The adverb as a notional word

_Lecture
5

_{List
of principle questions}

1. Semantics
   of the adverb. Functions in the sentence.

2. Combinability
   of the adverb

3. Classification
   of adverbs

3.1
Simple
and
derived
adverbs

3.2
Adverbs of full notional value and adverbs of half-notional value

3.3
Qualitative,
quantitative and
circumstantial
adverbs

3.4
Notional and functional
circumstantial
adverbs

1. Adverbs
   and adjectives compared

1. Semantics of the adverb. Functions in the sentence

The
adverb
is usually defined as a word expressing either property
of an action, or property of another property, or circumstances in
which an action occurs.

This
definition, though certainly informative and instructive, fails to
directly point out the
relation between the adverb and the adjective
as the primary qualifying part of speech.

In
an attempt to overcome this drawback, let us define the
adverb
as a
notional word expressing a non-substantive property, that is, a
property of a non-substantive referent.
This formula immediately shows the
actual correlation between the adverb and the adjective, since the
adjective is a word expressing a substantive property.

Properties
may be of a more particular, «organic» order, and a more
general and detached, «inorganic» order. Of
the organic properties,
the adverb denotes those characterizing processes and other
properties. Of
the inorganic properties,
the adverb denotes various circumstantial characteristics of
processes or whole situations built around processes.

The
above definition, approaching the
adverb
as a
word of the secondary qualifying order,
presents the entire class of adverbial words as the
least self-dependent of all the four notional parts of speech.
Indeed, as has been repeatedly pointed out, the
truly complete nominative value
is inherent only in the noun,
which is the name of substances. The verb
comes next in its self-dependent
nominative force, expressing processes as dynamic relations of
substances,
i.e. their dynamic relational properties in the broad sense. After
that follow qualifying parts of speech — first the
adjective
denoting
qualifications of substances,
and then the
adverb
denoting
qualifications of non-substantive phenomena which find themselves
within the range of notional signification.

As
we see, the
adverb
is
characterized by its own specific nominative value, providing for its
inalienable status in the system of the parts of speech.
Hence, the complaints of some linguists that the adverb is not
rigorously defined and in fact presents something like a «dump»
for those words which have been rejected by other parts of speech can
hardly be taken as fully justified. On the other hand, since the
adverb does denote qualifications of the second order, not of the
first one like the adjective, it includes a great number of
semantically weakened words which are in fact intermediate between
notional and functional lexemes by their status and often display
features of pronominal nature.

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• Grammar
• Adverb

Adverb is usually characterized as a notional part of speech. In English language, adverbs reflect the quality of a person’s action or of some other quality. To put it simple, it demonstrates when, how, where and in what situation an action takes place. It also emphasizes the quality reflected by the adjective. It is interesting to know that not all linguists consider that an adverb is a notional part of speech. Some linguists, including Sweets, consider that an adverb is a particle that in many ways differs from the noun, adjective, verb and pronoun. This issue is rather questionable, as according to the above linguists, there are no boundaries for this part of speech. Such examples as “put up with”, “I am off” and others show that adverbs can be characterized as a part of speech similar to preposition and can also be called postpositives or postpositions. Such characteristics of an adverb shows that this part of speech is rather tricky and students should therefore pay much attention to it while studying English as a foreign language.

An adverb can be defined as a part of speech or a class of words, which is generally used to modify adjectives, verbs or other adverbs. It should be noted that adverbs can also modify subordinate clauses, phrases with prepositions and even entire sentences. Adverbs can be divided into several groups, including quality and circumstance categories. When we are talking about modification of various parts of speech, it is worth giving a few examples.

Thus, when an adverb modifies an adjective, it can be reflected in the following example:

• It was a very amusing situation.

In case of verb modification, a good example would be:

• Jack smiled happily.

Adverbs can also modify other adverbs, which can be reflected in the following example:

• Music at the concert ended quite abruptly.

Another question to be answered in the current essay is how to build adverbs. Building of this part of speech can be simple (for instance, how, why, etc.) or derived with the help of such endings as “ly”, “ways”, “wise” and others (for instance, likewise, afterwards, etc.). The latter would be considered compound adverbs that can also be phrasal or prepositional. For example, inside out, at least, etc.

It is worth mentioning that not all adverbs have a “ly” ending. Such words as “hard”, “fast” and others do not end with “ly” morpheme. Furthermore, another characteristic of an adverb is a fact that not all words formed with the help of “ly” morpheme are adverbs, because in most cases such words are adjectives. For example, the words “lively” and “daily” are not adverbs. It might be hard to remember this rule, but students should still understand the difference between different parts of speech as well as peculiarities of their formation and use.

To continue our discussion, there are adverbs that have so-called conjunctive “twins”. These twins differ from typical adverbs by their positions in the sentence. For example, such words as “around” and “round the clock” represent conjunctive twins. It is worth memorizing that such words generally have the same origin. All of them express relationships of time or space. Prepositions are similar to adverbs as they are intended to modify the meaning of verbs. For example, to give – to give away, to carry – to carry on. These examples show that the function of all prepositions that are added to the verb is either to make the verb carry some other meaning or add a lexical modification to the semantics of the verb. Such phrase as “bring about” means “to make something happen”. This proves that the semantics of the verb in this case is modified.

All of these elements are often interpreted in different ways. There are linguists who treat these prepositional phrases as some kind of adverbs. Others consider prepositions to be similar to specific functional words. Prepositions are also classified as a range of particles that are used with other prepositions or some kind of conjunctions. Let us analyze the difference between the adverb and the preposition. In fact, unlike adverbs, prepositions define the quality of some kind of action produced by a person. If you want to get additional information on this matter, you need to research such section of English grammar as cognitive analysis of various grammar units.

In the following section of the current essay, we will discuss three existing groups of adverbs. As a rule, adverbs are categorized as quantitative, qualitative and circumstantial adverbs. The qualitative adverbs are the ones that indicate how intense the characteristic of a word is. To this category belong such adverbs as very, quite, fully, etc. In such a way, such adverbs express the quality of this or that word. The quantitative group of adverbs includes the ones that demonstrate quality itself. To this group of adverbs belong such words as quickly, poorly, etc. As for the last group of adverbs, these are the adverbs of time and place, e.g. yesterday, inside, etc. Generally speaking, adverbs can be distinguished by their lexical connotations. For example, adverbs can be grouped into adverbs of manner, place, frequency, degree, direction, etc.  

Another characteristic of an adverb is its grammatical category, namely the category demonstrating the level of comparison. This grammatical notion involves three kinds of formation, which means that adverbs can be derived (quicker, quickest), analytical (more beautiful, most beautiful) and lexical (greater, poorer). Students who speak English as a second language should understand the difference between these categories in order to write correctly and avoid making grammatical errors. Therefore, the topic of adverbs should be studied thoroughly and consistently if you want to achieve success in your writing career and communication. We recommend you to practice a lot and learn the theory of English grammar. This will help you to cover all the areas of English language in order to understand the basics and proceed with studying more complicated topics.

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Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

Department of English Philology

Diploma paper

Syntagmatic and paradigmatic peculiarities of adverbs in English

Lviv — 2010

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1. The adverb in English theoretical grammar

1.1 Categorial meaning of the adverb

1.2 Formal characteristics of the adverb

1.3 Syntactic functions and positional characteristics of the adverb

Chapter 2. Paradigmatics of adverbs

2.1 Semantic classification of adverbs

2.2 Lexico-grammatical subdivision of adverbs

Chapter 3. Syntagmatic valency of adverbs and its actualization inspeech

3.1 Syntactic valency and combinability patterns of adverbs

3.2 Semantic and syntactic properties of adverbs of degree

3.3 The use of adverbs of degree with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

3.4 Semantic preferences of amplifiers

Conclusion

Summary

List of References

Appendix

Introduction

The diploma paper sets out to explore paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of adverbs in modern English. The work considers such branches of grammar as morphology and syntax and is concerned with the two levels of word relations.

A word as a part of the language system is considered on two levels:

1) the syntagmatic level;

2) the paradigmatic level.

On the paradigmatic level it is the relationship with other words in the vocabulary system. On the syntagmatic level the semantic structure of a word is analyzed in its linear relationships with neighbouring words.

The differentiation between paradigmatics and syntagmatics is based on recognition of the linguistic planes: 1 – the plane of language; 2 – the plane of speech. Language is a system of means of expression while speech should be understood as the manifestation of the system of language in the process of communication. Language planes are structured paradigmatically, speech planes – syntagmatically.

Paradigmatic relations are relations of contrast. They exist only in the potential and never in an instance. From the viewpoint of the text analyst, they express a contrast between the meaning (and so the form) that was chosen for use in the text and the one or more meanings (and so forms) that might have been chosen (but were not). In other words, paradigmatic relations exist only in the language that is used to produce a text-sentence and not in the sentence itself [23, 134].

Syntagmatic relations are based on the linear character of speech. They enable language to function as a means of communication. When they are brought into play, linguistic elements combine to form information-carrying utterances. They are therefore the functional relations of language [32, 60].

The present research is aimed at

investigating the salient features of adverbs in English. The major research focus in the field of syntagmatics is on adverbs of degree as the most syntagmatically active class.

Most of the investigations in the field of morphology deal with other parts of speech, mainly verbs, nouns or adjectives. The adverb due to its ontological status and the categorical meaning defined as that of secondary property, has unjustly fallen out of research focus. The textbooks on theoretical grammar provide only scanty information about adverbs. However, the adverb is liable to present us with a whole bundle of problems. Firstly, there are a lot of borderline cases of transition between adverbs, on the one hand, and prepositions, particles and conjunctions, on the other. Though, a number of fairly plausible viewpoints on the issue have been expressed and the objective criteria have been suggested, they do not yield clear results and, a fully convincing solution to the problem has not been found yet [4; 5; 8; 9]. This calls for the need to consider these cases of grammatical homonymy at some length. Secondly, wrong use of adverbs and adverbial collocations appears to be one of the major errors notoriously common with the students. This determines the topicality

of the research, its theoretical and practical value

.

The object

of investigation is the adverb, including simple, derived, compound and composite. The subject

of research is the paradigmatic correlation and syntagmatic peculiarities of adverbs, their combinability patterns. Such methods of investigation

, as structural-semantic, distributional and the elements of the quantitative analysis are used in this paper.

The tasks

of the diploma paper are:

— to determine the categorial meaning of the adverb and its formal characteristics;

— to carry out the analysis of syntactic functions of the adverb;

— to analyze the main classes of adverbs;

— to compare paradigmatically relevant classifications of the adverb;

— to explore syntactic valency and combinability patterns of adverbs;

— to examine the use of adverbs of degree and to determine their semantic preferences.

According to the spheres of concern the work falls into an Introduction, three chapters, conclusions and the list of references which together with the appendix comprises __ pages. Chapter 1 deals with the analysis of the adverb in accord with the 3-criteria principle of the lexico-grammatical word classification. Chapter 2 is concerned with the paradigmatic relations of adverbs, providing the semantic and lexico-grammatical classifications of the adverb. In Chapter 3 semantic and syntactic valencies of adverbs and their realization in speech are described. Most of the examples presented in this diploma paper are taken form modern English dictionaries.

Chapter 1. The adverb in English theoretical grammar

1.1

Categorial meaning of the adverb

In accord with the 3-criteria principle of the lexico-grammatical word classification (semantic, formal and functional) [35], parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of:

1) common categorial meaning;

2) common paradigm (morphological form and specific forms of derivation);

3) common syntactic function.

The categorical meaning of the adverb is secondary property which implies qualitative, quantitative, or circumstantial characteristics of actions, states, qualities.

The adverb is usually defined as a word expressing either property of an action, or property of another property, or circumstances in which an action occurs [22, 146]. From this definition it is difficult to define adverbs as a class, because they comprise a most heterogeneous group of words, and there is considerable overlap between the class and other word classes. They have many kinds of form, meaning and function.

Alongside such undoubtful adverbs as here, now, often, seldom, always, there are many others which also function as words of other classes. Such words which are different in their lexical meaning and also in their grammatical category (part of speech) but identical in their form are interparadigmatic homonyms (lexical-grammatical) [17, 118]. Thus, adverbs like dead (dead tired), clear (to get clear away), clean (I’ve clean forgotten), slow, easy (he would say that slow and easy) coincide with corresponding adjectives (a dead body, clear waters, clean hands). Adverbs like past, above, in, up, down, about, since, before, over are homonymous with prepositions. There is also a special group of pronominal adverbs when, where, how, why used either as interrogative words or as connectives to introduce subordinate clauses [3, 87]:

Where

would you like to go? (an interrogative pronominal adverb)

We’ll go where

you want. (a conjunctive pronominal adverb)

Some adverbs may be used rather like a verb, as in “Up. Jenkins! Down, Peter!”, where the first word is like an imperative [25, 92].

There are three adverbs connected with numerals: once, twice, and thrice (the latter being archaic). They denote measure or frequency:

She went there once

a week [41].

I saw him twice

last month [41].

Twice is also used in the structure twice as long, etc. [22, 92].

He is twice as tall

as his brother [40].

She is twice as clever

[40].

Beginning with three the idea of frequency or repetition is expressed by the phrases three times, four times [25, 92]:

He went there four times

.

He is four times

as bigger.

She is ten times

cleverer. [25, 92]

In many cases the border-line between adverbs and words of the other classes is defined syntactically:

I called out to him as he ran past

[38]. (adverb)

I called out to him as he ran past

the house [38]. (preposition)

We were locked in

[41]. (adverb)

We were locked in

the warehouse [41]. (preposition)

He did everything slowly but surely

[38]. (adverb)

Surely

you know him [38]. (modal word)

The definition of adverb presented above, though certainly informative and instructive, also fails to directly point out the relation between the adverb and the adjective as the primary qualifying part of speech.

In an attempt to overcome this drawback, M. Y. Blokh defines the adverb as a notional word expressing a non-substantive property, that is, a property of a non-substantive referent [13, 221]. This formula immediately shows the actual correlation between the adverb and the adjective, since the adjective is a word expressing a substantive property.

Properties may be of a more particular, «organic» order and, a more general and detached, «inorganic» order [13, 221]. Of the organic properties, the adverb denotes those characterising processes and other properties. Of the inorganic properties, the adverb denotes various circumstantial characteristics of processes or whole situations built around processes.

The above definition, approaching the adverb as a word of the secondary qualifying order, presents the entire class of adverbial words as the least self-dependent of all the four notional parts of speech. Indeed, the truly complete nominative value is inherent only in the noun, which is the name of substances [15]. The verb comes next in its self-dependent nominative force, expressing processes as dynamic relations of substances, i.e. their dynamic relational properties in the broad sense. After that follow qualifying parts of speech — first the adjective denoting qualifications of substances, and then the adverb denoting qualifications of non-substantive phenomena which find themselves within the range of notional signification.

The adverb is characterised by its own, specific nominative value, providing for its inalienable status in the system of the parts of speech. Hence, the complaints of some linguists that the adverb is not rigorously defined and in fact presents something like a «dump» for those words which have been rejected by other parts of speech can hardly be taken as fully justified [13, 221]. On the other hand, since the adverb does denote qualifications of the second order, not of the first one like the adjective, it includes a great number of semantically weakened words which are in fact intermediate between notional and functional lexemes by their status and often display features of pronominal nature.

1.2 Formal characteristics of the adverb

In terms of the formal criterion the adverb is characterized by the following features [13, 39]:

1) the forms of the degrees of comparison for qualitative adverbs;

2) the specific suffixal forms of derivation.

The only pattern of morphological change for adverbs is the same as for adjectives, the degrees of comparison [25, 94]. With regard to the category of the degrees of comparison adverbs (like adjectives) fall into comparables and non-comparables. The number of non-comparables is much greater among adverbs than among adjectives. Only adverbs of manner and certain adverbs of time and place can form degrees of comparison. The three grades are called positive, comparative,

and superlative

degrees.

Adverbs that are identical in form with adjectives take inflections following the same spelling and phonetic rules as for adjectives:

hard — harder — hardest

soon — sooner — soonest

early — earlier — earliest

Several adverbs ending in -ly

(quickly, loudly) form comparatives according to the same pattern, dropping their adverb-forming suffix. These adverbs acquired the form in -ly

only recently and retained the older forms of the comparative and superlative:

quickly – quicker – quickest

loudly – louder – loudest

However most disyllabic adverbs in -ly

and all polysyllabic ones form the comparative and superlative analytically, by means of more

and most:

beautifully — more beautifully — most beautifully

cleverly — more cleverly — most cleverly

As with adjectives, there is a small group of adverbs with comparatives and superlatives formed from different stems (

suppletive forms).

These comparatives and superlatives are identical with those for the corresponding adjectives and can be differentiated from the latter only syntactically:

well — better — best

badly — worse — worst

much — more — most

little — less — least

All the problems connected with the adjectival degrees of comparison retain their force for the adverbial degrees of comparison. Some grammarians do not admit forms like more quickly, most quickly to be analytical degrees of comparison [9]. They distinguish only two types of degrees of comparison in adverbs:

· the suffix type (quickly – quicker – quickest)

· the suppletive type (well — better — best)

Adverbs vary in their structure. In accord with their word-building structure adverbs may be simple, derived, compound and composite [25].

Simple adverbs

are rather few, and nearly all of them display functional semantics, mostly of pronominal character: here, there, now, then, so, quite, why, how, where, when.

D

erived adverbs

may be classified in several groups [30, 164]. The two largest groups are those formed from adjectives and participles by adding the suffix -ly, e. g.: hopefully, physically, strangely, falsely, occasionally, lately, immediately, constantly, purely, slowly, charmingly, etc.

There has been a marked discrepancy of opinion concerning deadjectival adverbs in terms of two mutually exclusive types of morphological derivation – inflection and word-formation [5]. Two views have been put forward, according to which adverbs are treated as either the inflectional paradigmatic form of a parent adjective or its derivative [6]. The former view can be refuted if we proceed from the notion of symmetry/asymmetry of the semantic structures. The structures are considered symmetric if they are characterized by both quantitative and qualitative convergence of their sense components; conversely, the parent and the resultant semantic structures are considered asymmetric if they diverge either in the number or in the character of the meanings conveyed [5].

According to Garipova N.D., adjectival and adverbial forms are asymmetric; the process of deriving adverbs from adjectives involves the semantic shift that yields two possibilities: the adverb may develop new meanings, or, more often, the semantic structure of the motivated adverb turns out to be more simplified and narrower in comparison with that of the motivating adjective [2]. For example, the adverb roughly retains only 3 meanings out of 17, inherent in the semantic structure of the adjective rough. All this leads to conclude that adverbs cannot be regarded as inflectional forms of adjectives.

The third group consists of those that are formed by means of the derivational prefix —a

(phonemically [э]) to nouns, adjectives or verbs. Of about sixty of them in more or less common use nearly half are formed from nouns: aboard, aside, away, ahead, apart, across etc.The rest are about equally divided among those formed from verbs, e. g.: amiss, astir; from adjectives — anew, abroad.

In traditional grammars such words are generally classed as both adjectives and adverbs and they are so listed in most dictionaries, which seems hardly justified since from the structural point of view none of them can fit the basic adjective position between determiner and noun (We cannot say the aloud voice or the adrift boat) [30, 164].

The fourth group of derived adverbs originally very small, but in present-day English exhibiting signs of rapid growth includes those formed by adding the derivational suffix —wise

to nouns.A few adverbs of this type are well-established words like clockwise, otherwise, likewise; others are recent coinages or nonce-words like crabwise and actor-wise. In American English the suffix -wise is most active and can be more freely attached to many nouns to create adverbs like personnel-wise. Such forms are recognised in writing by the use of the hyphen.

Then comes a smaller group of adverbs formed by the addition of the derivational suffix —ward(s)

to a limited group of nouns; home- ward(s), forward(s), backward(s). Most adverbs of this group have two forms, one with the final -s and one without, variously distributed. The forms without -s are homonymous with adjectives: the backward child, he looked backward.

The less common suffixes are the following:

-fold -like -most -way(s)

twofold, manifold warlike innermost, outermost longways, sideways

Compound adverbs

are formed of two stems: sometimes, somewhere, somehow, someplace, nowhere, everywhere, anyway, downstairs, etc. There are fewer than twenty of these in common use.

Composite phrasal adverbs

consist of two or more word-forms, as a great deal, a little bit, far enough, now and then, from time to time, sort of, kind of, a hell of, a lot of, a great deal of, at least, at most, at last, to and fro, upside down. Such adverbs are lexically and grammatically indivisible and form a single idea.

Considered in their structure, composite phrasal adverbs may be classified as follows [30, 164]:

1) preposition

+

noun:

at hand, at home, by heart, on horseback, on foot, in turn, to date;

2) noun

+

preposition

+

noun:

arm in arm, day by day, day after day, day to day, face to face, word for word, year by year;

3) preposition

+

substantivised adjective:

at last, at first, at large, in large, in full, in quiet, in short, in vain, of late, of old;

4) preposition

+

verbal noun

made through conversion: at a guess, at a run, in a rush, on the move, on the run;

5) preposition

+

numeral:

at first, at once, at one, by twos;

6) coordinate adverbs:

by and by, on and off (= off and on), on and on;

7) pronoun

+

adjective (or participle):

all right, all told, O. K. (all correct);

preposition + pronoun:

after all, in all, at all.

In point of fact most adverbs of that kind may be reasonably referred to as grammatical idioms [30, 165]. This can be seen, for instance, in the unusual absence of the article before their noun components and specialised useof the noun in its singular form only: on foot (but not on the foot, or on feet which may occur in free prepositional word-groups), in fact (but not in the fact), at first (but not at the first), etc.

There is a miscellaneous class of adverbs that have no formal signals at all to distinguish them in isolation; we know them as adverbs because of their positions in utterances, in which the other parts of speech are clearly identifiable. Many adverbs in this group are fairly frequent in occurrence: always, now, then, here, there, often, seldom, still, even. Others in this group are words which may also appear as other parts of speech, such as: downstairs, home, late, little, fast, stow, early, far, hard, near:

My friend is the world’s fastest

runner [38]. (adjective)

The water was rising very fast

[38]. (adverb)

It is hard

to believe that she’s only nine [40]. (adjective)

He was still breathing hard

after his run [40]. (adverb)

Formations of the type from outside, till now, before then, etc. cannot be included in the word-building sets of adverbs [13, 223]. It is not difficult to see that such formations differ in principle from the ones cited above. The difference consists in the fact that their parts are semantically not blended into an indivisible lexemic unity and present combinations of a preposition with a peculiar adverbial substantive — a word occupying an intermediary lexico-grammatical status between the noun and the adverb. This is most clearly seen on ready examples liberally offered by English texts of every stylistic standing:

The pale moon looked at me from above

[13, 223].

By now

Sophie must have received the letter and very soon we shall hear from her [13, 223].

The departure of the delegation is planned for later

this week [41].

The freely converted adverbial substantives in prepositional collocations belong to one of the idiomatic characteristics of English, and may be likened, with due alteration of details, to partially substantivised adjectives of the adjectivid type. On this analogy the adverbial substantives in question may be called «adverbids» [13, 223].

Furthermore, there are in English some other peculiar structural types of adverbs which are derivationally connected with the words of non-adverbial lexemic classes by conversion [13, 223]. Conversion consist in making a new word from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech, the morphemic shape of the original word remaining unchanged [17, 118]. To adverbs coined by conversion belong both adverbs of full notional value and adverbs of half-notional value.

A peculiar set of converted notional adverbs is formed by adjective-stem conversives, such as fast, late, hard, high, close, loud, tight, etc. The peculiar feature of these adverbs consists in the fact that practically all of them have a parallel form in -ly, the two component units of each pair often differentiated in meaning or connotation: to work hard — hardly to work at all; to fall flat into the water — to refuse flatly; to speak loud — to criticise loudly; to fly high over the lake — to raise a highly theoretical question.

Among the adjective-stem converted adverbs there are a few words with the non-specific -ly originally in-built in the adjective (daily, weekly, lively, timely):

Invoices are signed on a daily

basis [38]. (adjective)

The machines are inspected twice daily

[38]. (adverb)

The purely positional nature of the conversion in question, i.e. its having no support in any differentiated categorial paradigms, can be reflected by the term «fluctuant conversives» [13] which is proposed to use as the name of such formations.

As for the fluctuant conversives of weakened pronominal semantics, very characteristic of English are the adverbs that positionally interchange with prepositions and conjunctive words (before, after, round, within): never before — never before our meeting; somewhere round — round the corner; not to be found within — within a minute.

Among the various types of adverbs, those formed from adjectives by means of the suffix -ly not only occupy the most representative place but also pose a special problem.

The problem is introduced by the very regularity of their derivation, the rule of which can be formulated quite simply: each qualitative adjective has a parallel adverb in –ly [13, 226]: silent — silently, slow — slowly, tolerable — tolerably, pious — piously, sufficient — sufficiently, tired — tiredly, explosive — explosively, etc.

This regularity of formation accompanied by the general qualitative character of semantics gave cause to A. I. Smirnitsky to advance the view that both sets of words belong to the same part of speech, the qualitative adverbs in -ly being in fact adjectives of specific combinability [9, 174-175].

The strong point of the adjectival interpretation of qualitative adverbs in -ly is the demonstration of the actual similarity between the two lexemic sets in their broader evaluative function, which fact provides for the near-identity of the adjectival and adverbial grammatical categories of comparison. On the whole, however, the theory in question is hardly acceptable for the mere reason that derivative relations in general are not at all relations of lexico-grammatical identity; for that matter, they are rather relations of non-identity, since they actually constitute a system of production of one type of lexical units from another type of lexical units [13, 227]. As for the types of units belonging to the same or different lexemic classes, this is a question of their actual status in the system of lexicon, i. e. in the lexemic paradigm of nomination reflecting the fundamental correlations between the lexemic sets of language. Since the English lexicon does distinguish adjectives and adverbs; since adjectives are substantive-qualifying words in distinction to adverbs, which are non-substantive qualifying words; since, finally, adverbs in -ly do preserve this fundamental nonsubstantive-qualification character — there can’t be any question of their being «adjectives» in any rationally conceivable way. As for the regularity or irregularity of derivation, it is absolutely irrelevant to the identification of their class-lexemic nature [13, 228].

Thus, the whole problem is not a problem of part-of-speech identity; it is a problem of inter-class connections, in particular, of inter-class systemic division of functions, and, certainly, of the correlative status of the compared units in the lexical paradigm of nomination.

But worthy of attention is the relation of the adverbs in question to adverbs of other types and varieties, i. e. their intra-class correlations. As a matter of fact, the derivational features of other adverbs, in sharp contrast to the ly-adverbs, are devoid of uniformity to such an extent that practically all of them fall into a multitude of minor non-productive derivational groups [7]. Besides, the bulk of notional qualitative adverbs of other than ly-derivation have ly-correlatives (both of similar and dissimilar meanings and connotations). These facts cannot but show that adverbs in -ly should be looked upon as the standard type of the English adverb as a whole [13, 229].

1.3 Syntactic functions and positional characteristics of the adverb

Adverbs may perform different functions, modifying different types of words, phrases, sentences. Some adverbs are restricted in their combinability whereas others may modify different words, for instance enough, which may be used in to work enough, not quickly enough, quick enough. The most typical function of the adverb is that of adverbial modifier [8].

Adverbs may function as adverbial modifiers

of manner, place, time, degree to a finite or non-finite form of the verb:

He started his career in St Petersburg — or Leningrad as it then

was [41].

(time)

The south should remain dry, buteverywhere

else will have heavy rain.

[41]. (place)

Adam obviously

adored his wife [40]. (manner)

I rather

suspect we’re making a mistake [38]. (degree)

Some adverbs of time though synonymous, are used in different syntactic patterns. Thus, already is used in affirmative sentences, and yet — in interrogative and negative sentences:

Tim has already

come back from his trip [40].

I haven’t finished my report yet

[38].

Have you finished yet

[38]?

However, already may occur in interrogative and negative sentences when there is an element of surprise or the question is suggestive, that is the speaker expects an affirmative answer:

Have they finished already

[35]?

Adverbs may function as adverbial modifiers to an adjective or another adverb

[19]. Usually the modifying adverb is an intensifier (very, rather, awfully, so, terribly, extremely, most, utterly, unusually, delightfully, unbelievably, amazingly, strikingly, highly, that, etc.) The same applies to composite adverbs, such as (kind of, sort of, a good bit of, a lot of, a hell of, a great deal of, etc.):

It is terribly

important for parents to be consistent [38].

This new program is unbelievably

good [41].

It made me feel kind of

awkward [41].

Some adverbs — still, yet, far, much, any combine with comparative adjectives (much worse, not any better, still greater, etc.)

Adverbs of degree can modify certain kinds of prepositional phrases:

They lived nearly

on the top of the hill [40].

His remarks were not quite

to the point [40].

Comparative adverbs are used in clauses of proportional agreement,

that is, parallel clauses in which qualities or actions denoted in them increase or decrease at an equal rate [25, 177]:

The longer

I think about it the less

I understand your reasons [41].

To express the idea that a quality or action decreases or increases at an even rate the comparative may be repeated, the two identical forms being connected by and:

He cried louder and louder

[25, 177].

There are some adverbs which may modify nouns or words of nominal character, functioning as attribute,

as in: the way ahead, the trip abroad, the journey home, his return home, the sentence above (below), the day before. A few adverbs can premodify nouns without losing their adverbial character: the then president, in after years, the above sentence, the now generation.

As adverbs modify words of different classes, they accordingly occupy different positions in the sentence. In comparison with other words, adverbs may be considered as the most movable words.However, adverbs are not identical in their ability to be moved to another position in the structure. There are generally four possible positions for adverbs in the sentence [18, 397]:

1) at the head of the sentence;

2) between the subject and predicate or, if the predicate is a complicated form, the adverb appears after the first auxiliary verb, link-verb or a modal verb;

3) before the word the adverb modifies;

4) at the end of the sentence.

Different semantic groups of adverbs tend to appear in different positions. Thus, many adverbs of time and frequency prefer Position 2:

A good strong cup of coffee is just

what I need right now [41].

He is always

in time for meals [38].

They sometimes

stay up all night [41].

However, some of time adverbs appear in Position 4:

He came eventually

[40].

The telephone rang, and he answered it immediately

[40].

She hasn’t finished her breakfast yet

[38].

Ifany adverbs of time and frequency are found in positions other than those characteristic of them, it means that these adverbs are intended for special emphasis [21, 399]:

They usually

are very punctual. (common)

Usually

they are very punctual. (emphatic)

Adverbs of place and direction usually occur in Position 4:

I looked for it everywhere

[38].

The young people were enjoying themselves outside

[38].

Adverbs of manner commonly appear in Position 4, after the predicate verb:

He gave her the money reluctantly

[41].

She looked at me suspiciously

[41].

Some adverbs of manner may occasionally be found in Position 2:

She carefully

picked up all the bits of broken glass [40].

They secretly

decided to leave the town [40].

Occasionally adverbs of manner may be found in Position 1. In that case the adverb does not only modify the predicative verb, but also the subject:

Angrily

he denied that he had stolen the documents [41]. (= he was angry when he denied that he had stolen the documents)

Adverbs of degree (or intensifiers) are usually placed in Position 3, before the word they modify:

It’s absolutely

the best museum in the country [38].

I definitely

saw him crossing the street [38].

The adverb enough

, when it modifies an adjective or an adverb, is placed in post-position to them:

You can go to school when you’re old enough

[40].

He didn’t work quickly enough

[40].

However, adverbs of degree (intensifiers), if they modify verbs, may also be found in Position 4, at the end of the sentence:

The only way Glass could overcome this irreconcilable difference was by doing away with the bar lines completely [

41]

.

But if the plea can be supported by a finding of guilt alone, a defendant might escape punishment altogether

[40].

When occupying the initial position in the sentence, altogether is used parenthetically as a conjunctive adverb (= on the whole):

Latin America is a world where primitive ways of life exist near ultra-modern cities. Altogether

, it is a continent full of vitality [40].

Chapter 2. Paradigmatics of adverbs

2.1 Semantic classification of adverbs

The adverb in English undergoes two paradigmatically relevant classifications:

1) semantic;

2) lexico-grammatical.

Semantic classification is based on the meaning of adverbs. According to their meaning, adverbs fall into the following groups [18, 393]:

1.

Adverbs of time:

afterwards, already, at once, eventually, immediately, lately, now, presently, soon, suddenly, then, when, yesterday, yet, etc.:

Our class is going to Londontomorrow

[36, 55].

It’s been two weeks now

since she called home [38].

2.

Adverbs of frequency:

always, constantly, hardly ever, never, occasionally, often, seldom, sometimes, three times, twice, etc.:

There is always

somebody at home in the evenings [40].

They sometimes

stay up all night [40].

3.

Adverbs of place or direction:

abroad, ashore, backwards, below, downstairs, everywhere, far, here, inside, outside, seaward(s), there, to and fro, where, etc.:

We’llhave to eat here – everywhere

else is full [36, 54].

He was famous, both at home and abroad

[38].

A dog began to bark somewhere inside

[38].

I was now far

behind the others and I knew I couldn’t catch up [40].

The use of somewhere, anywhere and nowhere indifferent kinds of sentences is similar to the use of the corresponding indefinite pronouns some, any and no.

4.

Adverbs of manner:

badly, clearly, deeply, fast, how, quickly, sideways, sincerely, somehow, well, willingly, etc.:

His campaign was not going well

[41].

The economic crisis reflects badly

on the government’s policies [41].

We are sincerely

grateful for your help [40].

Adverbs of manner saying how an action is performed can freely occur with dynamic verbs, but not with stative verbs:

He looked

into the problem carefully

[38].

He walked

upstairs quietly

[38].

The boy blushed

violently

[36, 52].

5. Adverbs of degree or intensifiers

can be used before adjectives, verbs, or other adverbs to give information about the extent or level of something:

completely, enough, extremely, highly, muck, nearly, perfectly, pretty, quite, rather, really, so, somewhat, terribly, too, unusually, very, etc.:

Sometimes the UK seems completely

isolated from the main stream of European culture [40].

The ambassador made a brief statement, saying that the talks had been very

productive [38].

Myerssaid that two year prison sentence for rape was totally

unacceptable and inadequate [38].

Adverbs of degree or intensifiers may be subdivided into three semantic groups:

1)

emphasizers

(emphasizing the truth of the communication): actually, at all, clearly, definitely, indeed, just, literally, plainly, really, simply, etc.:

What do you really

think about it [41]?

When I told you to ‘get lost’ I didn’t expect to be taken literally

[41].

Fameis often simply

a matter of being in the right place at the right time

[40].

I just

can’t understand it[36, 60].

You haven’t done it well at all

[38].

2)

amplifiers

(expressing a high degree): absolutely, altogether, badly, bitterly, completely, deeply, downright, entirely, extremely, (by) far, fully, greatly, heartily, much, perfectly, pointblank, quite, terribly, thoroughly, utterly, very, etc.:

Each panel member should ensure that he or she thoroughly

tests the case presented for project approval [40].

Artists are terribly

difficult people for us ordinary mortals to deal with [40].

Because of the language barrier and culture shock, such insights are far

too rare[41].

I told Fred pointblank

that he had made a mistake [41].

He said the diesel costs £16,600, which is downright

preposterous [38].

Local residents are deeply

concerned about the threat to health posed by the power station [38].

For many years, the benefits of the expensive system greatly outweighed the disadvantages [40].

3)

downtoners

(lowering the effect): a bit, almost, barely, enough, hardly, kind of, (a) little, moderately, more or less, nearly, partly, quite, rather, scarcely, slightly, somewhat, sort of, sufficiently, etc.:

We took a slightly

more direct root [38].

He was only partly

responsible for the accident [38].

I kind

of disapprove of such methods [40].

I think you’rea bit

too young to be watching this[36, 62].

Almost

nothing was done to improve the situation[40].

6. Focusing

adverbs

drawattention to the most important part of utterance. They can be of two kinds:

1) restrictive:

alone, exactly, just, merely, only, precisely, purely, simply, especially, etc.:

Some students lose marks simply

because they don’t read the question properly [41].

It’s important to write these goals down, rather than merely

think about them [41].

2) additive:

again, also, either, equally, even, too, etc.

She stayed and nursed him back to health again

[38].

You must have a good education, but practical training is equally

important[38].

7. Viewpoint adverbs

are used to make clear what viewpoint the speaker is speaking from; that is, identifying what features of something are being talked about (

economically, morally, politically, scientifically, weather-wise, financially, ideologically, industrially, environmentally, logically, medically, outwardly, technically, visually, etc.):

Financially,

the accident has been a disaster for the owners of the tunnel [21, 156].

Geographically

and linguistically,

these islands are closer to the mainland than to the neighboring islands [21, 156].

Economically,

the project is bound to fail [40].

The brothers may be alike physically

, but they have very different personalities [40].

A number of phrases are used in a similar way (politically speaking, in political terms, in terms of politics, from a political point of view, as far as politics are concerned):

Politically/In political terms

, this summer is a crucial time for the government [21, 156].

Financially/From a financial point of view

, it is a good investment [21, 156].

8. Attitudinal adverbs

which express the speaker’s comment on the content of what he is saying. Such adverbs can be of two kinds:

1) adverbs expressing a comment on the truth-value of what is being said, indicating the extent to which the speaker believes what he is saying is true: admittedly, allegedly, apparently, certainly, decidedly, definitely, doubtless, maybe, obviously, perhaps, possibly, presumably, probably, quite likely, supposedly, surely, undoubtedly, etc.:

Few women, presumably

, would want to return to the assumptions on which the old system was based [40].

He was supposedly

delivering some papers to her but I think it was just an excuse to see her [40].

The impact, occurring shortly before midnight, apparently

knocked out all communications before warning could be given [41].

Perhaps

the public does not have much choice in the matter [38].Certainly

, he had very little reason to fear anyone [38].

2) adverbs expressing some attitude towards what is being said: amazingly, cleverly, (in)correctly, curiously, foolishly, (un)fortunately, funnily enough, (un)happily, incredibly, ironically, (un)justly, (un)luckily, oddly, preferably, reasonably, regrettably, remarkably, sensibly, significantly, strangely, tragically, typically, unexpectedly, etc.:

He is wisely

staying at home tonight [38].

Naturally

we were extremely annoyed when we received the letter [38].

Attempts to denigrate his playing simply because of his popularity are misplaced but regrettably

widespread [40].

9. Conjunctive adverbs:

above all, accordingly, alternatively, anyhow, anyway, as a result, at any rate, besides, by the way, consequently, finally, first(ly), for all that, for example, further, furthermore, hence, however, incidentally, in other words, in spite of that, instead, in that case, lastly, likewise, meantime, mean while, namely, nevertheless, next, on the contrary, on the one (other) hand, otherwise, rather, secondly, similarly, so, still, that is, then, therefore, though, thus, too, yet, etc.:

I’d like you to do two things for me. First

, phone the office and tell them I’ll be late. Secondly

, order a taxi to be here in about half an hour [18, 394].

Incidentally

, he left you a message. It is on your desk [41].

I didn’t like the food there. However

, I didn’t complain about it [38].

He has been working very hard. He looks fit, though

[41].

10. Formulaic adverbs

(markers of courtesy): cordially, kindly, please, etc.:

Will you kindly

help me with the parcel [40]?

We cordially

invite you to our party [40].

Let me have a look at the picture, please

[38].

The adverbs when, where, how and why belonging to different semantic groups mentioned above have one point in common — they serve to form questions and introduce some kinds of subordinate clauses [15]. In the former case, owing to their auxiliary function, they are called interrogative adverbs (a). In the latter case, also owing to their auxiliary function, they are called conjunctive adverbs (b). In both cases they perform different adverbial functions in the sentence:

a) When did you see him last? (adverbial modifier of time)

Where are you going? (adverbial modifier of place)

How did you manage it? (adverbial modifier of manner)

Why didn’t you tell me about it? (adverbial modifier of cause)

b) Sunday was the day when he was least busy.

(adverbial modifier of time)

The thing to find out was where he was then.

(adverbial modifier of place)

How it was done remains a mystery to me.

(adverbial modifier of manner)

I wanted to know why he had left us so abruptly.

(adverbial modifier of cause)

As is seen from the above examples, the conjunctive adverbs can introduce attributive, predicative, subject and object clauses.

The adverb how, in addition to the above functions, can also be placed at the head of an exclamatory sentence. In this case it is often followed by an adjective or an adverb but it may also be used alone. This how is sometimes called the exclamatory how [18, 395]:

How

unfair grown-ups are!

Oh, how

the baby cries! [18, 395]

2.2 Lexico-grammatical subdivision of adverbs

syntagmatic paradigmatic peculiarities adverbs english

Adverbs may be divided into three lexico-grammatical subclasses: qualitative, quantitative, and circumstantial [13; 13].

Qualitative adverbs

show the quality of an action or state much in the same way as a qualitative adjective shows the quality of some substance (walks quickly and a quick walk, speaks loudly and a loud speech, etc). The connection between qualitative adverbs and adjectives is obvious. In most cases the adverb is derived from the adjective with the help of the most productive adverb-forming suffix –ly.

Qualitative adverbs, with or without –ly, are a subclass of adverbs with peculiar lexico-grammatical features. According to their meaning, the include adverbs of manner (well, badly, fast, quickly, clearly, suddenly, deeply, sincerely, willingly, sideways, somehow, how, etc.).

Qualitative adverbs usually modify verbs or statives. As they characterize the quality of an action or state, they are inwardly bound with a verb or stative and are usually placed as close as possible to the verb or stative they modify:

Tony and the daughter of the Polish governor catch one glimpse of each other and are madly

aflame [16].

Table 1: Characteristic features of qualitative adverbs

1. Lexico-grammatical meaning	Show the quality of an action or state
2. Typical stem-building affixes	-ly
3. Morphological categories	Subclass of adverbs
4. Typical patterns of combinability	Are placed to the verb or stative they modify
5. Syntactic functions	Modify verbs or statives

Here is the list of qualitative adverbs which describe the way in which is done [16, 291]:

Abruptly

Steadily

Accurately

Steeply

Awkwardly

Stiffly

Badly

Strangely

Beautifully

Subtly

Brightly

Superbly

Brilliantly

Swiftly

Briskly

Systematically

Carefully

Tenderly

Carelessly

Thickly

Economically

Effectively

Efficiently

Evenly

Explicitly

Faintly

Faithfully

Fiercely

Finely

Firmly

Peacefully

Peculiarly

Perfectly

Plainly

Pleasantly

Politely

Poorly

Professionally

Properly

Quietly

Casually

Thinly

Cheaply

Thoroughly

Clearly

Thoughtfully

Closely

Tightly

Clumsily

Truthfully

Comfortably

Uncomfortably

Consistently

Urgently

Conveniently

Vaguely

Correctly

Vigorously

Dangerously

Violently

Delicately

Vividly

Differently

Voluntarily

Discreetly

Warmly

Distinctly

Widely

Dramatically

Willingly

Easily

Wonderfully

Fluently

Formally

Frankly

Freely

Gently

Gracefully

Hastily

Heavily

Honestly

Hurriedly

Intently

Meticulously

Neatly

Nicely

Oddly

Patiently

Rapidly

Readily

Rightly

Rigidly

Roughly

Ruthlessly

Securely

Sensibly

Sharply

Silently

Simply

Smoothly

Softly

Solidly

Specifically

Splendidly

Quantitative adverbs

show the degree, measure, quantity of an action, quality, state (very, rather, too, nearly, greatly, hardly, fully, quite, utterly, twofold, etc.). In traditional grammar they are referred to as adverbs of degree. They may be subdivided into several clearly pronounced sets [13, 224]:

1) adverbs of high degree. These adverbs are sometimes classed as «intensifiers»: very, quite, entirely, utterly, highly, greatly, perfectly, absolutely, strongly, considerably, pretty, much;

2) adverbs of excessive degree (direct and reverse) also belonging to the broader subclass of intensifiers: too, awfully, tremendously, dreadfully, terrifically;

3) adverbs of unexpected degree: surprisingly, astonishingly, amazingly;

4) adverbs of moderate degree: fairly, comparatively, relatively, moderately, rather;

5) adverbs of low degree: slightly, a little, a bit;

6) adverbs of approximate degree: almost, nearly;

7) adverbs of optimal degree: enough, sufficiently, adequately;

adverbs of inadequate degree: insufficiently, intolerably, unbearably, ridiculously;

9) adverbs of under-degree: hardly, scarcely.

Many adverbs of degree are restricted to a small set of lexical items, e.g. deeply anxious, highly intelligent, strikingly handsome, sharply critical.

Some degree adverbs tend to be distinguished in terms of positive and negative attitude. Fairly, quite, entirely suggest a positive meaning:

I’m fairly

certain I can do the job [38].

He plays quite

well [38].

I entirely

agree with you [41].

Rather, completely, utterly suggest a negative meaning:

The instructions were rather

complicated [40].

The explosion completely

destroyed the building [40].

She utterly

failed to convince them [41].

The combinability of quantitative adverbs is more extensive than that of qualitative adverbs. Besides verbs and statives, quantitative adverbs modify adjectives, adverbs, indefinite pronouns, numerals, modals, and even nouns:

I quite

like opera [41].

He had become fully

aware of her [41].

Rather

disconsolate she wandered out into the cathedral [38].

She knew it only too

well [38].

Very

probably he won’t budge [40].

Nearly

everybody came to our party [40].

It was nearly

ten [40].

He is wholly

master of the situation [38].

The combinability of some adverbs of this class can be rather narrow. The adverb very (frightfully, awfully, etc.), for instance, mostly precedes those adjectives and adverbs which have opposites of comparison. It does not, as a rule, modify verbs or numerals. The combinability of nearly or almost, on the other hand, is so extensive, that these words are close to particles.

According to M. Y. Blokh, the degree adverbs, though usually described under the heading of «quantitative», in reality constitute a specific variety of qualitative words, or rather some sort of intermediate qualitative-quantitative words, in so far as they are used as quality evaluators [13, 224]. In this function they are distinctly different from genuine quantitative adverbs which are directly related to numerals and thereby form sets of words of pronominal order. Such are numerical-pronominal adverbs like twice, thrice, four times, etc.; twofold, threefold, many fold, etc. Thus, the first general subclass of adverbs is formed by qualitative adverbs which are subdivided into qualitative adverbs of full notional value and degree adverbs — specific functional words.

Circumstantial adverbs

do not characterize the action itself but name certain circumstances attending the action described in the sentence and usually referring to the situation as a whole. Therefore circumstantial adverbs can be used in a sentence in which the only verb is a link-verb, that is, where no action is described:

He will be ten tomorrow

.

This accounts for the fact that, unlike qualitative and quantitative adverbs, circumstantial adverbs are not necessarily placed near the verb, they may occupy different places in the sentence:

It wasn’t any too warm yesterday

[41].

Yesterday

they had a snow-squall out west [41].

Circumstantial adverbs may be considered as the movable words [25, 284]. The most mobile are adverbs of time and place. They can occupy several positions without any change in their meaning, as in:

Usually

he signs well.

He usually

signs well.

He signs well usually

. [25, 284]

When H. Sweet speaks of adverbs, as showing almost the last remains of normal free order in Modern English, it concerns, mostly, circumstantial adverbs [35].

Table 2: Characteristic features of quantitative adverbs

1. Lexico-grammatical meaning	Show the degree, measure, quantity of an action, quality, state
2. Typical stem-building affixes	Are often formed from adjectives by adding -ly
3. Morphological categories	——————————————
4. Typical patterns of combinability	Modify verbs, adjectives, statives, adverbs, indefinite pronouns, numerals, modals, and even nouns
5. Syntactic functions	Adverbial modifier of degree

Here is a list of adverbs of degree [16, 293]:

Absolutely

Somewhat

Adequately

Soundly

Almost

Strongly

Altogether

Sufficiently

Amazingly

Supremely

Awfully

Surprisingly

Badly

Terribly

Extraordinarily

Extremely

Fairly

Fantastically

Fully

Greatly

Half

Partly

Perfectly

Poorly

Positive

Powerfully

Practically

Petty

Completely

Totally

Considerably

Tremendously

Dearly

Truly

Deeply

Unbelievably

Drastically

Utterly

Dreadfully

Very

Enormously

Virtually

Entirely

Well

Exceedingly

Wonderfully

Excessively

Extensively

Hard

Hugely

Immensely

Credibly

Intensely

Just

Largely

Moderately

Nearly

Noticeably

Outright

Profoundly

Purely

Quite

Radically

Rather

Really

Reason

Remarkably

Significantly

Simply

Slightly

Circumstantial adverbs include [16, 294]:

1) adverbs of time: now, then, yesterday, lately, soon, afterwards, presently, immediately, eventually, when, etc.

2) adverbs of frequency: often, seldom, sometimes, always, hardly ever, never, constantly, occasionally, etc.

3) adverbs of place or direction: here, there, everywhere, downstairs, below, ashore, abroad, inside, outside, northward(s), to and fro, backwards, where, etc.

4) adverbs of consequence and cause: therefore, hence, consequently, accordingly, why, so, etc.

5) adverbs of purpose: purposely, intentionally, deliberately.

Barring some adverbs with the –ward(s) suffix (backwards, inwards), the –ice suffix (twice, thrice), circumstantial adverbs have no typical stem-building elements (Cf. with the –ly suffix incident to qualitative adverbs). They are often morphologically indivisible (north, home, down, etc.), even more often are they related by conversion with prepositions (in, out, behind), conjunctions (since, before), nouns (north, home), adjectives (late, fare).

Only a small group of circumstantial adverbs denoting indefinite time and place have opposites of comparison. Most adverbs of this subclass have no forms of any grammatical category.

Circumstantial adverbs are mostly used in the function of adverbial modifiers of time and place. But sometimes they can be used in other functions, for instance, as attribute:

See the notes above

[38].

The room upstairs

is vacant [38].

Among circumstantial adverbs there is also a special group of pronominal adverbs

when, where, how, why used either as interrogative words to form questions, or as connectives to introduce subordinate clauses:

Where

shall we go?

We’ll go where

you want. [16, 295]

In the former case, owing to their auxiliary function, they are called interrogative adverbs

[16, 295]:

When

did you see him last?

Where

are you going?

How

did you manage to do it? [16, 295]

In the latter case, also owing to their auxiliary function, they called conjunctive adverbs

[16, 295]:

Sunday was the day when

he was least busy.

The thing to find out is where

he is now.

How

it was done remains a mystery to me. [16, 295]

The adverb how, in addition to the above functions, may also be placed at the head of an exclamatory sentence. In this case it is often followed by an adjective or an adverb but it may also be used alone. This how is sometimes called the exclamatory how

:

How

unfair grown-ups are! [38]

Look how

well I’m looked after! [38]

According to M. Y. Blokh, circumstantial adverbs are divided into notional and functional [13, 224].

The functional circumstantial adverbs are words of pronominal nature. Besides quantitative (numerical) adverbs mentioned above, they include adverbs of time, place, manner, cause, consequence. Many of these words are used as syntactic connectives and question-forming functionals. Here belong such words as now, here, when, where, so, thus, how, why, etc.

As for circumstantial adverbs of more self-dependent nature, they include two basic sets:

1) adverbs of time: today, tomorrow, already, ever, never, shortly, recently, seldom, early, late, etc.

2) adverbs of place: homeward, eastward, near, far, outside, ashore, etc.

The two varieties express a general idea of temporal and spatial orientation and essentially perform deictic (indicative) functions in the broader sense. Bearing this in mind, we may unite them under the general heading of «orientative» adverbs, reserving the term «circumstantial» to syntactic analysis of utterances [13, 225].

Thus, the whole class of adverbs will be divided, first, into nominal and pronominal, and the nominal adverbs will be subdivided into qualitative and orientative, the former including genuine qualitative adverbs and degree adverbs, the latter falling into temporal and local adverbs, with further possible subdivisions of more detailed specifications [13].

Table 3: Characteristic features of circumstantial adverbs

1. Lexico-grammatical meaning	Name certain circumstances attending the action as a whole
2. Typical stem-building affixes	-ward(s) suffix, -ice suffix
3. Morphological categories	Only certain circumstantial adverbs denoting indefinite time and place (soon, late, often, near, far) can form degrees of comparison
4. Typical patterns of combinability	Modify verbs, sometimes nouns or words of nominal characters, occupy different places in the sentence
5. Syntactic functions	Adverbial modifier of time, place, cause, purpose, condition; attribute

Here is the list of adverbs which are used to indicate the circumstances in which an action takes place [16, 292]:

Accidentally

Privately

Alone

Publicly

Artificially

Regardless

Automatically

Retail

Bodily

Scientifically

Collectively

Secretly

Commercially

Solo

Deliberately

Specially

Directly

Symbolically

Duly

Wholesale

First-class

Full-time

Illegally

Independently

Indirectly

Individually

Innocently

Instinctively

Involuntarily

Jointly

Legally

Logically

Mechanically

Naturally

Officially

Openly

Overtly

Part-time

Personally

Politically

Chapter 3.

Syntagmatic valency of adverbs and its actualization in speech

3.1 Syntactic valency and combinability patterns of adverbs

Every word is characterized by its semantic and syntactic valencies potentially inherent in it, which in syntagmatics become the actualization of these potentials, i.e. semantic (or lexical) and syntactic combinabilities.

The establishment of constructional syntagmatic relations is conditioned by the valent properties of the units entering into the syntagmatic relation. The valency of notional units is their potential ability to get into syntagmatic relations and to pattern with the units of appropriate types. The character of valency is predetermined by the semantic specialization and by the semantic completeness of the unit. These characteristics are evidently diametric: the more specialized a notional element is the less valent it is [1]. But it does not mean that semantically specialized notional units are devoid of any valency, they can pattern with extentions which are optional.

Syntagmatic valencies can be of categorial, subcategorial and individual character [26, 40]. The categorial valency is usually specified by the subcategorial valent properties of linguistic units. Their interaction makes the unit active in its syntagmatic behaviour when its valency is realized. For instance, every lexico-grammatical class of notional words possesses categorial and subcategorial valency.

Due to their central role in the sentence notional verbs are the most syntagmatically active elements which realize their valency functioning as “heads” in syntactic constructions of nominal and adverbial complementation.

According to their categorial valency substantive elements display patterning with the qualitative elements which are designed to denote qualities of objects and phenomena. The categorial valency of qualifying elements (adjectives and adverbs) is not strong, they pattern regularly with degree adverbs: too imposing, very short, extremely difficult, easily enough. The subcategorial and individual valencies are in full accord with the categorial valency of linguistic units [26, 42].

Grammatical valency of linguistic units reveals their ability to pattern with particular grammatical forms [4].

Since the valency of linguistic units is their potential ability to contract syntagmatic relations, it should be actualized in speech. This takes place in speech communication whenever linguistic units occur in actual speech units (utterances). The actualization of valency is achieved through the concrete combinability of linguistic units in quite concrete cases of their occurrence in speech units [4].

The realization and actualization of the valent properties pertaining to units and classes of units are conditioned by several factors among which the semantic compatibility of combining elements is of primary regulating significance [26, 42]. The actualization of valency is regulated and conditioned by contextual conditions or the distribution of a linguistic unit.

Here is the list of possible models of grammatical (syntactic) combinability of adverbs in modern English [12, 146]:

Adv + Adj

Adv + Adv

Adv + N

Adv + V

Adj + Adv

N + Adv

V + Adv

Adv + conj + Adj

Adv + conj + Adv

Adv + conj + N

Adv + conj + V

Adj + conj + Adv

N + conj + Adv

V + conj + Adv

Adv + link + Adj

Adv + link + Adv

Adv + link + N

Adv + link + V

Adj + link + Adv

N + link + Adv

V + link + Adv

Adv + prp + Adj

Adv + prp + Adv

Adv + prp + N

Adv + prp + V

Adj + prp + Adv

N + prp + Adv

V + prp + Adv

It follows that adverbs could realize their syntactic valent properties in 7 models of contact combinability and 21 models of distant combinability. But the results of numerous studies demonstrate that the following models of syntactic combinability of adverbs are typical for modern English [12, 147]:

1) Adv + Adj: very nice;

2) Adv + Adv: quite politely;

3) Adv + N: He is quite a child;

4) Adv + V: never come;

5) Adj + Adv: good enough;

6) N + Adv: a step aside;

7) V + Adv: run fast;

Adv + conj + Adj: We arrived earlier than usual

;

9) Adv + conj + Adv: anywhere

else than at home

;

10) Adv + conj + V: He knows better than to start a quarrel

;

11) Adj + conj + Adv: They were wider

apa

12) rt than before

;

13) N + link + Adv: The sun is not enough;

14) Adv + prp + N: e

arly in February;

15) N + prp + Adv: the writer of today.

English adverbs realize their syntactic valent properties in all of 7 models of contact combinability and only in 7 (out of 21) models of distant combinability. The nature of restrictions on combinability of adverbs in 14 models of distant combinability in some cases is conditioned by relations of objects and phenomena of extralinguistic reality (N + conj + Adv, V + conj + Adv, Adv + link + Adj, Adv + link + Adv, Adv + link + N, Adv + link + V, Adj + link + Adv, Adv + prp + Adj, Adv + prp + Adv, Adv + prp + V, Adj + prp + Adv, V + prp + Adv), in other cases it is conditioned by the system of the language (Adv + conj + N, V + link + Adv).

Morphological characteristics of the notional units can influence their syntactic valent properties or they can remain neutral with respect to these properties. For instance, the category of degrees of comparison of adverbs remains neutral with respect to valent properties of notional units in such models of combinability as Adv + Adv (well enough, better enough), Adj + Adv (good enough, better enough), V + Adv (move slowly, move more slowly), Adv + prp + N (early in February, earlier in February).

The meaning of models of combinability of English adverbs with other notional units is determined by semantic relations which occur in the process of their interaction.

In accord with their categorial meaning, adverbs are characterised by combinability with verbs, adjectives and words of adverbial nature. The functions of adverbs in these combinations consist in expressing different adverbial modifiers. Adverbs can also refer to whole situations; in this function they are considered under the heading of situation-«determinants» [13, 220]:

The woman was crying hysterically

. (an adverbial modifier of manner, in left-hand contact combination with the verb-predicate)

Wilson looked at him appraisingly

. (an adverbial modifier of manner, in left-hand distant combination with the verb-predicate)

Without undressing she sat down to the poems, nervously

anxious to like them… (an adverbial modifier of property qualification, in right-hand combination with a post-positional stative attribute-adjective)

You’ve gotten awfully

brave, awfully

suddenly. (an adverbial modifier of intensity, in right-hand combination with an adverb-aspective determinant of the situation)

Then

he stamps his boots again

and advances into the room. (two adverbial determinants of the situation: the first — of time, in right-hand combination with the modified predicative construction; the second — of recurrence, in left-hand combination with the modified predicative construction) [13, 220]

Adverbs can also combine with nouns acquiring in such cases a very peculiar adverbial-attributive function, essentially in post-position, but in some cases also in pre-position:

The world today

presents a picture radically different from what it was before the Second World War.

Our vigil overnight

was rewarded by good news: the operation seemed to have succeeded.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the then

President of the United States, proclaimed the «New Deal» — a new Government economic policy. [13, 220]

The use of adverbs in outwardly attributive positions in such and like examples appears to be in contradiction with the functional destination of the adverb — a word that is intended to qualify a non-nounal syntactic element by definition.

However, this seeming inconsistence of the theoretical interpretation of adverbs with their actual uses can be clarified and resolved in the light of the syntactic principle of nominalisation elaborated within the framework of the theory of paradigmatic syntax [13, 221]. In accord with this principle, each predicative syntactic construction paradigmatically correlates with a noun-phrase displaying basically the same semantic relations between its notional constituents. A predicative construction can be actually changed into a noun-phrase, by which change the dynamic situation expressed by the predicative construction receives a static name. Now, adverbs-determinants modifying in constructions of this kind the situation as a whole, are preserved in the corresponding nominalised phrases without a change in their inherent functional status:

The world that exists today. → The world today.

We kept vigil overnight. → Our vigil overnight.

Then he was the President. → The then President.

These paradigmatic transformational correlations explain the type of connection between the noun and its adverbial attribute even in cases where direct transformational changes would not be quite consistent with the concrete contextual features of constructions [13, 221]. What is important here, is the fact that the adverb used to modify a noun actually relates to the whole corresponding situation underlying the noun phrase.

3.2 Semantic and syntactic properties of adverbs of degree

Expounded in this chapter is the class of adverbs of degree as one of the most numerous and syntagmatically active classes of adverbs.

In English there is a class of lexical elements known as adverbs of degree [13] or intensifiers [18]. They are so labeled because they are considered to operate on certain linguistic elements to magnify the degree of intensification or to amplify certain qualities.

There is a substantial discrepancy of opinion concerning the terminology related to adverbs of degree. It can be argued that intensifier is a subcategory of adverbs of degree, since some (most) adverbs of degree are not necessarily intensifying. Another view is that an intensifier is a different category altogether. In this paper neither of these distinctions will be made, but adverb of degree and intensifier will be used interchangeably. The main reason for this is that there seems to be no distinction between degree adverb and intensifying adverb in academic literature.

There has been considerable academic interest in such adverbs for many years. Stoffel discusses intensive adverbs, noting that those which etymologically express completeness have a tendency to weaken over time [33]. There is a high turnover of such words and this area of language changes relatively quickly.

Stoffel’s terms, ‘intensives’ and ‘downtoners’, are adopted by Quirk in the seminal Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985) [29]. Intensification is a pervasive function in language [10]. Dwight Bolinger expands the discussion of intensifiers from the use of adverbs to qualify adjectives and adverbs, to these and other parts of speech modifying the strength of nouns and verbs as well such as the intensifying adjective qualifying the noun:

It was utter heaven [14, 151].

He notes that some syntactic forms also function as intensifiers:

He talked back to her and was she mad! [14, 151]

More recently, intensifiers have been the object of corpus research. Partington relates the delexicalisation of intensifiers to syntactic flexibility. In his view the lower the semantic content of an intensifier, the more restricted the syntactic environments in which it may occur. The more restricted the syntactic flexibility of an item, the more reduced is its semantic potential [27, 190].

That is, an intensifier like ‘extremely’ today occurs almost exclusively in premodifying position, whereas in the past it was also comfortable in postmodifying position:

A sinecure which would fitt me extremely

[27, 190].

Or it could occupy position before a prepositional phrase:

Two humours equall abounding together, extremely

in superfluite [27, 190].

This in turn relates to the phenomenon of collocation. In fact, the more delexicalised an intensifier, the more widely it collocates: the greater the range and number of modifiers it combines with [27, 183]. In other words, the less meaning is contained within the intensifier itself, the more it will acquire from its surrounding co-text.

Thus, adverbs of degree (or intensifiers) are those adverbs which function to increase or tone down the strength of another word in the sentence, usually an adjective, verb or another adverb. Intensifiers are said to have three different functions: they can emphasize, amplify, or downtone [11].

Adverbs of degree exhibit a number of syntactic and semantic properties typical of an adverb. They are often used, for example, in a preverbal (including adjectival) position and form a syntactic sequence [20]:

Adverb of degree Adjective (Phrase) / Verb (Phrase)

e.g.: (1): Quitting my old job was an extremely

difficult decision [40].

(2): He hardly

noticed what she was saying [40].

(3): I am too

tired to go out tonight [41].

(4): You absolutely

have to confront this belief [41].

Examples (1)-(4) also represent some of the commonly recognized syntactic functions of adverbial elements, namely, as a modifier modifying a single verb or an adjective, or as an adverbial affecting the whole adjectival or verbal phrase. Thus, in example (1) extremely can be seen as modifying the adjective difficult, in (2) hardly modifies the verb notice, and in (3) and (4) adverbs of degree too and absolutely modify, respectively, verbal expressions.

Some intensifiers, however, occupy different position in the sentence. For instance, enough as an adverb meaning ‘to the necessary degree’, when it modifies an adjective or another adverb, is placed in post-position to them:

Is your coffee hot enough

[38]? (adjective)

He didn’t work hard

enough

[38]. (adverb)

It also goes before nouns, and means ‘as much as is necessary’. In this case it is not an adverb, but a ‘determiner’:

We have enough

bread

[40].

They don’t have enough food

[40].

Adverbs of degree can also modify certain kinds of prepositional phrases:

They lived nearly

on the top of the hill [41].

I’m almost

through with my work [41].

His remarks were not quite

to the point [38].

There are a few intensifiers in English which can function as attributes modifying nouns:

He was fully

master of the situation [38].

She was quite

a child [41].

While the syntax and semantics of intensifiers are generally well understood, thanks to the work of descriptive grammarians, little has been done to investigate other patterns connected with intensifiers, notably, their freestanding use. The freestanding use here refers to a situation where adverb of degree is not followed by any adjectival or verbal predicate. This is illustrated by examples below:

(1) An interview between a reporter and a famous soprano:

Reporter: Was it a bit learning process doing that recording session with the playbacks?

Soprano: Oh, absolutely

, also because it was one of my earliest recordings, and in fact in every recording, and in every performance, I learn something. [24]

(2) A dialogue between a parent and a child:

Parent: Have you finished your essay?

Child: Almost

. I didn’t have enough time for that. [24]

Quirk R. proposes a number of adverbial categories for English [29, 590, 613]. Relevant here are the categories of adjuncts and disjuncts, and the freestanding use of intensifiers presented in the above examples would be instances of disjuncts. The scholar mentions that unlike the intensifier adjuncts, which have a narrow orientation, disjuncts are more freestanding: they are syntactically more detached and have a scope that extends over the sentence as a whole [29, 613]. In fact Quirk R. notes that not only can disjuncts stand alone, but they also can be responses to questions or can be used as a comment on a previous utterance, usually accompanied by ‘yes’ or ‘no’ [29, 628]. Clearly the distinction made by Quirk between adjuncts and disjuncts is a useful one. Nevertheless a number of important properties concerning the freestanding disjuncts absolutely and almost have not been fully explored.

Firstly, the adverbial element absolutely is considered by Quirk R. as both an adjunct and a disjunct. The question is whether there is any connection between the adjunct, dependent use and the disjunct, freestanding use.

Secondly, the freestanding pattern, as exemplified above, is interesting not only in terms of the deviant syntactic behavior (a modifier without a head) from the point of view of a typical adverb, but also in terms of semantics and interactive pragmatics. From a semantic point of view, even without any adjectives or verbal elements (i.e., syntactic heads that are supposed to indicate the content of the semantic scale), absolutely alone can imply a positive answer or an affirmative action. Thus, in example (1) even though the interviewee does not state explicitly whether she agrees with the interviewer’s assessment, the interviewer and the reader can infer unequivocally that she does.

Lastly, Quirk R. asserts that disjuncts are usually accompanied by ‘yes’ or ‘no’ [29, 628]. This statement leaves an impression that both affirmative and negative answering tokens are possible candidates with the disjuncts. However, there are preferred patterns in actual language use. It is necessary to look at actual language use and understand language structure, including modification structure, as a dynamic, unsettled phenomenon [14, 18]. The epistemic propensity of the lexical item and the context in which the modifier is used gives rise to the independent use.

3.3 The use of adverbs of degree with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

Most adjectives have a meaning which can be made stronger or weaker; these are called ‘gradable adjectives’. Here are some examples of adjectives used as gradable in their most common meanings [21, 134]:

Grading adverbs	Gradable adjectives
a bit, dreadfully, extremely, hugely, immensely, intensely, rather, reasonably, slightly, very	+	quiet, rich, strong, weak, young, angry, big, busy, clever, common, deep, fast, friendly, happy, important, low, popular

She was extremely rich

[38].

The people there are reasonably friendly

[41].

Other adjectives have a meaning which is extreme or absolute and cannot easily be made stronger or weaker. These are called ‘non-gradable adjectives’. With non-gradable adjectives can be used adverbs which emphasize their extreme or absolute nature, such as absolutely, completely etc. Many classifying adjectives which are used to say that something is of particular type (medical, environmental, chemical; annual, general, northern, etc.) are usually non-gradable. Here are some examples of adjectives used as non-gradable in their most common meanings [21, 134]:

Non-grading adverbs	Non-gradable adjectives
Absolutely, completely, entirely, perfectly, practically, simply, totally, utterly, virtually; almost, exclusively, fully, largely, mainly, nearly, primarily	+	Awful, excellent, huge, impossible, superb, terrible, unique, unknown, whole, domestic, environmental

She gave us a completely impossible

problem to solve [38].

It was absolutely superb

[38].

Gradable adjectives are sometimes used with non-grading adverbs such as absolutely and totally, and non-gradable adjectives are sometimes used with grading adverbs such as extremely, rather and very, particularly to add special emphasis or humorous effect:

What you’re asking isn’t just difficult – it’s extremely impossible

[21, 134]! (grading adverb + non-gradable adjective)

You’ve won a hundred pounds? Wow, you’re virtually rich

[21, 134]! (non-grading adverb + gradable adjective)

The adverbs fairly

(= to quite a large degree, but usually less then ‘very’), really (= ‘very (much)’) and pretty (= similar to ‘fairly’; used in informal contexts) are commonly used with both gradable and non-gradable adjectives [21, 134]:

She is fairly popular

at school.

I’m really busy

at the moment.

It’s a pretty important

exam.

It was a fairly awful

film.

The flooding was really terrible

.

The bill was pretty huge

.

However, fairly (or very) is not generally used with gradable adjectives such as essential, invaluable, perfect, superb, tremendous and wonderful which indicate that something is very good or necessary:

Some experience is really/pretty essential

for the job [38].

The weather that day was really/pretty perfect

[38].

Some adjectives have both gradable and non-gradable senses. Such group of adjectives includes [21, 136]:

1. Adjectives which have different senses when they are gradable and non-gradable (civil, clean, common, electric, empty, false, late, odd, old, original, particular, straight):

Smith is very common

nam. (=frequently found; gradable)

We have a lot of common

interests. (=shared; non-gradable)

The house is very old

. (= existed many years; gradable)

I met my old

politics professor the other day. (= former; non-gradable)

Sue’s shoes are very clean

. (= not dirty; gradable)

He left the town because he wanted to make a clean

break with the past. (= starting again in different circumstances; non-gradable) [21, 136]

2. Adjectives which have similar meanings when they are gradable and non-gradable. However, when they are gradable they show the quality that a person or thing has (i. e. they are qualitative adjectives and therefore can be used with an adverb), and when they are non-gradable they indicate the category or type they belong to (i. e. they are classifying adjectives) (academic, adult, average, diplomatic, foreign, genuine, guilty, human, individual, innocent, mobile, private, professional, public, scientific, technical, true, wild):

I don’t know where he came from, but he sounded slightly foreign

. (= not from this country; gradable)

She is now advising on the government’s foreign

policy. (= concerning other countries; non-gradable)

They had a very public

argument. (= seen/heard by a lot of people; gradable)

He was forced to resign by public

pressure. (= from many people in the community; non-gradable) [21, 136]

3. Non-gradable nationality adjectives indicate that a person or thing comes from a particular country. Gradable nationality adjectives show that they have supposed characteristics of that country:

There’s a shop around the corner that sells Italian

bread [40].

Giovanni has lived in Britain for 20 years, but he’s still very Italian

[40].

3.4 Semantic preferences of amplifiers

A crucial factor in explaining the independent use of intensifiers is the collocation patterns of the dependent use. Different lexical items can have diverse collocation patterns. This diversity is realized at at least two levels:

1) the preference for different word forms. According to Kennedy G. 76-78 percent of the adjectives co-occurring with the adverb completely have an -ed suffix [24, 155];

2) the preference for different semantic association patterns, commonly known as semantic prosodies and semantic preferences [31; 25; 31].

This subchapter mainly is concerned with the notion of semantic preference.

According to Stubbs, semantic preference deals with the relation between a lemma or word-form and a set of semantically related words [34, 65]. With regard to the semantic preference of amplifiers, researchers who have looked at various types of British English data seem to be, in spirit, in agreement with Quirk R. that amplifiers can equally co-occur with both affirmative and negative terms [29]. Partington offers the following observation: a subset of amplifying intensifiers includes absolutely, perfectly, entirely, completely, thoroughly, totally and utterly. The first of these, absolutely, displays a distinct semantic preference in collocating with items which have a strong or superlative sense: among its significant collocates (i.e. those which co-occur with the keyword three times or more) in the Cobuild corpus were: delighted, enchanting, splendid, preposterous, appalling, intolerable. There appears to be an even balance between favourable and unfavourable items [27, 146]. This preference is well documented in modern corpus-based dictionaries: absolutely can be used to add force to a strong adjective [40].

It leads the author to conclude that absolutely has no strong preferences with regard to favorable or unfavorable semantic meanings in its collocates, and the only significant semantic pattern is that absolutely prefers superlative and hyperbolic expressions. Similarly, it is believed that absolutely tends to be associated with adjectives that are used hyperbolically (e.g., fabulous, marvelous, fantastic, brilliant, filthy, freezing); the adjectives have both positive (wonderful) and negative (disgusting) associations [24, 112]. However, even though it is true that both positive and negative associations are possible, positive cases outnumber negative ones by a large margin (Table 4).

Table 4: Semantic preference patterns of amplifiers in their dependent usage

Amplifier	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Total
absolutely	93	53	43	189
completely	127	112	244	483
deeply	31	53	91	175
entirely	76	48	71	195
extremely	268	156	262	686
perfectly	120	47	0	167
totally	87	61	187	335
utterly	26	14	92	132
very	326	259	302	887

Table 4 provides a tabular illustration of comparative ratios of semantic preferences of amplifiers in modern English dictionaries [37; 39; 42].

An element can be semantically positive, including affirmative, negative, or neutral. The semantic properties of the element following an amplifier are determined primarily locally, that is, by looking at the semantics of the collocate alone. Positive expressions in this paper include both favorable terms such as good, perfect, and beautiful, and affirmative terms such as right and correct (even when they are used to confirm a negative statement). Negative expressions are naturally the opposite of favorable and affirmative expressions, including such terms as ridiculous, horrible, and wrong. The terms without a clear positive or negative connotation are deemed neutral.

Sentences below exemplify positive semantic associations:

There are times when the calculator is an absolutely indispensable

tool [39].

You know perfectly well

what I mean [37].

I entirely agree

with you [37].

It’s a totally awesome

experience [42].

Lexical items such as indispensable, well, agree, and awesome convey a clear positive meaning.

Here are some examples which present cases of neutral terms – that is, neither positive, nor negative, as indicated the use of divided, different, identical and female respectively:

Opinion is deeply divided

on this issue [42].

We are so utterly different

from each other [42].

How do you tell them apart? They look absolutely identical

[39].

The audience was almost entirely female

[39].

Finally, negative cases (e.g., fail, disturbed, abhorrent, unacceptable, and destroy) are captured in the examples below:

She utterly failed

to convince them [37].

They were deeply disturbed

by the accident [37].

I find the idea absolutely abhorrent

[39].

This behaviour is totally unacceptable

[42].

The explosion completely destroyed

the building [39].

The most ambiguous cases involve instances where amplifiers collocate with a negator (no, not) or a negative suffix (im-, un-, in-, etc.) These cases should be analyzed in the larger environment to determine whether the overall meaning is negative or positive. In the following cases a combination of amplifiers with unbelievable and nothing would be treated as positive and neutral respectively:

That’s on DVD compared to a VHS. It’s completely unbelievable

[39].

She looks absolutely nothing

like you [37].

On the other hand, when there is a syntactic negation modifying a positive adverb adjective sequence, that sequence may be considered, following the local principlementioned earlier, positive if the adjective is positive:

I am not entirely happy about the proposal [39].

In this case, the adjective happy is positive [42].

Overall, as the data in table 4 show, some amplifiers tend to collocate with positive meanings, whereas others have negative semantic preferences. More positive association patterns are found in the collocates of absolutely. The number of positive cases more than doubles that of negative cases. When positive and neutral cases are combined, negative cases become a decided minority. What especially reveals positive association is the case of perfectly. It exhibits a strong positive semantic preference, with frequent collocates being good, well, legitimate. There is a preferred correlation between totally, completely, utterly, deeply and semantically negative collocates. However, some amplifiers have almost equal number of semantically positive and negative collocates (entirely, very).

Conclusion

The categorical meaning of the adverb is secondary property which implies qualitative, quantitative, or circumstantial characteristics of actions, states or qualities. In accordance with their categorial meaning, adverbs are characterised by combinability with verbs, adjectives and words of adverbial nature. The functions of adverbs in these combinations consist in expressing different adverbial modifiers. Adverbs can also refer to whole situations.

The only pattern of morphological change for adverbs is the same as for adjectives, the degrees of comparison. With regard to the category of the degrees of comparison adverbs (like adjectives) fall into comparables and non-comparables. The number of non-comparables is much greater among adverbs than among adjectives. Only adverbs of manner and certain adverbs of time and place can form degrees of comparison.

In accord with their word-building structure adverbs may be simple, derived, compound and composite.Simple adverbs are rather few, and nearly all of them display functional semantics, mostly of pronominal character. The typical adverbial affixes in affixal derivation are, first and foremost, the basic and only productive adverbial suffix –ly and then a couple of others of limited distribution.

Adverbs may perform different functions, modifying different types of words, phrases, sentences. Adverbs may function asadverbial modifiers of manner, place, time, degree to a finite or non-finite form of the verb.

Falling back on the compiled list of relevant lexical units drawn from the currently existing dictionaries and miscellaneous theoretical sources, the paper offers a semantic classification of adverbs into 10 classes and lexico-grammatical classification into 3 classes.

Adverbs are commonly divided into qualitative, quantitative and circumstantial. Qualitative adverbs express immediate, inherently non-graded qualities of actions and other qualities. The adverbs considered as quantitative include words of degree. These are specific lexical units of semi-functional nature expressing quality measure, or gradational evaluation of qualities. The functional circumstantial adverbs are of pronominal nature.

According to their meaning, adverbs fall into the following classes: adverbs of time, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of place and direction, adverbs of manner, adverbs of degree or intensifiers, attitudinal adverbs, viewpoint adverbs, and conjunctive adverbs.

The results of research reveal that English adverbs realize their syntactic valent properties in 7 models of contact combinability and in 7 models of distant combinability. The nature of restrictions on combinability of adverbs in 14 models of distant combinability in some cases is conditioned by relations of objects and phenomena of extralinguistic reality, in other cases it is conditioned by the system of the language, namely, by the distribution of adverbs which either favours or impedes the realization of their valent properties [12]. Morphological characteristics of adverbs and their collocates are either conducive or non-conducive or neutral to the adverb realizing its syntactic valency. Thus, adverbs of manner saying how an action is performed can freely occur with dynamic verbs, but not with stative verbs.

The meaning of models of combinability of English adverbs with other notional units is determined by semantic relations which occur in the process of their interaction.

One of the most syntagmatically active groups of adverbs is the adverbs of degree or intensifiers. The analysis leads to conclude that the more delexicalised an intensifier, the more widely it collocates: the greater the range and number of modifiers it combines with. In other words, the less meaning is contained within the intensifier itself, the more it will acquire from its surrounding co-text. Some degree adverbs tend to be distinguished in terms of positive, neutral or negative attitude.

Резюме

Дипломна робота присвячена дослідженню синтагматичних та парадигматичних особливостей прислівників у сучасній англійській мові.

У роботі розглянуто питання функціональних особливостей прислівників: від з’ясування насамперед валентних функцій до дослідження їхнього семантичного простору. Проте суто одноплановий, синтагматичний підхід до сутності й функціонування прислівників без аналізу їхнього парадигматичного статусу не дає можливості виявити усі закономірності їхнього функціонування. Тому дане дослідження включає також і аналіз парадигматики англійських прислівників. Це дає можливість пояснити не лише вживання прислівників у контексті, але й іманентну семантичну ознаку прислівника як елемента лексико-семантичної системи. У роботі проаналізовано дериваційний статус та дериваційні тенденції прислівників.

Для вирішення поставлених завдань використовувались такі методи:

— дистрибутивний і валентний аналіз;

— структурно-семантичний аналіз;

— елементи кількісного аналізу.

Основну увагу дослідження зосереджено на прислівниках ступеня, оскільки цьому виду прислівників характерна найбільш висока синтагматична активність. Деякі прислівники ступеня розглядаються з точки зору позитивних або негативних семантичних преференцій. Дана робота містить аналіз семантичних преференцій прислівників ступеня на матеріалі словосполучень, що були вилучені методом суцільної вибірки з трьох сучасних англійських словників сполучуваності.

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Appendix

1. Adjectives used with absolutely

:

abhorrent, absurd, amazed, amazing, appalling, astonished, astonishing, awful, beautiful, binding, bonkers, bound, breathtaking, brilliant, catastrophic, central, certain, charming, clear, committed, conclusive, confident, confidential, consistent, constant, convinced, correct, covered, crazy, critical, crucial, dedicated, delicious, delighted, delightful, dependent, desperate, despicable, determined, devoted, disastrous, disgraceful, disgusted, disgusting, distraught, dreadful, ecstatic, elated, equal, essential, even, excellent, exhausted, explicit, extraordinary, fair, faithful, false, fantastic, fascinating, fatal, fearless, fed up, filthy, fine, flat, foolproof, frank, frantic, free, freezing, full, fundamental, furious, genuine, gorgeous, great, harmless, helpless, honest, hopeless, horrible, horrific, huge, hysterical, ideal, identical, immaculate, imperative, impossible, incapable, incorrect, incredible, indispensable, insane, inseparable, intolerable, invaluable, lethal, level, logical, lovely, loyal, ludicrous, mad, magical, magnificent, marvellous, meaningless, miserable, motionless, necessary, opposed, outrageous, outstanding, perfect, phenomenal, plain, pointless, positive, precise, quiet, reliable, remarkable, ridiculous, right, rigid, sacred, safe, secure, senseless, serious, shattered, shocked, shocking, sick, silent, sincere, soaked, solid, spectacular, splendid, square, staggered, staggering, steady, still, straight, stunned, stunning, stupid, superb, sure, terrible, terrified, thrilled, true, truthful, typical, unacceptable, unavoidable, unbearable, unbelievable, unforgettable, unheard-of, united, unthinkable, useless, valid, vital, wild, wonderful, worthless, wrong.

Verbs used with absolutely

:

adore, agree, despise, dominate, dread, forbid, guarantee, hate, insist, love, overwhelm, refuse, require, seethe.

2. Adjectives used with completely

:

absent, absorbed, absurd, acceptable, accidental, accurate, alien, alone, amazed, anonymous, arbitrary, artificial, automatic, autonomous, avoidable, baffled, balanced, bald, bare, barren, believable, bewildered, bewildering, black, blameless, blank, blind, bogus, bonkers, boring, broke, calm, clean, clear, closed, coincidental, comfortable, committed, confident, confidential, confused, conscious, consistent, contradictory, contrary, convinced, convincing, cool, correct, covered, crazy, credible, cynical, daft, dark, deaf, decayed, defenceless, dejected, dependent, deranged, deserted, detached, devoid, devoted, different, disastrous, disillusioned, dismissive, disorganized, disproportionate, dissimilar, distinct, distraught, dominant, drunk, dry, effective, empty, engrossed, erect, erratic, estranged, even, evil, exempt, exhausted, exposed, extinct, fair, faithful, false, familiar, fearless, fed up, fictional, fictitious, fine, flat, flexible, foolish, foreign, free, fruitless, frustrated, full, futile, genuine, grey, groundless, happy, harmless, healthy, helpless, honest, honourable, hooked, hopeless, hysterical, identical, ignorant, illegitimate, illiterate, illogical, imaginary, immaterial, immobile, immoral, immune, impartial, impassable, impassive, impervious, impossible, impotent, impracticable, impractical, inaccessible, inaccurate, inactive, inadequate, inappropriate, incapable, incompatible, incompetent, incomprehensible, incongruous, incorrect, independent, indifferent, ineffective, inept, inert, inexplicable, inflexible, innocent, insane, insensitive, inseparable, insignificant, insulated, intact, invisible, irrational, irrelevant, irresponsible, isolated, justifiable, justified, lacking, lame, legal, legitimate, level, lifeless, limp, logical, lost, loyal, ludicrous, mad, miserable, misleading, missing, mistaken, motionless, mystified, naked, natural, negative, neutral, new, non-existent, normal, novel, nude, objective, oblivious, obscure, obsolete, obvious, one-sided, opaque, open, opposed, organic, original, outrageous, overcast, overgrown, overwhelming, painless, passive, perfect, perplexed, plain, pointless, powerless, predictable, preoccupied, puzzled, quiet, random, rational, ready, recognizable, recyclable, red, redundant, relaxed, reliable, reliant, relieved, repulsive, resistant, responsible, reversible, ridiculous, rigid, safe, sane, satisfactory, satisfied, satisfying, secluded, secular, secure, self-contained, self-sufficient, selfish, senseless, separable, separate, serious, shattered, shocked, silent, sincere, slack, smooth, soaked, sober, solid, soluble, speechless, stable, static, sterile, still, straight, stressed, stuck, stunned, stupid, subjective, submerged, subordinate, superfluous, sure, surprised, terrified, transparent, trivial, true, truthful, unable, unacceptable, unaffected, unaware, unbalanced, unbearable, unbelievable, unchanged, uncharacteristic, unconcerned, unconscious, uncontrollable, understandable, undressed, unexpected, unfamiliar, unfashionable, unfit, unfounded, unheard-of, uninhabitable, uninhibited, unintelligible, uninterested, unique, unknown, unmoved, unnecessary, unnoticed, unprovoked, unreal, unreasonable, unscathed, unscrupulous, unsuitable, unsure, unthinkable, unused to, unwarranted, up to date, upright, useless, valid, valueless, visible, voluntary, vulnerable, worthless, wrong.

Verbs used with completely

: abandon, abolish, absorb, agree, alter, assimilate, ban, believe, blind, block, break, burn, bury, cease, change, clear, coat, collapse, conceal, confuse, contradict, cool, cover, crack, cure, cut, defeat, delete, deny, deplete, destroy, disagree, disappear, discard, disintegrate, dismiss, disrupt, dissolve, distort, dominate, drain, dry, eliminate, embrace, empty, enclose, eradicate, erase, erode, evade, excavate, exclude, exhaust, expose, fail, fill, focus, fool, forget, freeze, fulfil, gut, heal, hide, humiliate, identify, ignore, immerse, inhibit, integrate, lack, lie, lift, mask, master, misinterpret, misjudge, mislead, mismanage, misread, misrepresent, miss, misunderstand, neglect, obliterate, obscure, obstruct, offset, omit, overcome, overhaul, overlook, overturn, overwhelm, paralyse, penetrate, prepared, prevent, protect, rebuild, reconstruct, recover, regain, reject, relax, relieve, rely, remove, renew, renovate, reorganize, repair, replace, resolve, restore, rethink, reverse, revise, rewrite, ruin, rule, seal, separate, shade, shatter, silence, soak, solve, spoil, stop, strip, subordinate, succeed, suppress, surrender, surround, sympathize, thaw, transform, trust, underestimate, undermine, understand, vanish, wipe, withdraw, wreck.

3. Adjectives used with deeply

:

afraid, aggrieved, ambivalent, apprehensive, ashamed, asleep, attached, committed, compassionate, concerned, conscious, conservative, convinced, critical, curious, cynical, damaging, dependent, depressed, depressing, disappointed, disappointing, dishonest, disillusioned, dissatisfied, distasteful, distressing, disturbed, disturbing, divisive, embarrassed, embarrassing, embedded, emotional, engaged, engrossed, entangled, estranged, expressive, fascinating, fearful, flawed, flushed, frustrated, frustrating, grateful, honoured, hostile, humiliating, hurt, hurtful, immoral, impressed, inadequate, indebted, influential, ingrained, insecure, interested, interesting, involved, ironic, irresponsible, irritated, lined, misguided, moving, offensive, opposed, perplexed, personal, perverse, pessimistic, philosophical, poignant, polarized, prejudiced, preoccupied, regrettable, relaxed, religious, reluctant, repulsive, resentful, rooted, sad, satisfying, sceptical, sensitive, shaken, shocked, shocking, significant, sincere, sinister, sorry, spiritual, submerged, suspect, suspicious, symbolic, sympathetic, tanned, touched, traumatic, troubled, uncertain, uncomfortable, unconscious, uneasy, unfashionable, unhappy, unpleasant, unpopular, upset, wary, worried, worrying, wrinkled.

Verbs used with deeply

:

absorb, admire, affect, anger, appreciate, believe, blush, bow, breathe, bury, care, dig, divide, drink, explore, feel, flush, frown, grieve, growl, hold, humiliate, hurt, immerse, implicate, influence, inhale, inscribe, kiss, laugh, love, mark, offend, penetrate, ponder, probe, regret, resent, respect, sadden, scar, scowl, shade, shock, sigh, sleep, slumber, sniff, stir, swallow, sympathize, think, thrust, touch, trouble, upset, wound.

4. Adjectives used with entirely:

absent, abstract, acceptable, accidental, alien, alone, anonymous, appropriate, arbitrary, artificial, autonomous, avoidable, believable, beneficial, black, blameless, blank, bogus, characteristic, coincidental, comfortable, commendable, compatible, composed, comprehensible, conceivable, concerned, confident, consistent, contrary, conventional, correct, covered, dependent, devoid, different, dissimilar, distinct, empty, exempt, explicable, factual, fair, faithful, false, familiar, feasible, fictional, fictitious, fitting, foreign, free, futile, genuine, honourable, hostile, hypothetical, ignorant, illogical, imaginary, immaterial, immune, impartial, impractical, inaccurate, inadequate, inappropriate, incidental, incompatible, incorrect, independent, ineffective, innocent, instrumental, intact, irrelevant, isolated, justifiable, justified, lacking, legitimate, likely, logical, male, misguided, misleading, misplaced, missing, mistaken, naked, negative, new, normal, objective, occupied, one-sided, opposed, optional, plausible, pointless, positive, possible, practical, pragmatic, predictable, preoccupied, preventable, proper, random, rational, reasonable, reliant, respectable, responsible, rigid, safe, secular, self-contained, self-sufficient, selfish, sensible, separable, separate, serious, silent, sincere, sober, subject, subjective, suitable, superficial, supportive, sympathetic, transparent, typical, unacceptable, unaffected, unaware, understandable, unfounded, united, unknown, unnecessary, unnoticed, unprecedented, unreasonable, unscathed, unsuitable, useless, voluntary, worthy, wrong.

Verbs used with entirely

:

abandon, abolish, agree, base, cease, concentrate, concur, confine, consist, cover, depend, destroy, devote, disagree, disappear, discard, dismiss, dominate, eliminate, endorse, eradicate, erase, exclude, fill, finance, focus, fund, gear, ignore, lack, neglect, obliterate, omit, overlook, rebuild, rely, remove, replace, rest, rule, surround, transform, vanish.

5. Adjectives used with extremely

:

able, abstract, abusive, accurate, active, adaptable, addictive, adept, advanced, advantageous, afraid, aggressive, aggrieved, agitated, agreeable, alarmed, alarming, alert, ambitious, ambivalent, amiable, amused, amusing, ancient, angry, annoyed, annoying, anxious, apologetic, appealing, apprehensive, appropriate, articulate, artificial, attractive, authoritarian, awkward, backward, bad, bad-tempered, battered, beautiful, beneficial, biased, big, bitter, bizarre, bleak, bold, bored, boring, brave, breathless, brief, bright, broad, bureaucratic, businesslike, busy, calm, capable, careful, careless, casual, cautious, challenging, chaotic, charming, cheap, cheerful, chilly, civil, claustrophobic, clean, clear, clever, close, cloudy, cold, comfortable, comforting, comical, committed, common, compelling, competent, competitive, complacent, complex, complicated, complimentary, composed, comprehensive, concerned, confident, confused, confusing, conscious, conservative, consistent, conspicuous, content, contentious, contrived, controversial, convenient, conventional, convincing, cool, cordial, costly, courageous, courteous, coy, creative, creepy, critical, cross, crowded, cruel, curious, cynical, damaging, damp, dangerous, dark, dated, decorative, dedicated, deep, defensive, delicate, demanding, dependable, depressed, depressing, deprived, desirable, desperate, despondent, destructive, detailed, determined, detrimental, devoted, difficult, dignified, direct, dirty, disadvantaged, disappointed, disappointing, disconcerting, disillusioned, dismal, dismissive, disorganized, disruptive, dissatisfied, distant, distasteful, distinctive, distraught, distressing, disturbing, diverse, divisive, dominant, doubtful, dramatic, drunk, dry, dubious, dull, dumb, dynamic, eager, early, easy, eccentric, economical, eerie, effective, efficient, elaborate, elegant, eloquent, elusive, embarrassed, embarrassing, emotional, emphatic, encouraging, energetic, enigmatic, enjoyable, entertaining, enthusiastic, envious, erotic, erratic, evident, excitable, excited, exciting, exclusive, exhausting, expensive, experienced, explicit, explosive, exposed, expressive, faint, faithful, familiar, famous, far-fetched, fashionable, fast, favourable, fearful, feminine, fertile, fickle, fine, firm, fit, flammable, flat, flattered, flattering, flexible, fluid, flushed, fond, foolish, formal, formidable, forthright, fortunate, fragile, fragrant, frail, frank, frequent, fresh, friendly, frightened, frightening, fruitful, frustrated, frustrating, full, funny, fuzzy, generous, gentle, gifted, glad, glamorous, good, good-looking, grateful, gratifying, gregarious, gruesome, guilty, handsome, handy, haphazard, happy, hard, harmful, harsh, hazardous, hazy, healthy, heavy, helpful, hierarchical, hoarse, honest, honoured, hopeful, hostile, hot, humorous, hungry, hurt, ignorant, ill, illuminating, imaginative, immature, immoral, impatient, impersonal, impertinent, implausible, important, impractical, imprecise, impressed, impressionable, impressive, improbable, inaccurate, inadequate, inappropriate, inconvenient, indignant, ineffective, inefficient, inexpensive, inexperienced, inflexible, influential, informal, informative, infrequent, ingenious, inhibited, insecure, insensitive, instructive, insulting, intelligent, intense, interested, interesting, intolerant, intricate, intriguing, intrusive, intuitive, inventive, involved, ironic, irresponsible, irritated, irritating, isolated, jealous, keen, kind, knowledgeable, lame, large, late, lazy, lengthy, lenient, liberal, light, light-headed, likeable, likely, limited, literate, logical, lonely, long, long-lived, loud, low, loyal, lucky, lucrative, luxurious, mad, marked, marketable, masculine, mature, mean, mellow, memorable, menacing, mild, militant, minor, miserable, misleading, mixed, mobile, modest, motivated, muddled, muddy, mundane, muted, naive, narrow, nasty, neat, negative, nervous, nice, noisy, noticeable, novel, nutritious, obscure, observant, obvious, odd, off-putting, offensive, oily, old, old-fashioned, opaque, open, optimistic, organized, original, ornate, orthodox, overcrowded, overgrown, overweight, painful, pale, passive, patchy, patient, patriotic, patronizing, peaceful, peeved, perceptive, permissive, perplexed, persistent, personal, persuasive, pertinent, perverse, pessimistic, plain, plausible, pleasant, pleased, pleasing, pleasurable, poignant, poisonous, polite, popular, positive, possessive, potent, powerful, practical, pragmatic, precious, precise, predictable, prejudiced, preoccupied, prestigious, pretty, privileged, productive, professional, proficient, profitable, prolific, prolonged, prominent, promising, prone, pronounced, prosperous, proud, provocative, puzzled, questionable, quick, quiet, radical, rapid, rare, reactionary, readable, realistic, reasonable, reassuring, refreshing, regrettable, relaxed, relevant, reliable, relieved, religious, reluctant, remote, repellent, repetitive, repressed, repulsive, reputable, resentful, reserved, resilient, resistant, resourceful, respectable, responsible, responsive, restrained, restricted, restrictive, revealing, rewarding, rich, rigid, risky, romantic, rude, rural, sad, safe, sarcastic, satisfied, satisfying, scarce, scared, sceptical, secretive, secure, seductive, selective, self-conscious, self-contained, selfish, sensible, sensitive, serious, severe, sexy, shaken, shaky, shallow, sharp, shocked, shocking, short, shy, sick, significant, silly, similar, simple, simplistic, sincere, sinister, skilful, skilled, skinny, slack, sleepy, slender, slight, slim, slippery, slow, small, smart, smooth, smug, soft, solemn, solid, sombre, sophisticated, sorry, sound, sour, spacious, spicy, stable, staid, stale, startled, steady, steep, sticky, stiff, stimulating, straightforward, strained, strange, stressed, stressful, striking, strong, stupid, subdued, subjective, subtle, successful, suggestive, superficial, supple, supportive, surprised, surprising, susceptible, suspect, suspicious, sweaty, sweet, swift, swollen, sympathetic, talented, tall, tame, tasteful, taxing, technical, tedious, temperamental, tender, tense, thankful, thick, thin, threadbare, threatening, tidy, tight, tiny, tired, tolerant, touched, tough, toxic, traditional, tranquil, traumatic, treacherous, trivial, troubled, typical, ugly, unbalanced, uncertain, uncomfortable, uncommon, undesirable, undignified, uneasy, unfair, unfortunate, unfriendly, unhappy, uninhibited, unlikely, unlucky, unnatural, unorthodox, unpleasant, unpopular, unreasonable, unstable, unsuitable, unsure, untidy, unusual, unwell, up to date, upset, uptight, urgent, useful, vague, valid, valuable, variable, varied, versatile, viable, vicious, vigilant, vigorous, violent, vivid, vocal, volatile, vulnerable, warm, wary, weak, wealthy, weary, weird, welcome, wet, white, wide, widespread, wild, worried, worrying, worthwhile, wrinkled, young.

6. Adjectives used with perfectly

:

able, acceptable, accurate, adequate, agreeable, amiable, appropriate, attainable, audible, aware, balanced, beautiful, calm, capable, charming, circular, civil, clean, clear, coherent, comfortable, compatible, competent, composed, comprehensible, conceivable, conscious, consistent, content, contented, correct, decent, dry, efficient, erect, evident, explicable, fair, feasible, fine, fitting, flat, frank, friendly, genuine, good, grammatical, groomed, happy, harmless, healthy, honest, honourable, immobile, innocent, innocuous, intact, intelligible, justifiable, justified, kosher, lawful, legal, legitimate, logical, lovely, motionless, natural, neutral, nice, normal, obvious, OK, ordinary, oval, permissible, plain, plausible, pleasant, poised, polished, polite, possible, practicable, predictable, presentable, proper, quiet, rational, reasonable, regular, relaxed, reliable, respectable, right, ripe, rounded, safe, sane, satisfactory, satisfied, secure, sensible, serene, serious, shaped, silent, sincere, smooth, sober, sound, splendid, square, stable, steady, still, straight, straightforward, suitable, suited, symmetrical, tailored, tanned, tranquil, transparent, true, understandable, upright, valid, viable, welcome, willing, wonderful.

Verbs used with perfectly

:

align, arrange, balance, behave, blend, capture, coincide, complement, conform, contrast, convey, cook, execute, exemplify, fit, function, illustrate, judge, match, mimic, mirror, place, position, prepared, preserve, streamline, suit, sum, synchronize, time, trim, tune, understand, work.

7. Adjectives used with totally:

abhorrent, absent, absorbed, absurd, acceptable, accurate, addicted, adequate, alien, amazed, anonymous, arbitrary, artificial, awesome, baffled, bald, believable, bemused, bewildered, bewildering, bizarre, blank, blind, bogus, bonkers, brilliant, broke, clean, comfortable, committed, compatible, comprehensive, concentrated, confident, confidential, confused, contrary, convinced, convincing, cool, corrupt, covered, crazy, creepy, cynical, deaf, dedicated, defenceless, dejected, dependent, deprived, deserted, detached, devoid, devoted, different, disgusted, disgusting, disillusioned, disorganized, disproportionate, dissimilar, distinct, dominant, dry, effective, empty, engaged, engrossed, evil, exempt, exhausted, exposed, extinct, fair, false, fearless, fed up, fictitious, fine, foreign, free, friendless, frustrated, futile, genuine, groundless, happy, harmless, helpless, honest, hooked, hopeless, hostile, humiliating, hysterical, ignorant, illegal, illiterate, illogical, immobile, immoral, immune, impartial, impassable, impassive, impersonal, impervious, implausible, impossible, impracticable, impractical, impressed, inaccessible, inaccurate, inactive, inadequate, inappropriate, inaudible, incapable, inclusive, incompatible, incompetent, incomprehensible, inconceivable, incongruous, inconsistent, incorrect, incredible, indefensible, independent, indifferent, inedible, ineffective, inexperienced, inexplicable, inflexible, inhuman, innocent, innocuous, insane, insecure, insensitive, inseparable, invisible, irrational, irrelevant, irresponsible, isolated, justified, lacking, lame, legitimate, lost, loyal, ludicrous, mad, meaningless, misguided, misleading, misplaced, missing, mystified, naked, natural, negative, normal, novel, nude, objective, oblivious, obscure, obsolete, OK, one-sided, opposed, organic, outrageous, painless, passive, penniless, perfect, pointless, powerless, predictable, preoccupied, professional, random, ready, reasonable, relaxed, reliable, reliant, relieved, remote, repulsive, responsible, ridiculous, safe, satisfactory, satisfied, secure, self-contained, self-sufficient, selfish, separate, serious, shattered, shocked, silent, sincere, sober, soluble, speechless, spontaneous, static, straight, stressed, stunned, stupid, subjective, submerged, superfluous, supportive, sure, surprised, surprising, thrilled, transparent, true, unable, unacceptable, unaffected, unaware, unbearable, unbelievable, unchanged, uncharacteristic, unconcerned, unconscious, uncontrollable, understandable, undesirable, unexpected, unfair, unfamiliar, unfit, unforgettable, unfounded, unheard-of, uninhibited, unintelligible, uninterested, unique, united, unknown, unmoved, unnecessary, unnoticed, unprecedented, unprovoked, unqualified, unreal, unreasonable, unscathed, unsuitable, unsure, unwarranted, useless, vulnerable, weird, worthless, wrong.

Verbs used with totally

:

abandon, abolish, absorb, agree, appreciate, backfire, change, clear, confine, confuse, contradict, cut, defeat, deny, deserve, destroy, disagree, disappear, disrupt, dominate, drain, eliminate, enclose, eradicate, exclude, exhaust, fail, focus, forbid, forget, gut, humiliate, ignore, immerse, incapacitate, lie, love, mislead, misread, neglect, obliterate, obscure, oppose, overwhelm, paralyse, prepared, rebuild, relax, reorganize, replace, reverse, ruin, rule, subordinate, surround, transform, trust, underestimate, undermine, understand, vanish, wipe, wreck.

8. Adjectives used with utterly:

abhorrent, absorbed, absurd, alien, alone, amazed, amazing, appalling, baffled, beautiful, bewildered, boring, brilliant, charming, compelling, confused, confusing, contemptuous, content, conventional, convinced, convincing, cynical, dedicated, defenceless, dejected, dependent, desperate, despicable, despondent, determined, devoid, devoted, disastrous, disgraceful, disgusting, disillusioned, distraught, empty, exhausted, exhausting, faithful, false, fantastic, fascinating, fearless, foolish, foreign, forlorn, friendless, fruitless, futile, gorgeous, helpless, hopeless, humiliating, ignorant, immobile, immoral, implausible, impossible, impotent, impracticable, impractical, inadequate, inappropriate, incapable, incompatible, incompetent, incomprehensible, inconceivable, incongruous, incredible, indifferent, inhuman, insane, insignificant, irrelevant, irresistible, irresponsible, ludicrous, mad, meaningless, mistaken, mundane, obscene, opposed, peaceful, perfect, perplexed, pointless, powerless, pragmatic, predictable, reliable, repellent, repulsive, ridiculous, selfish, serene, shocked, silent, sincere, stunned, stupid, terrified, thrilled, trivial, unable, unacceptable, unaware, unconcerned, unfair, uninhibited, uninterested, unknown, unnecessary, unreasonable, useless, worthless, wrong.

Verbs used with utterly

: absorb, condemn, confuse, destroy, dominate, drain, exhaust, humiliate, ignore, refuse, reject, transform.

9. Adjectives used with very

:

able, absorbed, abstract, abusive, acceptable, accessible, accomplished, accurate, active, adaptable, addictive, adept, adequate, admirable, advanced, advantageous, afraid, aggressive, aggrieved, agitated, agreeable, alarmed, alarming, alert, alien, alike, alive, ambiguous, ambitious, ambivalent, amiable, amused, amusing, ancient, angry, annoyed, annoying, anxious, apologetic, apparent, appealing, applicable, apprehensive, appropriate, articulate, artificial, ashamed, assured, astute, attached, attractive, authoritarian, aware, awkward, backward, bad, bad-tempered, bare, barren, battered, beautiful, believable, beneficial, best, bewildered, bewildering, biased, big, bitter, bizarre, black, bleak, blonde, bold, bored, boring, brave, breathless, breezy, brief, bright, broad, brown, bureaucratic, businesslike, busy, calm, candid, capable, careful, careless, casual, cautious, central, certain, challenging, chaotic, characteristic, charming, cheap, cheerful, chilly, civil, claustrophobic, clean, clear, clever, close, cloudy, coherent, cold, comfortable, comforting, comical, commendable, committed, common, commonplace, comparable, compassionate, compatible, compelling, competent, competitive, complacent, complete, complex, complicated, complimentary, composed, comprehensive, concentrated, concerned, confident, confused, confusing, congested, conscious, conservative, consistent, conspicuous, constipated, contagious, contemporary, content, contented, contentious, contrived, controversial, convenient, conventional, convincing, cool, cordial, corrosive, corrupt, cosmopolitan, costly, courageous, courteous, coy, creamy, creative, credible, creditable, creepy, critical, cross, crowded, crucial, cruel, curious, curly, cynical, damaging, damp, dangerous, daring, dark, dated, debatable, decent, deceptive, decorative, dedicated, deep, defensive, degrading, delicate, demanding, dependable, dependent, depressed, depressing, deprived, descriptive, deserving, desirable, desperate, despondent, destructive, detached, detailed, determined, detrimental, developed, devoted, different, difficult, dignified, direct, dirty, disabled, disadvantaged, disappointed, disappointing, disapproving, disconcerting, dishonest, disillusioned, dismal, dismissive, disorganized, disreputable, disruptive, dissatisfied, dissimilar, distant, distasteful, distinct, distinctive, distracted, distraught, distressing, disturbed, disturbing, diverse, divisive, domesticated, dominant, doubtful, dramatic, drunk, dry, dubious, dull, dumb, dynamic, eager, early, easy, eccentric, economical, edgy, educated, eerie, effective, efficient, elaborate, elated, elegant, eloquent, elusive, embarrassed, embarrassing, emotional, emotive, emphatic, empty, encouraging, energetic, engrossed, enigmatic, enjoyable, entertaining, enthusiastic, envious, erect, erotic, erratic, essential, even, evident, evil, exceptional, excitable, excited, exciting, exclusive, exhausting, expensive, experienced, explicit, explosive, exposed, expressive, extravagant, extreme, faint, fair, faithful, false, familiar, famous, far-fetched, fascinating, fashionable, fast, fat, favourable, fearful, fed up, feminine, fertile, fickle, fine, firm, fishy, fit, fitting, fixed, flammable, flat, flattered, flattering, flexible, fluid, flushed, fond, foolish, foreign, forlorn, formal, formidable, forthright, fortunate, fragile, fragrant, frail, frank, frequent, fresh, friendly, frightened, frightening, frosty, fruitful, frustrated, frustrating, full, fundamental, funny, fuzzy, generous, gentle, genuine, gifted, glad, glamorous, gloomy, good, good-looking, grateful, gratifying, great, gregarious, grey, gruesome, guilty, handsome, handy, haphazard, happy, hard, harmful, harsh, hazardous, hazy, healthy, heavy, helpful, heroic, hierarchical, hoarse, homesick, homogeneous, honest, honourable, honoured, hopeful, hostile, hot, humiliating, humorous, hungry, hurt, hurtful, ignorant, ill, illuminating, imaginative, immature, immoral, impatient, imperfect, impersonal, impertinent, implausible, important, impractical, imprecise, impressed, impressionable, impressive, improbable, inaccurate, inadequate, inappropriate, inclined, incomplete, inconsistent, inconvenient, independent, indifferent, indignant, ineffective, inefficient, inexpensive, inexperienced, infectious, inferior, inflexible, influential, informal, informative, infrequent, ingenious, inhibited, innocent, inquisitive, insecure, insensitive, insignificant, insistent, inspiring, instructive, instrumental, insulting, intelligent, intense, intensive, interactive, interested, interesting, intolerant, intricate, intriguing, intrusive, intuitive, inventive, inviting, involved, ironic, irregular, irresponsible, irritated, irritating, isolated, jealous, junior, keen, kind, knowledgeable, lame, large, late, lazy, legitimate, lengthy, lenient, liberal, light, light-headed, likeable, likely, limited, limp, literate, loaded, logical, lonely, long, long-lived, lost, loud, lovely, low, low-key, loyal, lucky, lucrative, luxurious, lyrical, mad, magical, male, manageable, marked, marketable, masculine, mature, mean, mellow, memorable, menacing, mild, militant, minor, miserable, misleading, mixed, mobile, moderate, modest, moist, motivated, moving, muddled, muddy, mundane, muted, naive, narrow, nasty, natural, neat, needy, negative, nervous, new, nice, noisy, normal, noticeable, novel, numerous, nutritious, objective, obscure, observant, obvious, odd, off-putting, offensive, oily, old, old-fashioned, one-sided, opaque, open, opposed, optimistic, orderly, ordinary, organized, oriented, original, ornate, orthodox, overcast, overcrowded, overgrown, overweight, painful, pale, partial, passive, patchy, patient, patriotic, patronizing, peaceful, peculiar, peeved, perceptive, permissive, perplexed, persistent, personal, persuasive, pertinent, pervasive, perverse, pessimistic, philosophical, plain, plausible, pleasant, pleased, pleasing, pleasurable, poetic, poignant, poisonous, polite, political, popular, portable, positive, possessive, possible, potent, powerful, practical, pragmatic, precious, precise, predictable, pregnant, prejudiced, preoccupied, presentable, prestigious, pretty, privileged, probable, productive, professional, proficient, profitable, progressive, prolific, prolonged, prominent, promising, prone, pronounced, proper, prosperous, protective, proud, provocative, prudent, puzzled, questionable, quick, quiet, radical, rapid, rare, rational, reactionary, readable, ready, real, realistic, reasonable, reassuring, recent, red, reflective, refreshing, regrettable, regular, relaxed, relevant, reliable, relieved, religious, reluctant, remarkable, reminiscent, remote, repellent, repetitive, representative, repressed, repulsive, reputable, resentful, reserved, resilient, resistant, resourceful, respectable, responsible, responsive, restrained, restricted, restrictive, revealing, rewarding, rich, rigid, ripe, risky, romantic, rude, rural, sad, safe, sarcastic, satisfactory, satisfied, satisfying, savage, scarce, scared, sceptical, secluded, secret, secretive, secure, seductive, selective, self-conscious, self-contained, selfish, senior, sensible, sensitive, separate, serene, serious, settled, severe, sexy, shaken, shaky, shallow, sharp, shocked, shocking, short, shy, sick, significant, silly, similar, simple, simplistic, sincere, sinister, skilful, skilled, skinny, slack, sleepy, slender, slight, slim, slimy, slippery, slow, small, smart, smooth, smug, soft, solemn, solid, soluble, sombre, soothing, sophisticated, sorry, sound, sour, spacious, specialized, specific, spectacular, spicy, spiritual, spooky, square, stable, staid, stale, startled, static, steady, steep, sterile, sticky, stiff, still, stimulating, straightforward, strained, strange, stressed, stressful, striking, strong, stupid, subdued, subjective, subtle, subversive, successful, suggestive, suitable, suited, sunny, superficial, supple, supportive, sure, surprised, surprising, susceptible, suspect, suspicious, sweaty, sweet, swift, swollen, symbolic, sympathetic, talented, tall, tame, tanned, tasteful, taxing, tearful, technical, tedious, temperamental, temporary, tender, tense, terrible, thankful, thick, thin, threadbare, threatening, tidy, tight, tiny, tired, tolerant, touched, tough, toxic, traditional, tragic, tranquil, transparent, traumatic, treacherous, trivial, troubled, true, truthful, typical, ugly, unbalanced, uncertain, uncharacteristic, uncomfortable, uncommon, understandable, undesirable, undignified, uneasy, unexpected, unfair, unfamiliar, unfashionable, unfit, unfortunate, unfriendly, unhappy, uninhibited, unlikely, unlucky, unnatural, unorthodox, unpleasant, unpopular, unreal, unreasonable, unstable, unsuitable, unsure, untidy, unusual, unwell, up to date, uplifting, upset, uptight, urgent, used to, useful, usual, vague, valid, valuable, variable, varied, versatile, vicious, vigilant, vigorous, violent, visible, vital, vivid, vocal, volatile, vulnerable, warm, wary, weak, wealthy, weary, weird, welcome, wet, white, wide, widespread, wild, willing, wise, wobbly, worried, worrying, worthwhile, worthy, wrinkled, wrong, young.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering questions such as how, in what way, when, where, to what extent. This is called the adverbial function and may be performed by single words (adverbs) or by multi-word adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses.

Adverbs are traditionally regarded as one of the parts of speech. Modern linguists note that the term «adverb» has come to be used as a kind of «catch-all» category, used to classify words with various types of syntactic behavior, not necessarily having much in common except that they do not fit into any of the other available categories (noun, adjective, preposition, etc.) ^[1]

Functions[edit]

The English word adverb derives (through French) from Latin adverbium, from ad- («to»), verbum («word», «verb»), and the nominal suffix -ium. The term implies that the principal function of adverbs is to act as modifiers of verbs or verb phrases.^[2] An adverb used in this way may provide information about the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty, or other circumstances of the activity denoted by the verb or verb phrase. Some examples:

• She sang loudly (loudly modifies the verb sang, indicating the manner of singing)
• We left it here (here modifies the verb phrase left it, indicating place)
• I worked yesterday (yesterday modifies the verb worked, indicating time)
• You often make mistakes (often modifies the verb phrase make mistakes, indicating frequency)
• He undoubtedly did it (undoubtedly modifies the verb phrase did it, indicating certainty)

Adverbs can also be used as modifiers of adjectives, and of other adverbs, often to indicate degree. Examples:

• You are quite right (the adverb quite modifies the adjective right)
• She sang very loudly (the adverb very modifies another adverb – loudly)

They can also modify determiners, prepositional phrases,^[2] or whole clauses or sentences, as in the following examples:

• I bought practically the only fruit (practically modifies the determiner the in the noun phrase, «the only fruit» wherein «only» is an adjective)
• She drove us almost to the station (almost modifies the prepositional phrase to the station)
• Certainly we need to act (certainly modifies the sentence as a whole)

Adverbs thus perform a wide range of modifying functions. The major exception is the function of modifier of nouns, which is performed instead by adjectives (compare she sang loudly with her loud singing disturbed me; here the verb sang is modified by the adverb loudly, whereas the noun singing is modified by the adjective loud). However, because some adverbs and adjectives are homonyms, their respective functions are sometimes conflated:

• Even numbers are divisible by two
• The camel even drank.

The word «even» in the first sentence is an adjective, since it is a prepositive modifier that modifies the noun «numbers». The word «even» in the second sentence is a prepositive adverb that modifies the verb «drank.»

Although it is possible for an adverb to precede or to follow a noun or a noun phrase, the adverb nonetheless does not modify either in such cases, as in:

• Internationally there is a shortage of protein for animal feeds
• There is a shortage internationally of protein for animal feeds
• There is an international shortage of protein for animal feeds

In the first sentence, «Internationally» is a prepositive adverb that modifies the clause, «there is …» In the second sentence, «internationally» is a postpositive adverb that modifies the clause, «There is …» By contrast, the third sentence contains «international» as a prepositive adjective that modifies the noun, «shortage.»

Adverbs can sometimes be used as predicative expressions; in English, this applies especially to adverbs of location:

• Your seat is there.
• Here is my boarding pass (wherein «boarding pass» is the subject and «here» is the predicate in a syntax that entails a subject-verb inversion).

When the function of an adverb is performed by an expression consisting of more than one word, it is called an adverbial phrase or adverbial clause, or simply an adverbial.

Formation and comparison[edit]

In English, adverbs of manner (answering the question how?) are often formed by adding -ly to adjectives, but flat adverbs (such as in drive fast, drive slow, and drive friendly) have the same form as the corresponding adjective. Other languages often have similar methods for deriving adverbs from adjectives (French, for example, uses the suffix -ment), or else use the same form for both adjectives and adverbs, as in German and Dutch, where for example schnell or snel, respectively, mean either «quick» or «quickly» depending on the context. Many other adverbs, however, are not related to adjectives in this way; they may be derived from other words or phrases, or may be single morphemes. Examples of such adverbs in English include here, there, together, yesterday, aboard, very, almost, etc.

Where the meaning permits, adverbs may undergo comparison, taking comparative and superlative forms. In English this is usually done by adding more and most before the adverb (more slowly, most slowly), although there are a few adverbs that take inflected forms, such as well, for which better and best are used.

For more information about the formation and use of adverbs in English, see English grammar § Adverbs. For other languages, see § In specific languages below, and the articles on individual languages and their grammars.

Adverbs as a «catch-all» category[edit]

Adverbs are considered a part of speech in traditional English grammar, and are still included as a part of speech in grammar taught in schools and used in dictionaries. However, modern grammarians recognize that words traditionally grouped together as adverbs serve a number of different functions. Some describe adverbs as a «catch-all» category that includes all words that do not belong to one of the other parts of speech.^[3]

A logical approach to dividing words into classes relies on recognizing which words can be used in a certain context. For example, the only type of word that can be inserted in the following template to form a grammatical sentence is a noun:

The _____ is red. (For example, «The hat is red».)

When this approach is taken, it is seen that adverbs fall into a number of different categories. For example, some adverbs can be used to modify an entire sentence, whereas others cannot. Even when a sentential adverb has other functions, the meaning is often not the same. For example, in the sentences She gave birth naturally and Naturally, she gave birth, the word naturally has different meanings: in the first sentence, as a verb-modifying adverb, it means «in a natural manner», while in the second sentence, as a sentential adverb, it means something like «of course».

Words like very afford another example. We can say Perry is very fast, but not Perry very won the race. These words can modify adjectives but not verbs. On the other hand, there are words like here and there that cannot modify adjectives. We can say The sock looks good there but not It is a there beautiful sock. The fact that many adverbs can be used in more than one of these functions can confuse the issue, and it may seem like splitting hairs to say that a single adverb is really two or more words that serve different functions. However, this distinction can be useful, especially when considering adverbs like naturally that have different meanings in their different functions. Rodney Huddleston distinguishes between a word and a lexicogrammatical-word.^[4]

Grammarians find difficulty categorizing negating words, such as the English not. Although traditionally listed as an adverb, this word does not behave grammatically like any other, and it probably should be placed in a class of its own.^[5][6]

In languages[edit]

• In Dutch adverbs have the basic form of their corresponding adjectives and are not inflected (though they sometimes can be compared).
• In German the term Adverb is defined differently from its use in the English language. German adverbs form a group of uninflectable words (though a few can be compared). An English adverb which is derived from an adjective is arranged in German under the adjectives with adverbial use in the sentence. The others are also called adverbs in the German language.
• In Scandinavian languages, adverbs are typically derived from adjectives by adding the suffix ‘-t’, which makes it identical to the adjective’s neuter form. Scandinavian adjectives, like English ones, are inflected in terms of comparison by adding ‘-ere’/’-are’ (comparative) or ‘-est’/’-ast’ (superlative). In inflected forms of adjectives, the ‘-t’ is absent. Periphrastic comparison is also possible.
• In most Romance languages, many adverbs are formed from adjectives (often the feminine form) by adding ‘-mente’ (Portuguese, Spanish, Galician, Italian) or ‘-ment’ (French, Catalan) (from Latin mens, mentis: mind, intelligence, or suffix -mentum, result or way of action), while other adverbs are single forms which are invariable. In Romanian, almost all adverbs are simply the masculine singular form of the corresponding adjective, one notable exception being bine («well») / bun («good»). However, there are some Romanian adverbs built from certain masculine singular nouns using the suffix «-ește», such as the following ones: băieț-ește (boyishly), tiner-ește (youthfully), bărbăt-ește (manly), frăț-ește (brotherly), etc.
• Interlingua also forms adverbs by adding ‘-mente’ to the adjective. If an adjective ends in c, the adverbial ending is ‘-amente’. A few short, invariable adverbs, such as ben («well»), and mal («badly»), are available and widely used.
• In Esperanto, adverbs are not formed from adjectives but are made by adding ‘-e’ directly to the word root. Thus, from bon are derived bone, «well», and bona, «good». See also: special Esperanto adverbs.
• In Hungarian adverbs are formed from adjectives of any degree through the suffixes -ul/ül and -an/en depending on the adjective: szép (beautiful) → szépen (beautifully) or the comparative szebb (more beautiful) → szebben (more beautifully)
• Modern Standard Arabic forms adverbs by adding the indefinite accusative ending ‘-an’ to the root: kathiir-, «many», becomes kathiiran «much». However, Arabic often avoids adverbs by using a cognate accusative followed by an adjective.
• Austronesian languages generally form comparative adverbs by repeating the root (as in WikiWiki) as with the plural noun.
• Japanese forms adverbs from verbal adjectives by adding /ku/ (く) to the stem (haya- «swift» hayai «quick/early», hayakatta «was quick», hayaku «quickly») and from nominal adjectives by placing /ni/ (に) after the adjective instead of the copula /na/ (な) or /no/ (の) (rippa «splendid», rippa ni «splendidly»). The derivations are quite productive, but for a few adjectives, adverbs may not be derived.
• In the Celtic languages, an adverbial form is often made by preceding the adjective with a preposition: go in Irish or gu in Scottish Gaelic, meaning ‘until’. In Cornish, yn is used, meaning ‘in’.
• In Modern Greek, an adverb is most commonly made by adding the endings <-α> or <-ως> to the root of an adjective. Often, the adverbs formed from a common root using each of these endings have slightly different meanings. So, <τέλειος> (<téleios>, meaning «perfect» and «complete») yields <τέλεια> (<téleia>, «perfectly») and <τελείως> (<teleíos>, «completely»). Not all adjectives can be transformed into adverbs by using both endings. <Γρήγορος> (<grígoros>, «swift») becomes <γρήγορα> (<grígora>, «swiftly»), but not normally *<γρηγόρως> (*<grigóros>). When the <-ως> ending is used to transform an adjective whose stress accent is on the third syllable from the end, such as <επίσημος> (<epísimos>, «official»), the corresponding adverb is accented on the second syllable from the end; compare <επίσημα> (<epísima>) and <επισήμως> (<episímos>), which both mean «officially». There are also other endings with particular and restricted use as <-ί>, <-εί>, <-ιστί>, etc. For example, <ατιμωρητί> (<atimorití>, «with impunity») and <ασυζητητί> (<asyzitití>, «indisputably»); <αυτολεξεί> (<aftolexí> «word for word») and <αυτοστιγμεί> (<aftostigmí>, «in no time»); <αγγλιστί> [<anglistí> «in English (language)»] and <παπαγαλιστί> (<papagalistí>, «by rote»); etc.
• In Latvian, an adverb is formed from an adjective by changing the masculine or feminine adjective endings -s and -a to -i. «Labs», meaning «good», becomes «labi» for «well». Latvian adverbs have a particular use in expressions meaning «to speak» or «to understand» a language. Rather than use the noun meaning «Latvian/English/Russian», the adverb formed from these words is used. «Es runāju latviski/angliski/krieviski» means «I speak Latvian/English/Russian» or, literally, «I speak Latvianly/Englishly/Russianly». If a noun is required, the expression used means literally «language of the Latvians/English/Russians», «latviešu/angļu/krievu valoda».
• In Russian, and analogously in Ukrainian and some other Slavic languages, most adverbs are formed by removing the adjectival suffixes «-ий» «-а» or «-е» from an adjective, and replacing them with the adverbial «-о». For example, in Ukrainian, «швидкий», «гарна», and «смачне» (fast, nice, tasty) become «швидко», «гарно», and «смачно» (quickly, nicely, tastily), while in Russian, «быстрый», «хороший» and «прекрасный» (quick, good, wonderful) become «быстро», «хорошо», «прекрасно» (quickly, well, wonderfully). Another wide group of adverbs are formed by gluing a preposition to an oblique case form. In Ukrainian, for example, (до onto) + (долу bottom) → (додолу downwards); (з off) + (далеку afar) → (здалеку afar-off) . As well, note that adverbs are mostly placed before the verbs they modify: «Добрий син гарно співає.» (A good son sings nicely/well). There is no specific word order in East Slavic languages.
• In Korean, adverbs are commonly formed by replacing the -다 ending of the dictionary form of a descriptive verb with 게. So, 쉽다 (easy) becomes 쉽게 (easily). They are also formed by replacing the 하다 of some compound verbs with 히, e.g. 안녕하다 (peaceful) > 안녕히 (peacefully).
• In Turkish, the same word usually serves as adjective and adverb: iyi bir kız («a good girl»), iyi anlamak («to understand well).
• In Chinese, adverbs are not a separate class. Adjectives become adverbs when they are marked by an adverbial suffix, for example 地 de（e.g., 孩子們快樂地唱歌 haizimen kuaile.de changge ‘the children happily sing a song’), or when adjectives are preceded by a verbal suffix such as 得 (e.g., 她說漢語說得很好 ta shuo hanyu shuo.de henhao ‘she speaks Chinese very well’).
• In Persian, many adjectives and adverbs have the same form such as «خوب», «سریع», «تند» so there is no obvious way to recognise them out of context. The only exceptions are Arabic adverbs with a «اً» suffix such as «ظاهراً» and «واقعاً».

See also[edit]

• Flat adverb (as in drive fast, drive slow, drive friendly)
• Category:Adverbs by type
• Prepositional adverb
• Pronominal adverb
• Grammatical conjunction

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Ernst, Thomas. 2002. The syntax of adjuncts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Jackendoff, Ray. 1972. Semantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar. MIT Press,

External links[edit]

• The Online Dictionary of Language Terminology