The distribution and category status of adjectives and adverbs

Bibliographic Data

ID5823535
AuthorsJohn Payne (0000-0003-4761-3712, University of Edinburgh), Rodney Huddleston (University of Manchester), Geoffrey K Pullum (0000-0002-7748-8847, University of Manchester)
Year2010
Volume3
Issue1
Pages31-81
Publication date2010-03-10
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWORD Structure (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1750-1245 • E-ISSN: 1755-2036
PublisherEdinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3366/e1750124510000486
OpenAlexW2151146748
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited30

It has long been argued that the environments in which adjectives and adverbs occur are mutually exclusive. This claim is based on a superficial observation that adjectives modify nouns, while adverbs modify other categories. In this paper, we argue that there are a substantial number of environments in English where complementarity, thus defined, does not hold. One interesting such environment is the function of modifier of nouns, and in one section of this paper we present a detailed analysis of a rarely observed construction in which adverbs, like adjectives, have this function. Complementarity between adjectives and adverbs is often used in support of a further claim, periodically espoused by a variety of linguists from Kuryłowicz (1936) to Baker (2003) , that adjectives and adverbs are effectively inflectional variants of a single major category. In the final sections of this paper, we argue not only that complementarity as defined does not hold, but that distribution per se is irrelevant to the issue of whether adverbs are inflectionally or derivationally related to adjectives. A review of the arguments points towards adverbs in English in fact standing on the derivational side of the boundary, and forming a distinct (though in some respects atypical) major category

Adjective · Complementarity (molecular biology · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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