5. Adverb as a Part of Speech

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.

To overcome this drawback, we should 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.

In accord with their categorial semantics adverbs are character­ized by a 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".

In accord with their word-building structure adverbs may be sim­ple and derived.

The typical adverbial affixes in affixal derivation are, first and fore­most, the basic and only productive adverbial suffix -ly (slowly), and then a couple of others of limited distribution, such as -ways (side­ways), -wise (clockwise), -ward(s) (homewards). The characteristic adverbial prefix is a- (away). Among the adverbs there are also pecu­liar composite formations and phrasal formations of prepositional, conjunctional and other types: sometimes, at least, to and fro, etc.

Adverbs are commonly divided into qualitative, quantitative and circumstantial. Qualitative adverbs express immediate, inherently non-graded qualities of actions and other qualities. The typical ad­verbs of this kind are qualitative adverbs in -ly. E.g.: bitterly, plainly. The adverbs interpreted as "quantitative" include words of degree. These are specific lexical units of semi-functional nature expressing quality measure, or gradational evaluation of qualities, e.g.: of high degree: very, quite; of excessive degree: too, awfully; of unexpected degree: surprisingly; of moderate degree: relatively; of low degree: a little; of approximate degree: almost; of optimal degree: adequate­ly; of inadequate degree: unbearably; of under-degree: hardly. Cir­cumstantial adverbs are divided into functional and notional.

The functional circumstantial adverbs are words of pronominal nature. Besides quantitative (numerical) adverbs 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 notional adverbs, they include adverbs of time (today, never, shortly) and adverbs of place (homeward(s), near, ashore). The two varieties express a general idea of temporal and spacial orientation and essentially perform deictic (indicative) functions in the broader sense. On this ground they may be united under the general heading of "orientative" adverbs.

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.

As is the case with adjectives, this lexemic subcategorization of adverbs should be accompanied by a

more functional and flexible division into evaluative and specificative, connected with the

categorial expression of comparison. Each adverb subject to evaluational grading by degree words

expresses the category of comparison, much in the same way as adjectives do. Thus, not only qualitative,

but also orientative adverbs, proving they come under the heading of evalua­tive, are included into the

categorial system of comparison, e.g.: ashore - More ashore - most ashore - less ashore –

least ashore.

Questions:

1. 1. What categorial meaning does the adjective express?

2. What does the adjectival specific combinability find its expression in?

3. What proves the lack of rigid demarcation line between the traditionally identified qualitative and relative subclasses of adjectives?

4. What is the principle of differentiation between evaluative and specificative adjectives?

5. 5. What does the category of adjectival comparison express?

6. Explain how you understand the phrase “The English adjective is distinguished by the hybrid category of comparison”.

7. What arguments enable linguists to treat the category of adjectival comparison as a five-member category?

8. What does the expressive peculiarity of the elative superlative consist in?

9. What is the categorial meaning of the adverb?

10. What combinability are adverbs characterized by?

11. What is typical of the adverbial word-building structure?

12. What semantically relevant sets of adverbs can be singled out?

13. How is the whole class of adverbs structured?

14. What does the similarity between the adjectival degrees of comparison and adverbial degrees of comparison find its expression in?