On the arguments for analyzing adverbs as PPs

Bibliographic Data

ID24226905
AuthorsSascha Alexeyenko (University of Göttingen)
Year2026
Pages260-277
Publication date2026-03-23
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueAdverbs and Particles at the Form-Meaning Interface (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/la.292.12ale
OpenAlexW7140100466
ISBN9789027233967
LanguageEN
References cited21

This paper argues that adverbs in English do not constitute a separate lexical class, neither are they positional variants of a single category together with adjectives, but rather they can and should be assimilated to PPs. In particular, the paper provides evidence from the complement-taking capacities of adverbs that the morpheme -ly is not a suffix but a nominal root, which forms the basis of the analysis of adverbs as PPs. Furthermore, it shows that the PP analysis of adverbs is also able to account for the facts that have been previously used as arguments for alternative analyses.

adverbs · English adverbs · lexical classes · prepositional phrases · Categorization, perception, and language · Linguistics and Language Studies · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access