Adverbs of essence 95
(23) The Cravinho Report also has the advantage of introducing the ECU as a settle-
ment currency giving it an essentially expanded use during stage two (...).
(DEP, E source)
Le rapport Cravinho présente en outre l’avantage d’introduire l’écu en tant que
monnaie de règlement, en étendant largement son utilisation dès la deuxième
étape.
The truth of the assertion, that the use of the ECU expanded, is said to apply
mainly to “stage two” / “la deuxième étape”.
(24) If there was discrimination within Belgium itself affecting only Belgian citizens
that would be basically a matter for the Belgian courts rather than a matter for
the Commission. (DEP, E source)
Si seuls les citoyens belges faisaient l’objet de measures discriminatoires dans
leur propre pays, cette question relèverait principalement des tribunaux belges
plutôt que de la Commission.
It will be noted that also with regard to this class there again – as in the first class –
appears to be greater closeness between basically and essentially than between
either of these and fundamentally.
Group three is the group of words which express that something is the case
‘in general’ or ‘more or less’. Quirk et al. distinguish a class of ‘approximators’
(1985: §8.111), which “serve to express an approximation to the force”. The French
equivalents dans l’ensemble, généralement and environ express approximation in
the sense that they convey that the assertion is not true in a precise and exact sense
but rather in an approximate or general one. In this regard they tone down the
force of the utterance (cf. Quirk et al.’s semantic group of which the approximators
form a sub-class). It can be seen that it is again basically and essentially which share
this type of cross-linguistic equivalents. Here is an example:
(25) This is the essence of my objection to Mr Ribeiro’s report, and my thoughts
are basically these. (DEP, D source)
Tel est l’essentiel des reproches que j’adresse au rapport de M. Ribeiro. Le
raisonnement qu’il développe est environ le suivant.
How can we explain this sense development? If one says that something is true ‘in
essence’, the pragmatic implicature may be that there are exceptions, as pointed
out before. This implicature can be expressed by focusing on where the assertion
does apply most (group two above) or by focusing on the fact that it applies only
by approximation (this group).
Interestingly, the group of ‘amplifiers’ does the opposite thing: instead of low-
ering the force it raises it. They “scale upwards” (Quirk et al. 1985: §8.105). Our