Syntactic features of the stative

Statives may have three functions in a sentence: that of predicative in a compound nominal or a double predicate (the most common function), that of objective predicative, or occasionally that of attribute (Fig. 90).

When used in the function of predicative statives describe the state of the person or non-person denoted by the subject and are connected with the subject by means of a link verb or in some cases by a notional verb.

Fig. 89

Fig. 90

When they have the function of objective predicative, statives describe the state of the person or non-person denoted by the object.

Although the function of attribute is not characteristic of statives, some of them may have this function (either detached or undetached attributes).

Statives as undetached attributes are always postmodifying. When used as detached attributes, statives may be either post- or premodifying.

The part-of-speech interpretation of the statives is not shared by all linguists working in the domain of English, and has found both its proponents and opponents.

If we compare semantic, morphological and syntactic characteristics of the stative and the adjective, we can find both different and similar features (Table 15).

Table 15

The Adjective and the Stative

	Meaning	Form		Function
		Patterns of combinability	Degrees of comparison
Adjectives	property of a substance	nouns in preposition nouns in postposition adverbs of degree link-verbs notional verbs in a double predicate	synthetical and analitical forms	attributive predicative
Statives	property of a state	nouns in postposition link-verbs notional verbs in a double predicate	analitical forms	predicative attributive

Thus, the analysis shows that statives, though forming a unified set of words, do not constitute a separate lexemic class existing in language. They should be looked upon as a subclass within the general class of adjectives.

Adverb semantic features of the adverb

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.

The whole class of adverbs is divided into nominal and pronominal. The nominal adverbs are subdivided into qualitative and orientative. Qualitative adverbs include genuine qualitative adverbs and degree adverbs, orientative adverbs fall into temporal and local adverbs, with further possible subdivisions of more detailed specifications (Fig. 91).

Fig. 91

Qualitative adverbs express immediate, inherently non-graded qualities of actions and other qualities. The typical adverbs of this kind are qualitative adverbs in -ly.

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. They may be subdivided into several very clearly pronounced sets (Fig. 92).

Fig. 92

Fig. 93

Orientive adverbs include two basic sets: first, adverbs of time; second, adverbs of place. The two varieties express a general idea of temporal and spatial orientation and essentially perform deictic (indicative) functions in the broader sense.

The functional circumstantial adverbs are words of pronominal nature. They include quantitative (numerical) adverbs and circumstantial adverbs of time, place, manner, cause, consequence (Fig. 93).