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Adjectives and Adverbs in English

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 Adjectives and Adverbs in English

Mohammed Jasim Betti

Department of English , College of Education for Humanities,

University of Thi-Qar

1. Adjectives in English

1.1 Definitions

An adjective In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated adj) is a word

that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic
role is to change information given by the noun (Betti, 2021w: 25).
Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the main parts of speech
of the English language, although historically they were classed together
with nouns (Trask, 2013: 188; Al-Haydary, and Betti 2020a: 15-6; and
Betti, 2021cc: 5 ). Nowadays, certain words that usually had been
classified as adjectives, including the, this, my, etc., typically are classed
separately, as determiners (Trask, 2013: 188; Al-Haydary, and Betti
2020b: 25-7; and (Betti, 2021dd: 2). Some examples are:

1) That's an interesting idea. (attributive)

2) That idea is interesting. (predicative)

3) Tell me something interesting. (postpositive)

4) The good, the bad, and the ugly. (substantive) (Betti, 2021y: 9).

1
1. 2. Etymology
Adjective comes from Latin nōmen adjectīvum, (Lewis and Short) a
calque of Ancient Greek: lit. 'additional noun' (Mastronarde, 2013. p. 60;
Betti, 2021ee: 3; and Al-Sheikh, 2006b: 42).

In the grammatical tradition of Latin and Greek, because adjectives

were inflected for gender, number, and case like nouns (a process called
declension), they were considered a type of noun. The words that are
today typically called nouns were then called substantive nouns (nōmen
substantīvum) (See "Attributive and predicative adjectives" at Lexico,
The terms noun substantive and noun adjective were formerly used in
English but are now obsolete (Trask, 2013: 188; Al-Seady, 1998c: 69;
and Betti, 1996: 94).

1.3 Types of use

Depending on the language, an adjective can precede a corresponding

noun on a prepositive basis or it can follow a corresponding noun on a
postpositive basis. Structural, contextual, and style considerations can
impinge on the pre-or post-position of an adjective in a given instance of
its occurrence. In English, occurrences of adjectives generally can be
classified into one of three categories (Bowern, 2013; Al-Seady, 1998b:
59-61; and Betti, 1995: 5).
Prepositive adjectives, which are also known as "attributive
adjectives", occur on an antecedent basis within a noun phrase
(McMenomy, 2014: 8; Algburi, and Igaab, 2021: 32; and Betti, 1990: 75).
For example:
5) I put my happy kids into the car,

2
wherein happy occurs on an antecedent basis within the my happy kids
noun phrase, and therefore functions in a prepositive adjective (Trask,
2013: 188; Al-Seady, 1998a: 82-4; and Betti, 1993: 14).
Postpositive adjectives can occur: (a) immediately subsequent to a
noun within a noun phrase, e.g.
6) "I took a short drive around with my happy kids";
(b) as linked via a copula or other linking mechanism subsequent to a
corresponding noun or pronoun; for example: "My kids are happy",
wherein happy is a predicate adjective (See "appositive adjective" at
ThoughtCo). (see also: Predicative expression, Subject complement); or
(c) as an appositive adjective (Bowern, 2013; Al-Seady, 2002a: 109; and
Betti, 1998: 18) within a noun phrase, e.g.
7) My kids, [who are] happy to go cruising, are in the back seat. (Lewis
and Short; and Betti, 2021ff: 5).
Nominalized adjectives, which function as nouns. One way this
happens is by eliding a noun from an adjective-noun noun phrase, whose
remnant thus is a nominalization. In the sentence,
8) I read two books to them; he preferred the sad book, but she preferred
the happy,

"happy" is a nominalized adjective, short for "happy one" or "happy

book". Another way this happens is in phrases like "out with the old, in
with the new", where "the old" means "that which is old" or "all that is
old", and similarly with "the new" ) (Betti, 2021z: 2).

In such cases, the adjective may function as a mass noun (as in the
preceding example). In English, it may also function as a plural count
noun denoting a collective group, as in

9) The meek shall inherit the Earth,

3
where "the meek" means "those who are meek" or "all who are meek"
(Simpson, 2012; (Betti, 2021ll: 2; and Al-Seady, 2002b: 11).

1.4. Distribution

Adjectives feature as a part of speech (word class) in most languages. In

some languages, the words that serve the semantic function of adjectives
are categorized together with some other class, such as nouns or verbs. In
the phrase "a Ford car", "Ford" is unquestionably a noun but its function
is adjectival: to modify "car". In some languages adjectives can function
as nouns: for example (Mastronarde, 2013: 61; Betti, 2002b: 82 and Al-
Seady, and Al-Sehlani, 2002: 49). In Arabic, nasheeTun (active) is used
as a noun in,

10) (alwaladu nasheeTun) (The boy is active) (Betti, 2021aa: 4).

As for "confusion" with verbs, rather than an adjective meaning "big",

a language might have a verb that means "to be big" and could then use
an attributive verb construction analogous to "big-being house" to express
what in English is called a "big house". A similar analysis is possible for
the grammar of Standard Arabic (Betti, 2021bb: 5).

Different languages do not use adjectives in exactly the same

situations. For example, English uses "to be hungry" (hungry being an
adjective).

In languages that have adjectives as a word class, it is usually an open

class; that is, it is relatively common for new adjectives to be formed via
such processes as derivation (McMenomy, 2014: 8; Betti, 2021gg: 7;
and Al-Sheikh, 2006a: 71).

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1.5 Adverbs

Many languages (including English) distinguish between adjectives,

which qualify nouns and pronouns, and adverbs, which mainly modify
verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Not all languages make this exact
distinction; many (including English) have words that can function as
either. For example, in English, fast is an adjective in "a fast car" (where
it qualifies the noun car) but an adverb in "he drove fast" (where it
modifies the verb drove) (Betti, 2002f: 51).

1.6 Determiners

Linguists today distinguish determiners from adjectives, considering them

to be two separate parts of speech (or lexical categories). But formerly
determiners were considered to be adjectives in some of their uses (Betti,
2002c: 62).

Determiners are words that are neither nouns nor pronouns, yet
reference a thing already in context. They generally do this by indicating
definiteness (a vs. the), quantity (one vs. some vs. many), or another such
property (See "Attributive and predicative adjectives" at Lexico) (Betti,
2021hh: 12).

1.7 Adjective Phrases

An adjective acts as the head of an adjective phrase or adjectival phrase

(AP). In the simplest case, an adjective phrase consists solely of the
adjective; more complex adjective phrases may contain one or more
adverbs modifying the adjective ("very strong"), or one or more
complements (such as "worth several dollars", "full of toys", or "eager to
please"). In English, attributive adjective phrases that include

5
complements typically follow the noun that they qualify ("an evildoer
devoid of redeeming qualities") (See "appositive adjective" at
ThoughtCo) (Betti, 2021ii: 2).

1.8 Other Modifiers of Nouns

In many languages (including English) it is possible for nouns to

modify other nouns. Unlike adjectives, nouns acting as modifiers (called
attributive nouns or noun adjuncts) usually are not predicative; a beautiful
park is beautiful, but a car park is not "car". The modifier often indicates
origin ("Virginia reel"), purpose ("work clothes"), semantic patient ("man
eater") or semantic subject ("child actor"); however, it may generally
indicate almost any semantic relationship. It is also common for
adjectives to be derived from nouns, as in boyish, birdlike, behavioral
(behavioural), famous, manly, angelic, and so on (Bowern, 2013; Betti,
2002e: 45; and Betti, and Al-Jubouri, 2015c: 8).
In Australian Aboriginal languages, the distinction between adjectives
and nouns is typically thought weak, and many of the languages only use
nouns--or nouns with a limited set of adjective-deriving affixes--to
modify other nouns. In languages that have a subtle adjective-noun
distinction, one way to tell them apart is that a modifying adjective can
come to stand in for an entire elided noun phrase, while a modifying noun
cannot (Simpson, 2012; Betti, 2003: 31; and Betti, and Igaab (2015:
129).

In other languages, like Arabic, nouns and adjectives are lumped

together beneath the nominal umbrella because of their shared syntactic
distribution as arguments of predicates. The only thing distinguishing
them is that some nominals seem to semantically denote entities
(typically nouns in English) and some nominals seem to denote attributes

6
(typically adjectives in English) (Betti, 2021jj: 2) (Order of adjectives,
British Council).

Many languages have special verbal forms called participles that can
act as noun modifiers (alone or as the head of a phrase). Sometimes
participles develop into pure adjectives. Examples in English include
relieved (the past participle of the verb relieve, used as an adjective in
sentences such as
11) I am so relieved to see you"),

spoken (as in "the spoken word"), and going (the present participle of the
verb go, used as an adjective in such phrases as "the going rate")
(Simpson, 2012; Betti, kk: 1-2).

Other constructs that often modify nouns include prepositional phrases

(as in "a rebel without a cause"), relative clauses (as in "the man who
wasn't there"), and infinitive phrases (as in "a cake to die for"). Some
nouns can also take complements such as content clauses (as in "the idea
that I would do that"), but these are not commonly considered modifiers.
For more information about possible modifiers and dependents of nouns,
see Components of noun phrases (Order of adjectives, British Council;
(Betti, 2002a: 52).

1.9 Order

In many languages, attributive adjectives usually occur in a specific

order. In general, the adjective order in English can be summarised as:
opinion, size, age or shape, colour, origin, material, purpose (Dixon,
1977: 19–80) (Dowling, 2016; (Betti, 2002d: 71). (the Cambridge
Advanced Learner's Dictionary online).

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 Other language authorities, like the Cambridge Dictionary, state that
shape precedes rather than follows age (Dixon, (1977): 19–80) (Dowling,
2016) (the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary online) (Declerck,
1991: 350; Betti, 2006: 142; and Betti, and Mugeer, 2016: 39).

Determiners and postdeterminers—articles, numerals, and other

limiters (e.g. three blind mice)—come before attributive adjectives in
English. Although certain combinations of determiners can appear before
a noun, they are far more circumscribed than adjectives in their use—
typically, only a single determiner would appear before a noun or noun
phrase (including any attributive adjectives) (Dixon, 1977: 19–80; Betti,
2007: 402; and Betti, and Al-Jubouri, 2009: 363-5).

1. Opinion – limiter adjectives (e.g. a real hero, a perfect idiot) and

adjectives of subjective measure (e.g. beautiful, interesting) or
value (e.g. good, bad, costly)
2. Size – adjectives denoting physical size (e.g. tiny, big, extensive)

Shape or physical quality – adjectives describing more detailed physical

attributes than overall size (e.g. round, sharp, swollen, thin) (Dowling,
2016; Betti, 2015a: 19; and Betti, and Igaab, 2018: 31).

3. Age – adjectives denoting age (e.g. young, old, new, ancient, six-
year-old)
4. Colour – adjectives denoting colour or pattern (e.g. white, black,
pale, spotted)
5. Origin – denominal adjectives denoting source (e.g. French,
volcanic, extraterrestrial)

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Material – denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of
(e.g., woollen, metallic, wooden) (Dixon, (1977: 19–20; Betti, 2013: 56;
and Betti, and Hashim, 2018: 276-7).
Qualifier/purpose – final limiter, which sometimes forms part of the
(compound) noun (e.g., rocking chair, hunting cabin, passenger car, book
cover) (the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary online).
This means that, in English, adjectives pertaining to size precede
adjectives pertaining to age ("little old", not "old little"), which in turn
generally precede adjectives pertaining to colour ("old white", not "white
old"). So, one would say "One (quantity) nice (opinion) little (size) old
(age) round (shape) [or round old] white (colour) brick (material) house."
When several adjectives of the same type are used together, they are
ordered from general to specific, like "lovely intelligent person" or "old
medieval castle" (Dixon, 1977: 29–32; Betti, 2021g: 5; and Dehham,
Betti, and Hussein, 2021: 11).

This order may be more rigid in some languages than others; in some,
like Spanish, it may only be a default (unmarked) word order, with other
orders being permissible. Other languages, such as Tagalog, follow their
adjectival orders as rigidly as English.

The normal adjectival order of English may be overridden in certain

circumstances, especially when one adjective is being fronted. For
example, the usual order of adjectives in English would result in the
phrase "the bad big wolf" (opinion before size), but instead, the usual
phrase is "the big bad wolf" (Dowling, 2016; Betti, 2015b: 42; and Betti,
and Ulaiwi, 2018: 82).
Owing partially to borrowings from French, English has some
adjectives that follow the noun as postmodifiers, called postpositive
adjectives, as in time immemorial and attorney general. Adjectives may
9
even change meaning depending on whether they precede or follow, as in
proper: They live in a proper town (a real town, not a village) vs. They
live in the town proper (in the town itself, not in the suburbs). All
adjectives can follow nouns in certain constructions, such as tell me
something new (Dowling, 2016; Betti, Igaab, & Al-Ghizzi, 2018: 262;
and Betti, 2020a: 18).

1.10 Comparison (degrees)

In many languages, some adjectives are comparable and the measure

of comparison is called degree. For example, a person may be "polite",
but another person may be "more polite", and a third person may be the
"most polite" of the three. The word "more" here modifies the adjective
"polite" to indicate a comparison is being made, and "most" modifies the
adjective to indicate an absolute comparison (a superlative) (the
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary online).
Among languages that allow adjectives to be compared, different
means are used to indicate comparison. Some languages do not
distinguish between comparative and superlative forms. Other languages
allow adjectives to be compared but do not have a special comparative
form of the adjective. In such cases, as in some Australian Aboriginal
languages, case-marking, such as the ablative case may be used to
indicate one entity has more of an adjectival quality than (i.e. from—
hence ABL) another (Declerck, 1991: 350; Betti, and AlFartoosy, 2019:
107; and Betti, 2020b: 41).

In English, many adjectives can be inflected to comparative and

superlative forms by taking the suffixes "-er" and "-est" (sometimes
requiring additional letters before the suffix; see forms for far below),
respectively (the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary online):

11
 "great", "greater", "greatest"
"deep", "deeper", "deepest"

Some adjectives are irregular in this sense:

"good", "better", "best"

"bad", "worse", "worst"
"many", "more", "most" (sometimes regarded as an adverb or
determiner)
"little", "less", "least"

Some adjectives can have both regular and irregular variations:

"old", "older", "oldest"

"far", "farther", "farthest"

also

"old", "elder", "eldest"

"far", "further", "furthest"

Another way to convey comparison is by incorporating the words

"more" and "most". There is no simple rule to decide which means is
correct for any given adjective, however. The general tendency is for
simpler adjectives and those from Anglo-Saxon to take the suffixes, while
longer adjectives and those from French, Latin, or Greek do not—but
sometimes sound of the word is the deciding factor.

Many adjectives do not naturally lend themselves to comparison. For

example, some English speakers would argue that it does not make sense
to say that one thing is "more ultimate" than another, or that something is
"most ultimate", since the word "ultimate" is already absolute in its

11
semantics. Such adjectives are called non-comparable or absolute
(Declerck, 1991: 350; Betti, 2020c: 38; and Betti, and Igaab, 2019: 239).

Nevertheless, native speakers will frequently play with the raised

forms of adjectives of this sort. Although "pregnant" is logically non-
comparable (either one is pregnant or not), one may hear a sentence like
"She looks more and more pregnant each day". Likewise "extinct" and
"equal" appear to be non-comparable, but one might say that a language
about which nothing is known is "more extinct" than a well-documented
language with surviving literature but no speakers, while George Orwell
wrote,

12) All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others".
These cases may be viewed as evidence that the base forms of these
adjectives are not as absolute in their semantics as is usually thought
(Declerck, 1991: 350; Betti, and Yaseen, 2020: 49-52; and Betti, 2020d:
34).

Comparative and superlative forms are also occasionally used for

other purposes than comparison. In English comparatives can be used to
suggest that a statement is only tentative or tendential: one might say
"John is more the shy-and-retiring type," where the comparative "more"
is not really comparing him with other people or with other impressions
of him, but rather, could be substituting for "on the whole" or "more so
than not".

1.11 Restrictiveness

Attributive adjectives and other noun modifiers may be used either

restrictively (helping to identify the noun's referent, hence "restricting" its
reference) or non-restrictively (helping to describe a noun). For example:

12
13) He was a lazy sort, who would avoid a difficult task and fill his
working hours with easy ones.

Here "difficult" is restrictive – it tells which tasks he avoids,

distinguishing these from the easy ones: "Only those tasks that are
difficult".

14) She had the job of sorting out the mess left by her predecessor, and
she performed this difficult task with great acumen.

Here "difficult" is non-restrictive – it is already known which task it was,

but the adjective describes it more fully: "The aforementioned task, which
(by the way) is difficult"

1.12 Agreement

In some languages, adjectives alter their form to reflect the gender, case
and number of the noun that they describe. This is called agreement or
concord. Usually it takes the form of inflections at the end of the word,
Often, distinction is made here between attributive and predicative usage.
In English, adjectives never agree, whereas in Arabic, they always agree.

2. Adverbs in English
2.1 Definition
An adverb is a word or an expression that modifies a verb, adjective,
another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs
typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of
certainty, etc., answering questions such as how?, in what way?, when?,
where?, and to what extent?. This is called the adverbial function, and
may be performed by single words (adverbs) or by multi-word adverbial

13
phrases and adverbial clauses (Rodney and Pullum, 2005: 121ff; Betti,
2021b: 12; and Betti, and Ghadhab, 2020: 38).
Adverbs are traditionally regarded as one of the parts of speech.
Modern linguists note that the term "adverb" has come to be used as a
kind of "catch-all" category, used to classify words with various types of
syntactic behavior, not necessarily having much in common except that
they do not fit into any of the other available categories (noun, adjective,
preposition, etc.) (Payne, 1997: 69; Betti, and Hasan, 2020: 44; and Betti,
2021a: 1).

2.2 Functions
The English word adverb derives (through French) from Latin adverbium,
from ad- ("to"), verbum ("word", "verb"), and the nominal suffix -ium.
The term implies that the principal function of adverbs is to act as
modifiers of verbs or verb phrases (Rodney and Pullum, 2005: 122; Betti,
and Mahdi, 2020: 68; and Betti, 2021c: 10). An adverb used in this way
may provide information about the manner, place, time, frequency,
certainty, or other circumstances of the activity denoted by the verb or
verb phrase. Some examples:
15) She sang loudly (loudly modifies the verb sang, indicating the manner
of singing).
16) We left it here (here modifies the verb phrase left it, indicating place).
17) I worked yesterday (yesterday modifies the verb worked, indicating
time).
18) You often make mistakes (often modifies the verb phrase make
mistakes, indicating frequency).
19) He undoubtedly did it (undoubtedly modifies the verb phrase did it,
indicating certainty).

14
 Adverbs can also be used as modifiers of adjectives, and of other
adverbs, often to indicate degree. Examples:
20) You are quite right (the adverb quite modifies the adjective right).
21) She sang very loudly (the adverb very modifies another adverb –
loudly).
22) They can also modify determiners, prepositional phrases, (Rodney
and Pullum, 2005: 120; Betti, 2021e: 1; and Betti, and Khalaf , 2021: 15)
or whole clauses or sentences, as in the following examples:
23) I bought practically the only fruit (practically modifies the determiner
the in the noun phrase, "the only fruit" wherein "only" is an adjective)
24) She drove us almost to the station (almost modifies the prepositional
phrase to the station) (Huddleston, 1988: 7; Betti, and Mahdi, 2021: 56;
and (Betti, 2021d: 6).
Certainly we need to act (certainly modifies the sentence as a whole)
Adverbs thus perform a wide range of modifying functions. The major
exception is the function of modifier of nouns, which is performed
instead by adjectives (compare she sang loudly with her loud singing
disturbed me; here the verb sang is modified by the adverb loudly,
whereas the noun singing is modified by the adjective loud). However,
because some adverbs and adjectives are homonyms, their respective
functions are sometimes conflated:
Even numbers are divisible by two
25) The camel even drank.
The word "even" in the first sentence is an adjective, since it is a
prepositive modifier that modifies the noun "numbers". The word "even"
in the second sentence is a prepositive adverb that modifies the verb
"drank." (Cinque, 1999; Betti, 2021f: 17; and Betti, and Hashim, 2021:
77). Although it is possible for an adverb to precede or to follow a noun

15
or a noun phrase, the adverb nonetheless does not modify either in such
cases, as in:
26) Internationally there is a shortage of protein for animal feeds.
27) There is a shortage internationally of protein for animal feeds.
28) There is an international shortage of protein for animal feeds.
In the first sentence, "Internationally" is a prepositive adverb that
modifies the clause, "there is ..." In the second sentence, "internationally"
is a postpositive adverb that modifies the clause, "There is ..." By
contrast, the third sentence contains "international" as a prepositive
adjective that modifies the noun, "shortage."
Adverbs can sometimes be used as predicative expressions; in English,
this applies especially to adverbs of location (Jackendoff, 1972):
29) Your seat is there.
30) Here is my boarding pass,
(wherein "boarding pass" is the subject and "here" is the predicate in a
syntax that entails a subject-verb inversion). When the function of an
adverb is performed by an expression consisting of more than one word,
it is called an adverbial phrase or adverbial clause, or simply an adverbial
(Haegeman, 1995; Betti, 2021h: 5; and (Hashim, and Betti, 2020: 301) .

2.3 Formation and Comparison

In English, adverbs of manner (answering the question how?) are often
formed by adding -ly to adjectives, but flat adverbs (such as in drive fast,
drive slow, and drive friendly) have the same form as the corresponding
adjective (Ernst, 2002; Betti, 2021i: 19; and Igaab, 2010b: 148).
Other languages often have similar methods for deriving adverbs from
adjectives (French, for example, uses the suffix -ment), or else use the
same form for both adjectives and adverbs, as in German and Dutch,
where for example schnell or snel, respectively, mean either "quick" or

16
"quickly" depending on the context. Many other adverbs, however, are
not related to adjectives in this way; they may be derived from other
words or phrases, or may be single morphemes. Examples of such
adverbs in English include here, there, together, yesterday, aboard, very,
almost, etc. (Ernst, 2002; Betti, 2021m: 9; and Igaab, and Al-
Manhalawey, 2010: 54).
Where the meaning permits, adverbs may undergo comparison, taking
comparative and superlative forms. In English this is usually done by
adding more and most before the adverb (more slowly, most slowly),
although there are a few adverbs that take inflected forms, such as well,
for which better and best are used (Ernst, 2002; Igaab, 2010a: 28; and
Betti, 2021j: 15).

2.4 Adverbs as a "Catch-all" Category

In English, adverbs of manner (answering the question how?) are often
formed by adding -ly to adjectives, but flat adverbs (such as in drive fast,
drive slow, and drive friendly) have the same form as the corresponding
adjective. Other languages often have similar methods for deriving
adverbs from adjectives (French, for example, uses the suffix -ment), or
else use the same form for both adjectives and adverbs (Ernst, 2002;
Betti, 2021p: 19; and Igaab, and Al-Bdeary, 2016: 48). Many other
adverbs, however, are not related to adjectives in this way; they may be
derived from other words or phrases, or may be single morphemes.
Examples of such adverbs in English include here, there, together,
yesterday, aboard, very, almost, etc. (Haegeman, 1995; Betti, 2021l: 9 ;
and Igaab, 2015b: 39).
Adverbs are considered a part of speech in traditional English
grammar, and are still included as a part of speech in grammar taught in
schools and used in dictionaries. However, modern grammarians

17
recognize that words traditionally grouped together as adverbs serve a
number of different functions. Some describe adverbs as a "catch-all"
category that includes all words that do not belong to one of the other
parts of speech (Payne, 1997: 69; Betti, 2021n: 8; and Igaab, 2015a: 112).
A logical approach to dividing words into classes relies on recognizing
which words can be used in a certain context. For example, the only type
of word that can be inserted in the following template to form a
grammatical sentence is a noun (Haegeman, 1995; Betti, 2021q: 3; and
Igaab, and Kareem, 2018: 94):
31) The _____ is red. (For example, "The hat is red".)
When this approach is taken, it is seen that adverbs fall into a number of
different categories. For example, some adverbs can be used to modify an
entire sentence, whereas others cannot. Even when a sentential adverb has
other functions, the meaning is often not the same (Cinque, 1999; Betti,
2021r: 5; and Igaab, and Abdulhasan, 2018: 107).
. For example, in the sentences,
32) She gave birth naturally and Naturally, she gave birth,
the word naturally has different meanings: in the first sentence, as a verb-
modifying adverb, it means "in a natural manner", while in the second
sentence, as a sentential adverb, it means something like "of course"
(Jackendoff, 1972; Igaab, and Altai, 2018: 281; and Betti, 2021k: 17).
Words like very afford another example.
33) We can say Perry is very fast, but not Perry very won the race,
these words can modify adjectives but not verbs. On the other hand, there
are words like here and there that cannot modify adjectives . We can say,
34) The sock looks good there but not It is a there beautiful sock
(Jackendoff, 1972; Betti, 2021o: 1; and Igaab, 2015: 63).
The fact that many adverbs can be used in more than one of these
functions can confuse the issue, and it may seem like splitting hairs to say

18
that a single adverb is really two or more words that serve different
functions (Haegeman, 1995; Betti, 2021t: 1; and Igaab, 2010: 89).
However, this distinction can be useful, especially when considering
adverbs like naturally that have different meanings in their different
functions. Rodney Huddleston distinguishes between a word and a
lexicogrammatical-word (Huddleston, 1988: 7; Betti, 2021x: 9; and
Salman, and Betti, 2020: 223).
Grammarians find difficulty categorizing negating words, such as the
English not. Although traditionally listed as an adverb, this word does not
behave grammatically like any other, and it probably should be placed in
a class of its own (Betti, 2021v: 8; Cinque, 1999; Betti, 2021s: 8).

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