh from 400 to 500 pounds.’

   2. b. Reuzenpopulieren, die hun donkere kruinen, hoog in den blauwen sterrennacht, over de stille daakjes uitspreidden.

      (Buysse, Rozeke 1,6 [1905])

      ‘Giant poplars, which spread their dark crowns, high in the blue starry night, over the small silent roofs.’

During the 19th century, reuze(n)- also appears in adjectival compounds, even if they are very rare: The extensive list of compounds included in the WNT article on the nominal use of reus (s.v. reus^I) only contains two adjectival compounds beginning with reuze-: reuzesterk ‘as strong as a giant’, lit. ‘giant-strong’ in 14a and reuzegroot ‘as big as a giant’, lit. ‘giant-big’ in 14b; reuzensterk is the only attested N+Adj compound in the Reference Van GoethemDBNL corpus.

1. (14)

   1. a. Hij is reuzesterk, il est d'une force de géant, il est prodigieusement fort.’ (Kramers, Ned.-Fr. wdb. 1178a [1862])

      ‘He is as strong as a giant (lit. ‘giant-strong’), he has the strength of a giant, he is extremely strong.’

   2. b. Twei komkommers feur vaàf sint! … een concurrent … riep met een kermisdrift in zijn aanprijzing: Reùzegraut! … reùzegraut! … ik geif d'r drie feur ‘n stuyfer.

      (Querido, Jordaan 1, 320 [1912])

      ‘Two cucumbers for five cents! … a competitor … shouted with a temper as if he were at the Fair: as big as giants! … as big as giants (lit. ‘giant-big’)! … I give three of them for a penny.’

It can be concluded that the compounds beginning with reuze(n)- have been subject to a gradual semantic shift in the course of time. The 19th century appears to be a transitional period between the original lexical meaning involving reference to giants, and the derived metonymical value very big, great, which since then becomes more productive, in a qualifying or classifying sense. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the original meaning of reus with a literal reference to giants becomes less available. In this respect, the example in 14a, in which the WNT quotes a bilingual Dutch-French dictionary (Kramerswi 1862), deserves further attention. The example provides two different French translations for the sentence Hij is reuzesterk lit. ‘He is giant-strong’. The first one is literal: Il est d'une force de géant ‘He has the strength of a giant’. The second one suggests a more recently acquired intensifying value: Il est prodigieusement fort ‘He is extremely strong’, with the use of reuze as a prefixoid grounded.

3.2. Reuze- as a Prefixoid (19th Century)

By the middle of the 19th century the compounds with reuze(n)- seem to give rise to a new use as an intensifying prefixoid meaning very, great, enormous(ly). The WNT dictionary nevertheless admits that the formal and semantic boundaries between the nominal, the prefixoid, and even the adjectival use (see section 3.3) are not always obvious. However, when reuze- can no longer be associated with the notion of a giant (a mythological character, a very tall man), it should no longer be analyzed as a noun (WNT, s.v. reuze-^I).

According to the WNT (s.v. reuze-^I), this prefixoid gains in productivity from the beginning of the 20th century on, which is corroborated by our Reference Van GoethemDBNL corpus analysis: While this prefixoid use remains marginal up to the 19th century (8.60%), it becomes the most frequent one in the 20th century's subcorpus (47.06%).

Already at the beginning of the 20th century, the intensifying prefixoid reuze- (with various spellings) combines with nominal heads, as in 15a,b, and with adjectival heads, as in 15c,d.

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   1. a. Kol. Bulders (oordeelde) Hindenburg een reuzenflater begaan door de doorbraak te proberen bij St. Quentin.

      (Goerée d'Overfl., Dagb. 48 [1918])

      ‘Colonel Bulders (judged) that Hindenbrug had committed a major blunder (lit. ‘giant-blunder’) by forcing the breakthrough at St. Quentin.’

   2. b. Je trouwt wel … Volgend jaar al misschien. En je krijgt ‘n reuze-cadeau van me, als je nou maar opschiet.

      (Cissy V. Marxveldt, J. ter Heul 2, 8 [1921])

      ‘You will marry once … Maybe already next year. And you will get a huge present (lit. ‘giant-present’), if you just hurry now.’

   3. c. We hadden een reuze-leuke koffietafel.

      (Cissy V. Marxveldt, J. ter Heul 2, 73 [1921])

      ‘We had a very fun (lit. ‘giant-funny’) coffee lunch.’

   4. d. Hij verdient een shilling per dag, maar is dan ook ‘ketier mabsout’, gij zoudt zeggen: reuze-tevreden.

      (J.I. de Haan, Jerusalem, [1921])

      ‘He earns a shilling a day, but then he is “ketier mabsout”, you would say: tremendously happy.’ (lit. ‘giant-satisfied’)

      As the next step, this intensifying prefixoid gains autonomy and develops into a free morpheme (adjective, adverb, or interjection).

3.3. Reuze as Adjective, Adverb, and Interjection (20th Century)

The WNT dictionary (s.v. reuze^II) distinguishes three autonomous uses of reuze, which originate from its bound use by a so-called process of isolation. The dictionary supposes that the adjectival and adverbial uses shown in 16a and 16b, respectively, have preceded its use as an interjection shown in 16c.Footnote ¹⁴ In all three cases, reuze preserves the intensifying meaning (as well as the linking morpheme -e-) from its corresponding prefixoid. The meaning of the free morpheme reuze is described as follows: “als superlatief gekleurd woord dat iets als zeer groot of zeer goed in zijn soort qualificeert. Te vergelijken met woorden als geweldig, fantastisch, enorm, verschrikkelijk, akelig (netjes), bliksemsch (goed) e.d.” (WNT, s.v. reuze ^II).Footnote ¹⁵

1. (16)

   1. a. Reuze boffer, reuze lol, reuze boer, reuze gek, reuze uitvinding, (…) (V. Ginneken, Handb. 1, 509 [1913])

      ‘Great luck (lit. ‘giant luck’), great fun (lit. ‘giant fun’), great farmer (lit. ‘giant farmer’), great fool (lit. ‘giant fool’), great invention (lit. ‘giant invention’) (…)’

   2. b. Een gelegenheids-eenacter voor de H.B.S.-fuif … of andere hoogtijden, die meestal ‘reuze’ insloeg en ‘t uitmuntend ‘deed’.

      (Masker 1, 184 [1921])

      ‘A one-act play for a special occasion at the H.B.S. party … or other feasts, which usually scored greatly (lit. ‘which usually giant stroke’) and did an excellent job.’

   3. c. N’ smoel, man! reuze! (Ginneken, Handb. 1, 509 [1913])

      ‘What a face, man! Great!’ (lit. ‘giant’)

The Reference Van GoethemDBNL corpus analysis also corroborates the emergence of the adjectival, as in 17a, and adverbial, as in 17b, uses in the course of the 20th century, even though the small number of occurrences did not allow us to examine their specific diachronic developments in more detail.

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   1. a. Delphine Seyrig heb ik zelf nooit ontmoet. Ik heb veel sympathie voor die vrouw, en ik vind het een reuze actrice.

      (W.M. Roggeman, Beroepsgeheim (6), [1987])

      ‘I have never met Delphine Seyrig myself. I have a lot of sympathy for this woman, and I think she is a great actress.’

      (lit. ‘giant actress’)

   2. b. Het beste kun je natuurlijk in je slaap sterven, zoals Simon. Die heeft het wat dat betreft reuze getroffen.

      (P. Piryns, Er is nog zoveel ongezegd.

      Vraaggesprekken met schrijvers, [1987])

      ‘The best thing is of course dying in your sleep, like Simon. In that respect, he was very lucky.’ (lit. ‘he has struck it giant’)

It can, however, be assumed that the attributive use of reuze has preceded its predicative and interjectional uses, the latter probably being derived from the former, as in (het is/was) reuze! ‘(it is/was) great!’, given that attributive uses already sporadically occur by the middle of the 19th century in the historical news archives of the Royal Library (Reference Van Goethem and De SmetKB), as illustrated by example 18.

1. (18) (…) als men vergelijkender wijze betracht, welke reuze schreden de werktuigkunde, het fabriekwezen en andere kunsten en wetenschappen in deze eeuw hebben gemaakt. (Reference Van Goethem and De SmetKB, 1852)

   ‘(…) if it is observed, by way of comparison, which gigantic steps (lit. ‘giant steps’) have been taken during this century by mechanics, industry and other arts and sciences.’

From the discussion above it can be concluded that over time, reus/reuze(n)(-) has developed a wide range of uses, and that the semantic and formal differences among all these uses are not always easy to define. Hence, we support the existence of a continuum, along which nominal, semiprefixal, adjectival, and adverbial uses are placed, with the synchronic uses reflecting the different stages of a gradual diachronic evolution of reuze(n)-, in line with Hopper's (Reference Hanssen, Banga, Schreuder and Neijt1991) idea of layering.

In the next section, we argue that the transition from one type of use to another does not happen by way of a linear diachronic change; instead, it involves multiple paths, which supports the idea of multiple source constructions (Van de Velde et al., to appear).