Adverb

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"Adverbs" redirects here. For the Daniel Handler novel, see
Adverbs (novel).

Examples

I found the film incredibly dull.

The meeting went well and the directors were extremely
happy with the outcome.

Crabs are known for walking sideways.

Only members are allowed to enter.

I usually have eggs for breakfast.

However, I will not eat fried eggs again.

The burden of his complaint was that quality was very
poor.

English
grammar

Adjectives

Adverbs

Articles

Clauses

Compounds

Conditionals

Conjunctions

Determiners

Gender

Idiom

Interjections

Inversion

Nouns

Pronouns

Phrases

Plurals

Possessives

Prepositions

Verbs

Auxiliaries,
contractions

Irregular
verbs

Modal
verbs

Passive
voice

Phrasal
verbs

Subjunctive

Verb
usage

Grammar
disputes

v

t

e

An adverb is a word that changes or simplifies the meaning of a verb, adjective, other adverb, clause, or sentence
expressing manner, place, time, or degree.

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

Contents

1
Uses

2 Adverbs as a "catch all"
category

3 Adverbs in specific
languages

4 See also

5 References

6 External
links

Uses[edit]

Adverbs are words like slowly, now, soon, and
suddenly. An adverb usually modifies a verb or a verb phrase. It provides
information about the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty, or other
circumstances of the activity denoted by the verb or verb phrase. Examples:

1. The kids are skating together. (Here, the adverb together provides
information about how the kids are skating.)

Adverbs can also modify adjectives and other adverbs.

1. You are quite right. (Here, the adverb quite modifies the adjective
right.)

2. She spoke very loudly. (Here, the adverb very modifies another
adverb – loudly.)

In English, adverbs of
manner (answering the question how?) are often formed by adding
-ly to adjectives. 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. Some examples are listed under Adverbs
in specific languages below.

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 use of adverbs in English, see English grammar:
Adverbs. For use in other languages, see Adverbs
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 would go
so far as to call adverbs a "catch all" category that includes all words that do
not 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, 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. Naturally as a sentential adverb
means something like "of course" and as a verb-modifying adverb means "in a
natural manner". This "naturally" distinction 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 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 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. Huddleston
distinguishes between a word and a lexicogrammatical-word.[1]

Grammarians have a difficult time categorizing not, and it probably
belongs in its own class.[2][3]

Adverbs in specific
languages[edit]

Listed below are some of the principles for formation and use of adverbs in
certain languages. For more information, see the articles on individual
languages and their grammars.

In English adverbs can
be formed from most adjectives with the ending -ly, and there are also
many independent adverbs. For detailed information, see English grammar:
Adverbs.

In Dutch 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 German the term
adverb is differently defined than in the English language. German
adverbs form a group of not inflectable words (except for comparison in which
in rare cases some are inflected like adjectives, too). An English
adverb, which is derived from an adjective, is arranged in the German
language 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 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). Other adverbs are single forms which are invariable.

In the Romanian language,
the vast majority of 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 that are 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. E.g. 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. For example, kathiir-, "many", becomes kathiiran
"much". However, Arabic often avoids adverbs by using a cognate accusative
plus an adjective.

Austronesian
languages generally form comparative adverbs by
repeating the root (as in WikiWiki), similarly to the
plural noun.

Japanese forms
adverbs from verbal adjectives by adding /ku/ (く) to the stem (e.g. haya-
"rapid" 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) (e.g. rippa "splendid", rippa ni "splendidly"). These
derivations are quite productive but there are a few adjectives from which
adverbs may not be derived.

In Celtic languages, an
adverbial form is often made by preceding the adjective with a preposition.
This is go in Irish or gu in
Scottish Gaelic,
meaning 'until'. In Cornish, yn is
used, meaning 'in'.

In Portuguese, there
is just one suffix used to create adverbs from adjectives "-mente", the same
suffix is used in Interlingua, which is
equivalent to English's "-ly".

In Modern Greek, an adverb
is most commonly made by adding the endings <-α> and/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>, "rapid") becomes
<γρήγορα> (<grígora>, "rapidly"), but not normally
*<γρηγόρως> (*<grigóros>). When the <-ως> ending is used to
transform an adjective whose tonal accent is on the third syllable from the
end, such as <επίσημος> (<epísimos>, "official"), the
corresponding adjective 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>
(<autolexeí> "word for word") and <αυτοστιγμεί>
(<autostigmeí>, "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 form these words is used. "Es
runāju latviski/angliski/krieviski" means "I speak Latvian/English/Russian",
or very literally "I speak Latvianly/Englishly/Russianly". When 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 suffices "-ий" "-а" or "-е"
from an adjective, and replacing them with the adverbial "-о". For example,
"швидкий", "гарна", and "смачне" (fast, nice, tasty) become "швидко", "гарно",
and "смачно" (quickly, nicely, tastefully), similarly, "быстрый", "хороший"
and "прекрасный" (quick, good, wonderful) become "быстро", "хорошо",
"прекрасно" (quickly, well, wonderfully). Another wide group of adverbs are
formed by gluing preposition to following
oblique case form (now often dialectical or deprecated): з from+рідка
the rare→зрідка rarely, на onto+долину
bottom→надолину downwards. As well, note that adverbs are mostly
placed before the verbs they modify: "Добрий син гарно співає." (A good son
sings nicely/well). Although, there is no specific word order in East Slavic
languages.

In Korean, adverbs are
formed by replacing 다 of the dictionary form of a verb with 게. So, 쉽다 (easy)
becomes 쉽게 (easily).

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 end
in the word "地（的）", of which the English equivalent is "-ly".

In Persian, many
adjectives serve as adverbs too (e.g. "خوب", "سریع", "تند") so there is no
obvious way to recognize them out of context. The only exceptions are those
Arabic adverbs with a "اً" suffix such as "ظاهراً" , واقعاً", etc.

See also[edit]

Grammatical
conjunction

Prepositional
adverb

Pronominal
adverb

v

t

e

Lexical
categories and their features

Noun

Abstract
/ Concrete

Adjectival

Agent

Animate /
Inanimate

Attributive

Common / Proper

Countable / Mass / Collective

Initial-stress-derived

Relational

Strong / Weak

Verbal / Deverbal

Verb

Forms

Finite

Non-finite
— Attributive

Converb

Gerund

Gerundive

Infinitive

Participle
(adjectival
· adverbial)

Supine

Verbal
noun

Types

Accusative

Ambitransitive

Andative/Venitive

Anticausative

Autocausative

Auxiliary

Captative

Catenative

Compound

Copular

Defective

Denominal

Deponent

Ditransitive

Dynamic

ECM

Ergative

Frequentative

Impersonal

Inchoative

Intransitive

Irregular

Lexical

Light

Modal

Monotransitive

Negative

Performative

Phrasal

Predicative

Preterite-present

Reflexive

Regular

Separable

Stative

Stretched

Strong

Transitive

Unaccusative

Unergative

Weak

Adjective

Collateral

Demonstrative

Possessive

Post-positive

Adverb

Genitive

Conjunctive

Flat

Locative

Interrogative

Prepositional

Pronominal

Relative

Pronoun

Demonstrative

Disjunctive

Distributive

Donkey

Dummy

Formal/Informal

Gender-neutral

Gender-specific

Inclusive/Exclusive

Indefinite

Intensive

Interrogative

Objective

Personal

Possessive

Prepositional

Reciprocal

Reflexive

Relative

Resumptive

Subjective

Weak

Preposition/postposition

Inflected

Casally
modulated

Stranded

Determiner

Article

Demonstrative

Interrogative

Possessive

Quantifier

Classifier

Measure
word

Particle

Discourse

Interrogative

Modal

Noun

Possessive

Other

Copula

Coverb

Expletive

Interjection
(verbal)

Measure
word

Preverb

Pro-form

Pro-sentence

Pro-verb

Procedure
word

References[edit]

^ Huddleston, Rodney
(1988). English grammar: an outline. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. p. 7. doi:10.2277/0521311527. ISBN 0-521-32311-8.

^ Cinque, Guglielmo. 1999. Adverbs and functional
heads—a cross linguistic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University
press.

^ Haegeman, Liliane. 1995. The syntax of negation.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ernst, Thomas. 2002. The syntax of adjuncts. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Jackendoff, Ray. 1972. Semantic Interpretation in Generative
Grammar. MIT Press,

External links[edit]

Look up adverb
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The
Online Dictionary of Language Terminology

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adverb&oldid=642615210"

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