ADVERBS (adverbs.doc)

Adverbs are used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb:  

[1] Mary sings beautifully   [2] David is extremely clever   [3] This car goes incredibly fast 

In [1], the adverb beautifully tells us how Mary sings. In [2], extremely tells us the degree to which David is clever. Finally, in [3], the adverb incredibly tells us how fast the car goes.  

Before discussing the meaning of adverbs, however, we will identify some of their formal characteristics.        

Formal Characteristics of Adverbs

From our examples above, you can see that many adverbs end in -ly. More precisely, they are formed by adding -ly to an adjective:        

Because of their distinctive endings, these adverbs are known as -LY ADVERBS. However, by no means all adverbs end in -ly. Note also that some adjectives also end in -ly, including costly, deadly, friendly, kindly, likely, lively, manly, and timely.  

Like adjectives, many adverbs are GRADABLE, that is, we can modify them using very or extremely:  

The modifying words very and extremely are themselves adverbs. They are called DEGREE ADVERBS because they specify the degree to which an adjective or another adverb applies. Degree adverbs include almost, barely, entirely, highly, quite, slightly, totally, and utterly. Degree adverbs are not gradable (*extremely very).  

Like adjectives, too, some adverbs can take COMPARATIVE and SUPERLATIVE forms, with -er and -est:  
 

John works hard -- Mary works harder -- I work hardest 

However, the majority of adverbs do not take these endings. Instead, they form the comparative using more and the superlative using most:  

In the formation of comparatives and superlatives, some adverbs are irregular:  

Adverbs and Adjectives

Adverbs and adjectives have important characteristics in common -- in particular their gradability, and the fact that they have comparative and superlative forms. However, an important distinguishing feature is that adverbs do not modify nouns, either attributively or predicatively:  

The following words, together with their comparative and superlative forms, can be both adverbs and adjectives:  

early, far, fast, hard, late  

The following sentences illustrate the two uses of early:  

The comparative better and the superlative best, as well as some words denoting time intervals (daily, weekly, monthly), can also be adverbs or adjectives, depending on how they are used.  

We have incorporated some of these words into the following exercise. See if you can distinguish between the adverbs and the adjectives. 

Additives, Exclusives, and Particularizers

Additives "add" two or more items together, emphasizing that they are all to be considered equal:  

[1] Lynn's prewar success had been as a light historical novelist; he employed similar fanciful ideas in his war novels [...] Joseph Hocking's war novels are also dominated by romance and adventure [W2A-009-40ff]     [2] German firms have an existing advantage as a greater number of their managers have technical or engineering degrees. Japanese managers, too, have technical qualifications of a high order. [W2A-011-51ff] 

In [1], the adverb also points to the similarities between the war novels of Lynn and those of Hocking. In [2], the adverb too functions in a similar way, emphasizing the fact that the qualifications of Japanese managers are similar to those of German managers.  

In contrast with additives, EXCLUSIVE adverbs focus attention on what follows them, to the exclusion of all other possibilities:  

[3] It's just a question of how we organise it [S1B-075-68]     [4] The federal convention [...] comes together solely for the purpose of electing the president [S2B-021-99] 

In [3], just excludes all other potential questions from consideration, while in [4], solely points out the fact that the federal convention has no other function apart from electing the president. Other exclusives include alone, exactly, merely, and simply.  

PARTICULARIZERS also focus attention on what follows them, but they do not exclude other possibilities:  

[5] The pastoralists are particularly found in Africa [S2A-047-3]     [6] Now this book is mostly about what they call modulation [S1A-045-167] 

In [5], it is implied that Africa is not the only place where pastoralists live. While most of them live there, some of them live elsewhere. Sentence [6] implies that most of the book is about modulation, though it deals with other, unspecified topics as well.  

Other particularizers include largely, mainly, primarily, and predominantly.  

Wh- Adverbs

A special subclass of adverbs includes a set of words beginning with wh-. The most common are when, where, and why, though the set also includes whence, whereby, wherein, and whereupon. To this set we add the word how, and we refer to the whole set as WH- ADVERBS. Some members of the set can introduce an interrogative sentence:     

When are you going to New York?   Where did you leave the car?   Why did he resign?   How did you become interested in theatre? 

They can also introduce various types of clause:     

This is the town where Shakespeare was born   I've no idea how it works 

Sentence Adverbs

We conclude by looking at a set of adverbs which qualify a whole sentence, and not just a part of it. Consider the following:     

Honestly, it doesn't matter 

Here the sentence adverb honestly modifies the whole sentence, and it expresses the speaker's opinion about what is being said (When I say it doesn't matter, I am speaking honestly). Here are some more examples:     

Clearly, he has no excuse for such behaviour   Frankly, I don't care about your problems   Unfortunately, no refunds can be given 

Some sentence adverbs link a sentence with a preceding one:     

England played well in the first half. However, in the second half their weaknesses were revealed. 

Other sentence adverbs of this type are accordingly, consequently, hence, moreover, similarly, and therefore.