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§ 2. In accord with their categorial meaning, adverbs are characterized by a combinability with verbs,
adjectives and words of adverbial nature. The functions of adverbs in these combinations consist in expressing
different adverbial modifiers. Adverbs can also refer to whole situations; in this function they are considered
under the heading of situation-"determinants". Cf:.
The woman was crying hysterically, (an adverbial modifier of manner, in left-hand contact combination
with the verb-predicate) Wilson looked at him appraisingly. (an adverbial modifier of manner, in left-hand
distant combination with the verb-predicate) Without undressing she sat down to the poems, nervously anxious
to like them... (an adverbial modifier of property qualification, in right-hand combination with a post-positional
stative attribute-adjective) You've gotten awfully brave, awfully suddenly, (an adverbial modifier of intensity,
in right-hand combination with an adverb-aspective determinant of the situation) Then he stamps his boots
again and advances into the room. (two adverbial determinants of the situation: the first - of time, in right-hand
combination with the modified predicative construction; the second - of recurrence, in left-hand combination
with the modified predicative construction)
Adverbs can also combine with nouns acquiring in such cases a very peculiar adverbial-attributive function,
essentially in post-position, but in some cases also in pre-position. E.g.:
The world today presents a picture radically different from what it was before the Second World War. Our
vigil overnight was rewarded by good news: the operation seemed to have succeeded. Franklin D. Roosevelt,
the then President of the United States, proclaimed the "New Deal" - a new Government economic policy.
The use of adverbs in outwardly attributive positions in such and like examples appears to be in
contradiction with the functional destination of the adverb - a word that is intended to qualify a non-nounal
syntactic element by definition.
However, this seeming inconsistence of the theoretical interpretation of adverbs with their actual uses can be
clarified and resolved in the light of the syntactic principle of nominalization elaborated within the framework
of the theory of paradigmatic syntax (see further). In accord with this principle, each predicative syntactic
construction paradigmatically correlates with a noun-phrase displaying basically the same semantic relations
between its notional constituents. A predicative construction can be actually changed into a noun-phrase, by
which change the dynamic situation expressed by the predicative construction receives a static name. Now,
adverbs-determinants modifying in constructions of this kind the situation as a whole, are preserved in the
corresponding nominalized phrases without a change in their inherent functional status. Cf.:
The world that exists today.>The world today. We kept vigil overnight. > Our vigil overnight. Then he
was the President. > The then President.
These paradigmatic transformational correlations explain the type of connection between the noun and its
adverbial attribute even in cases where direct transformational changes would not be quite consistent with the
concrete contextual features of constructions. What is important here is the fact that the adverb used to modify a
noun actually relates to the whole corresponding situation underlying the noun-phrase.
§ 3. In accord with their word-building structure adverbs may be simple and derived.
Simple adverbs are rather few, and nearly all of them display functional semantics, mostly of pronominal
character: here, there, now, then, so, quite, why, how, where, when.
The typical adverbial affixes in affixal derivation are, first and foremost, the basic and only productive
adverbial suffix -ly (slowly, tiredly, rightly, firstly), and then a couple of others of limited distribution, such as
-ways (sideways, crossways), -wise (clockwise), -ward(s) (homewards, seawards, afterwards). The
characteristic adverbial prefix is a- (away, ahead, apart, across).
Among the adverbs there ate also peculiar composite formations and phrasal formations of prepositional,
conjunctional and other types: sometimes, nowhere, anyhow; at least, at most, at last; to and fro; upside down;
etc.
Some authors include in the word-building sets of adverbs also formations of the type from outside, till now,
before then, etc. However, it is not difficult to see that such formations differ in principle from the ones cited
above. The difference consists in the fact that their parts are semantically not blended into an indivisible
lexemic unity and present combinations of a preposition with a peculiar adverbial substantive - a word
occupying an intermediary lexico-grammatical status between the noun and the adverb. This is most clearly
seep on ready examples liberally offered by English texts of every stylistical standing. E.g.:
The pale moon looked at me from above. By now Sophie must have received the letter and very soon we
shall hear from her. The departure of the delegation is planned for later this week.