Pernilla Hallonsten Halling

Adverb as a different part of speech

The results of this study, presented in chapters 5, 6, and 7, show that property words functioning as modifiers within predicating expressions in the form of simple adverbs can be discerned in a substantial number of unrelated languages spread out around the world. By ‘substantial number’, I mean more than what can be seen as exceptions, considering their geographical and genealogical dispersion. The languages that have simple adverbs are presented once more in table 9.2 (repeated from table 5.1 in chapter 6).

Table 9.2. Languages with simple adverbs

Acoli (Nilotic) Koyra Chiini (Songhay)

Ainu (isolate) Krongo (Kadugli-Krongo)
Alamblak (Sepik) Lahu (Sino-Tibetan)
Bambara (Mande) Lakota (Siouan)
Bininj Gun-Wok (Gunwinyguan) Lezgian (Nakh-Daghestanian) Bora (Witotoan) Ma’di (Central Sudanic) Bukiyip (Nuclear Toricelli) Maltese (Afro-Asiatic) Cuicatec (Otomanguean) Mam (Mayan)
Estonian (Uralic) Mapudungun (Araucanian)
Ewe (Atlantic-Congo) Marathi (Indo-European)
Gooniyandi (Bunaban) Mian (Nuclear Trans New Guinea)
Guaraní (Tupian) Nishnaabemwin (Algic)
Hdi (Afro-Asiatic) Paumarí (Arawan) Imbabura Quechua (Quechuan) Sahaptin (Sahaptian) Imonda (Border) Sango (Atlantic-Congo) Jamul Tiipay (Cochimi-Yuman) Turkish (Turkic) Kalaallisut (Eskimo-Aleut) Waiwai (Cariban) Kambera (Austronesian) Warekena (Arawakan) Kewa (Nuclear Trans New Guinea) Yagua (Peba-Yagua)

Kham (Sino-Tibetan) Yankunytjatjara (Pama-Nyungan) Koasati (Muskogean)
Among simple adverbs in different languages, the semantic invariants are recurrent, with speed as the most common type for adverbs (cf. chapter 8). In chapter 6, it was also shown that a dozen of the sample languages that do have simple adverbs do not have any adjectives. Thus, there is no implicational universal by which the presence of adverbs in a language is dependent on the presence of adjectives (cf. Hengeveld 1992; Hengeveld et al. 2004; Hengeveld 2013). This establishes that adverbs are conceptually no less basic than


adjectives, and that adjectives and adverbs are equally basic kinds of modifiers. This is also reflected in languages that have a class of modifiers that covers the functions of adjectives and adverbs. In chapter 6, the term general modifier was introduced in order to capture such classes.
As discussed and illustrated in chapter 3, the approach to parts of speech proposed by Croft (1991, 2001, 2003) can be expanded in order to include adverbs. In table 9.3, I propose a yet more elaborate version of this expansion, which takes into account the discussion of semantic types of property words from chapter 8. The overt structural coding constructions of non-prototypical combinations of semantic class and pragmatic function have been removed from this version solely for the purpose of enhanced clarity.

Table 9.3. Encoding of semantic classes and discourse functions; expanded version of Croft (2001: 88)