Adverb

Encyclopedia : A : AD : ADV : Adverb

An adverb is a part of speech. It is a word that modifies any other part of language (verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, clauses, and sentences) except for nouns; modifiers of nouns are primarily determiners and adjectives.

Adverbs typically answer such questions as how?, when?, where?, in what way?, or how often? This function is called the adverbial function, and is realised not just by single words (ie. adverbs) but by adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses.

An adverb as adverbial may be a sentence element in its own right.

They treated her well. (SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT + ADVERBIAL)

Alternatively, an adverb may be contained within a sentence element.

An extremely small child entered the room. (SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT)

Contents

1 Adverbs in English
2 Non-English Adverbs
3 Examples of adverbs in adverbial functions

3.1 as a verb-modifier
3.2 as an adjective-modifier
3.3 as an adverb-modifier
3.4 adverb modifies a preposition
3.5 adverb modifies a whole sentence
3.6 adverb links one sentence to another

4 Groups of adverbs
5 Adverbs as a \"catch all\" category
6 See also

Adverbs in English

In English, adverbs of manner (answering the question how?) are often derived from adjectives by using the suffix -ly. The -ly is a common, but not reliable, marker of a word being an adverb, since many adjectives also end in -ly. In some cases, the suffix -wise may be used to derive adverbs from typical nouns. Historically, -wise competed with a related form -ways and won out against it. In a few words, like sideways, -ways survives; words like clockwise show the transition. Again, it is not a foolproof indicator of a word being an adverb. There are a number of other suffixes in English that derive adverbs from other word classes, and there are also many adverbs that are not morphologically indicated at all.

Formally, adverbs in English are inflected in terms of comparison, just like adjectives. The comparative and superlative forms of adverbs are generated by adding -er and -est. Many adverbs are also periphrastically indicated by the use of more or most. Adverbs also take comparisons with as ... as, less, and least. The usual form pertaining to adjectives or adverbs is called the positive.

Non-English Adverbs

Other languages may form adverbs in different ways, if they are used at all:

In Dutch and German, adverbs have the basic form of their corresponding adjectives and are not inflected (except for comparison in which case they are inflected like adjectives, too).
In Danish adverbs are typically derived from adjectives by adding the suffix '-t'. Danish adjectives, like English ones, are inflected in terms of comparison by adding '-ere' (comparative) or '-est' (superlative). In inflected forms of adjectives the '-t' is absent. Periphrastic comparison is also possible.
Romance languages form adverbs by adding '-mente'(Spanish, etc) or '-ment' (French).
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'.
Austronesian languages appear to form comparative adverbs by repeating the root (as in WikiWiki), similarly to the plural noun.
Japanese forms adverbs, depending on the adjective's nature, either by changing the final syllable from い to く or by changing the particle that follows from な to に. Certain adjectives cannot be made into adverbs, among other restrictions on their use.

Examples of adverbs in adverbial functions

Contrary to what many people think, "adverb" and "adverbial" are two different things. An "adverb" is a type of word that is a member of the adverb part of speech class, while an "adverbial" is a syntactic function.

The following examples illustrate adverbs in adverbial functions in English.

as a verb-modifier

(1) In the following examples, the adverb, as a verb-modifier, is highlighted in bold. The verb that it modifies is shown in italics.

It is tiring to run quickly.
My sister laughs loudly.
The sun shone brightly.
The captain went boldly.
The farmer worked hard. (NB: Not hardly)
The minister spoke well. (NB: Not goodly)

as an adjective-modifier

(2) In the following examples, the adverb, as an adjective-modifier, is highlighted in bold. The adjective it modifies is shown in italics.

His poetry is very beautiful. (NB: Not "muchly.")
The meaning of this passage is abundantly clear.
That sign is hardly visible.

as an adverb-modifier

(3) In the following examples, the adverb, as an adverb-modifier, is highlighted in bold. The adverb that it modifies is shown in italics.

I know that he can write more clearly.
The sun came out quite suddenly.
This species is the slightly slower growing one.

adverb modifies a preposition

(4) In the following examples the adverb modifies a preposition.

She is standing very near the door.
They are almost out of the building

adverb modifies a whole sentence

(5) In the following examples the adverb modifies a whole sentence.

Finally, she went home.
Suddenly, the cat came in.
Today, we can go on a day trip.

adverb links one sentence to another

(6) In the following examples the adverb links one sentence to another.

It was hot. She, therefore, went swimming.
It was raining. She went swimming, however.
She woke up. Then she got out of bed.

Groups of adverbs

Adverbs can be put into several groups:

Adverbs of manner (adverbs that tell how) Examples: happily, quickly, slowly, badly
Adverbs of time (adverbs that tell when) Examples: then, now, soon
Adverbs of place (adverbs that tell where) Examples: there, here, nowhere
Adverbs of degree (adverbs that tell to what extent) Examples: more, very, barely, vaguely
Adverbs which comment on the whole sentence. Example: Stupidly, she answered the questions. (Cf. She answered the questions stupidly)
Adverbs which link sentences. Example: Miss Gold, therefore, left the room. (The adverb therefore links this sentence to another.)

English does not make any grammatical distinction between these groups of adverbs, but some languages do. For example, in German, if a sentence contains multiple adverbs, they should appear in a particular order: time, manner, place.

Adverbs as a \"catch all\" category

Adverbs are considered a part of speech in traditional English grammar, which is derived from Latin 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 would go so far as to call adverbs a "catch all" category that includes all words that don't belong to one of the other parts of speech.

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

The ____ 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 can not. 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 (actually the first sentence could be interpreted in the same way as the second, but context makes it clear which is meant). Naturally as a sentential adverb means something like "of course" and as a verb-modifying adverb means "in a natural manner". The "hopefully" controversy demonstrates that the class of sentential adverbs is a closed class (there is resistance to adding new words to the class), whereas the class of adverbs that modify verbs is not.

Words like very and particularly afford another useful example. We can say Jim is very fast, but not Jim 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 sofa looks good there but not It is a there beautiful sofa. The fact that many adverbs can be used in more than one of these functions can confuse this 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 considering adverbs like naturally that have different meanings in their different functions.

Not is an interesting case. Grammarians have a difficult time categorizing it, and it probably belongs in its own class.