Lecture 1 Fundamentals of grammar

Morphological features. As to their word-building structure adverbs may
be non-derived, or simple (e.g. here, there, now, then, so, quick, why, how, where,when, very, rather) and derived (e.g. slowly, sideways, clockwise, homewards,away, ahead, apart, across). We can also distinguish composite forms and phrasal forms of the adverb: sometimes, nowhere, anyhow; at least, at most, at last, to and fro, upside down. A prolific source of adverbs is the adjective: many –ly adverbs are transformationally related to respective adjectives. The suffix –ly is a typical
marker of the adverb. However, many adverbs related to adjectives may not be
necessarily used with the suffix –ly, e.g. fast, late, hard, high, clean, clear, close,loud, tight, firm, quick, right, sharp, slow, wide, etc.
Special mention should be made of preposition-adverb like elements which
form a semantic blend with verbs: to give up, to give in, to give out, to give away,to give over, etc; to set up, to set in, to set forth, to set down, etc.; to get on, to get off, to get through, to get about , etc. The verb-adverb combination goes by several names: two-part verbs, composite verbs, phrasal verbs. The verbs in such combinations are mostly one-syllable words; the most common adverbs are those denoting place, e.g. in, out, on, off, over, up, down, through, etc. Some of the adverbs may be separated by objective complements, e.g. Please hand in your papers. vs. Please hand your papers in. Others are non-separable, e.g. John called
on me. vs. *John called me on.
In verb-adverb combinations the second element may:
a) retain its adverbial properties of showing direction (e.g. to go out, to go
in, to go away);
b) change the aspect of the verb, i.e. mark the completeness of the process
(e.g. to eat – to eat up; to stand – to stand up; to sit – to sit down; to lie – to lie down; to shave – to shave off; to speak – to speak out);
c) intensify the meaning of the process (e.g. to end – to end up; to finish – to finish up (off); to cut – to cut off; to talk – to talk away);
d) lose its lexical meaning and form an integral whole, a set expression (e.g.
to fall out ‘to quarrel’; to give in ‘to surrender’; to come off ‘to take place’; to leave off ‘to stop’; to boil down ‘to be reduced in quantity’).
These combinations have been treated by different scholars in different
ways. Some scholars have treated the second element as a variety of adverbs, as
preposition-like adverbs (A. Smirnitsky, 1959, 376), as a special kind of adverb
called adverbial postpositon (I. E. Anichkov, 1947), as postverbial particles (L.
Kivimдgi et al., 1968: 35), as a special kind of form-word called postpositive (N.
N. Amosova, 1963: 134), a postfix or postpositive affix (Y. Zhluktenko, 1954), a
separate part of speech called postposition (B.A. Ilyish, 1948: 243 – 5). As for B.
Ilyish, he later (1971:148) changed his view arguing that, since the second element
does not indicate the circumstances in which the process takes place, the whole
construction is a phraseological unit: the whole has a meaning different from the
meanings of the components. According to M. Blokh, these elements form a
special functional set of particles based on their functional character. He suggests
the term “post-positives”.
The great variety of interpretations shows the complexity of the problem.
Apparently, the problem requires further research.