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 realized not just by single words (i.e., adverbs) but by adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses.

Adverbs in English

Adverbs can also modify adjectives and other adverbs.

There are very many kinds of adverbs. Examples are: adverbs of manner, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of time, adverbs of place, adverbs of certainty etc.

In English, adverbs of manner (answering the question ''how?'') are often formed by adding ''-ly'' to adjectives. For example, ''great'' yields ''greatly'', and ''beautiful'' yields ''beautifully''. (Note that some words that end in ''-ly'', such as ''friendly'' and ''lovely'', are not adverbs, but adjectives, in which case the root word is usually a noun. There are also underived adjectives that end in ''-ly'', such as ''holy'' and ''silly''.)

The suffix -''ly'' is related to the Germanic word ''"lich"''. (There is also an obsolete English word ''lych'' or ''lich'' with the same meaning.) Both words are also related to the word ''like''. The connection between ''-ly'' and ''like'' is easy to understand. The connection to ''lich'' is probably that both are descended from an earlier word that meant something like "shape" or "form". The use of ''like'' in the place of ''-ly'' as an adverb ending is seen in Appalachian English, from the hardening of the ''ch'' in ''"lich"'' into a ''k'', originating in northern British speech.

In this way, -ly in English is cognate with the common German adjective ending ''-lich'', the Dutch ending ''-lijk'', the Dano-Norwegian ''-lig'' and Norwegian ''-leg''. This same process is followed in Romance languages with the ending -mente, -ment, or -mense meaning "of/like the mind".

In some cases, the suffix ''-wise'' may be used to derive adverbs from 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. Some adverbs are formed from nouns or adjectives by prepending the prefix ''a''- (such as ''abreast'', ''astray''). 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.

Comparative adverbs include ''more'', ''most'', ''least'', and ''less'' (in phrases such as ''more beautiful'', ''most easily'' etc.).

The usual form pertaining to adjectives or adverbs is called the positive. Formally, adverbs in English are inflected in terms of comparison, just like adjectives. The comparative and superlative forms of some (especially single-syllable) adverbs that do not end in -''ly'' are generated by adding ''-er'' and ''-est'' (''She ran faster''; ''He jumps highest''). Others, especially those ending -''ly'', are periphrastically compared by the use of ''more'' or ''most'' (''She ran more quickly'') -- while some accept both forms, e.g. ''oftener'' and ''more often'' are both correct. Adverbs also take comparisons with ''as ... as'', ''less'', and ''least''. Not all adverbs are comparable; for example in the sentence ''He wore red yesterday'' it does not make sense to speak of "more yesterday" or "most yesterday".

Adverbs as a "catch-all" category

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. (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 isn't.

Words like ''very'' and ''particularly'' afford another useful 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''.

The category of adverbs into which a particular adverb falls is to some extent a matter of convention; and such conventions are open to challenge as English evolves. A particular category-breaking use may spread after its appearance in a book, song, or television show and become so widespread that it is eventually acknowledged as acceptable English. For example, "well" traditionally falls in a category of adverb that excludes its use as a modifier of an adjective, except where the adjective is a past-participle adjective like "baked". However, imitating characters in television shows, a growing number of English speakers (playfully or even without reflection) use "well" to modify non-past-participle adjectives, as in "That is well bad!" It is possible that this usage will one day become generally accepted. Similarly, other category-breaking uses of adverbs may, over time, move some English adverbs from a restricted adverbial class to a less-restricted one.

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

Other languages

The Azerbaijan linguistic school does not consider an adverb to be an independent part of speech, as it is an adverbialized form of other parts of speech. I.e., recognition of its equity with other parts of speech violates the second and fourth laws of logic division. Adverbs are derived from other parts of speech. Their functions are performed by other parts of speech when they play the role of "means of expression" for an adverbial. That is, other parts of speech, playing the role of adverbial, automatically transform (convert) into an adverb.See Mammadov J.M.: Separation of parts of speech (in Russian)

See also

References

External links

Category:Parts of speech