In this theoretical background chapter, intensifiers are defined as degree-indicating devices and distinguished from items indicating similar and partly overlapping concepts such as quantification, emphasis, focus, and modality. They are subclassified into the categories of amplifiers (maximizers, boosters) and downtoners (moderators, diminishers, minimizers), with different semantic characteristics and effects. Formally, they are restricted to one-word adverbs, both with and without the -ly suffix. Their typical collocational associations and syntactic behaviour regarding preferred modified targets is dealt with. Their pragmatic distributions in different situational contexts is briefly touched on

This chapter is devoted to downtoners, namely moderators, diminishers and minimizers, with the 19 attested types amounting to 7,874 examples. The dominant type a little constitutes 66 per cent of the occurrences and is followed by hardly with 13 per cent. The distribution of the five most frequent downtoners across the period studied is discussed, and compared to the BNC trials data. The decline in the use of diminisher a little accounts for the overall decline in the use of downtoners in the OBC data. The source terms of downtoners display a more varied spectrum of semantic shades than maximizers and boosters. There is also a greater variety of target categories than attested for boosters and maximizers: the otherwise most frequent targets adjectives are here outranked by prepositional phrases and verbs, with the latter standing out as the specialty of downtoners compared to all other intensifiers. They predominantly modify verbs of the material and mental process types; in the semantic classes of downtoned adjectives, the category of human propensity dominates. As for collocational profiles, for instance a little dominates in collocations with after, before and more.