‘I defs defs wanna go to Mexico’

Abstract

The present chapter describes the changes in the frequency and use of definitely based on data from the British National Corpus and the Spoken British National Corpus (2014). Definitely is an epistemic modal adverb with the meaning of total certainty. The issues of describing the changes concern its epistemic modal meaning, contextual factors and frequency. The changes can be described as the result of subjectification. Definitely in the most recent BNC corpus is used primarily by young, especially female speakers who use this adverb to express confident self-assertion.