Pernilla Hallonsten Halling

Adverbs and adverbial function

Encoding specific to the adverbial function was discussed in chapter 5. The main finding was that a clear majority of the sample languages have simple adverbs (41/60). The number of adverbs in individual languages varies remarkably. Some languages have only one or a few adverbs (e.g. Estonian and Krongo), while other languages have a much larger adverb class (e.g. Mian and Waiwai). There are further recurrent semantic trends across languages. For instance, speed concepts are found as simple adverbs in the great majority of languages that have simple adverbs. This is extensively discussed in chapter
8. Another important finding was that a considerable number of sample languages have simple adverbs even if they do not have simple adjectives (12/60). This finding demon- strates that it is not necessary for a language to have adjectives in order for it to have adverbs, a result that runs counter to the implicational hierarchy proposed by Hengeveld (1992; Hengeveld et al. 2004; Hengeveld 2013, repeated from 2.14 in chapter 2).

(10.1) Hengeveld’s parts of speech hierarchy (1992: 68)¹ Verb > Noun > Adjective > Adverb

As discussed in section 2.4, Hengeveld (2013: 35) explicitly states that a language that does not have adjectives will not have manner adverbs either. As discussed in section 5.2, several of my sample languages are also used in Hengeveld’s (1992) sample, and have thus been classified differently. In some cases, the reasons that Hengeveld’s classification differs from mine are obvious. For instance, Dutch is analyzed as having a flexible class labeled “A/Adv” by Hengeveld (1992: 69) and as having a General Modifier class here. In other cases, the different classifications are less straightforward, potentially based on whether derived adverbs are also taken into account, or whether a very small number of adverbs in a given language is regarded as an exception. I have focused on simple adjectives and adverbs. I have also regarded any number of simple adverbs as enough grounds to conclude that a language has simple adverbs. My results then show that adverbs are conceptually no less basic than adjectives, since a language may have property words in the form of simple adverbs (i.e. property words that have the prototypical function of modifying within predicating expressions) but lack property words in the form of simple adjectives (i.e. property words that have the prototypical function of modifying within referring expressions). Although the languages that have simple adverbs but lack simple adjectives are far from numerous, they are too many to be dismissed as exceptions. These findings are highly important for the understanding of adverb as a category in its own right.

2.