Дипломная работа: Syntagmatic and paradigmatic peculiarities of adverbs in English

We were locked in the warehouse [41]. (preposition)

He did everything slowly but surely [38]. (adverb)

Surely you know him [38]. (modal word)

The definition of adverb presented above, though certainly informative and instructive, also fails to directly point out the relation between the adverb and the adjective as the primary qualifying part of speech.

In an attempt to overcome this drawback, M. Y. Blokh defines the adverb as a notional word expressing a non-substantive property, that is, a property of a non-substantive referent [13, 221]. This formula immediately shows the actual correlation between the adverb and the adjective, since the adjective is a word expressing a substantive property.

Properties may be of a more particular, "organic" order and, a more general and detached, "inorganic" order [13, 221]. Of the organic properties, the adverb denotes those characterising processes and other properties. Of the inorganic properties, the adverb denotes various circumstantial characteristics of processes or whole situations built around processes.

The above definition, approaching the adverb as a word of the secondary qualifying order, presents the entire class of adverbial words as the least self-dependent of all the four notional parts of speech. Indeed, the truly complete nominative value is inherent only in the noun, which is the name of substances [15]. The verb comes next in its self-dependent nominative force, expressing processes as dynamic relations of substances, i.e. their dynamic relational properties in the broad sense. After that follow qualifying parts of speech — first the adjective denoting qualifications of substances, and then the adverb denoting qualifications of non-substantive phenomena which find themselves within the range of notional signification.

The adverb is characterised by its own, specific nominative value, providing for its inalienable status in the system of the parts of speech. Hence, the complaints of some linguists that the adverb is not rigorously defined and in fact presents something like a "dump" for those words which have been rejected by other parts of speech can hardly be taken as fully justified [13, 221]. On the other hand, since the adverb does denote qualifications of the second order, not of the first one like the adjective, it includes a great number of semantically weakened words which are in fact intermediate between notional and functional lexemes by their status and often display features of pronominal nature.

1.2 Formal characteristics of the adverb

In terms of the formal criterion the adverb is characterized by the following features [13, 39]:

1) the forms of the degrees of comparison for qualitative adverbs;

2) the specific suffixal forms of derivation.

The only pattern of morphological change for adverbs is the same as for adjectives, the degrees of comparison [25, 94]. With regard to the category of the degrees of comparison adverbs (like adjectives) fall into comparables and non-comparables. The number of non-comparables is much greater among adverbs than among adjectives. Only adverbs of manner and certain adverbs of time and place can form degrees of comparison. The three grades are called positive, comparative, and superlative degrees.

Adverbs that are identical in form with adjectives take inflections following the same spelling and phonetic rules as for adjectives:

hard — harder — hardest

soon — sooner — soonest

early — earlier — earliest

Several adverbs ending in -ly (quickly, loudly) form comparatives according to the same pattern, dropping their adverb-forming suffix. These adverbs acquired the form in -ly only recently and retained the older forms of the comparative and superlative:

quickly – quicker – quickest

loudly – louder – loudest

However most disyllabic adverbs in -ly and all polysyllabic ones form the comparative and superlative analytically, by means of more and most:

beautifully — more beautifully — most beautifully

cleverly — more cleverly — most cleverly

As with adjectives, there is a small group of adverbs with comparatives and superlatives formed from different stems ( suppletive forms). These comparatives and superlatives are identical with those for the corresponding adjectives and can be differentiated from the latter only syntactically:

well — better — best

badly — worse — worst

much — more — most

little — less — least

All the problems connected with the adjectival degrees of comparison retain their force for the adverbial degrees of comparison. Some grammarians do not admit forms like more quickly, most quickly to be analytical degrees of comparison [9]. They distinguish only two types of degrees of comparison in adverbs:

· the suffix type (quickly – quicker – quickest)