29.1738, Diss: Typology: Pernilla Hallonsten Halling: ''Adverbs: A typological study of a disputed category''

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-1738. Mon Apr 23 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.1738, Diss: Typology: Pernilla Hallonsten Halling: ''Adverbs: A typological study of a disputed category''

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Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2018 13:14:27
From: Pernilla Hallonsten Halling [pernilla at ling.su.se]
Subject: Adverbs: A typological study of a disputed category

 
Institution: Stockholm University 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2018 

Author: Pernilla Hallonsten Halling

Dissertation Title: Adverbs: A typological study of a disputed category 

Dissertation URL:  http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1186506&dswid=2162

Linguistic Field(s): Typology


Dissertation Director(s):
Bernhard Wälchli
Tomas Riad

Dissertation Abstract:

The notion adverb is often treated as encompassing leftover items in a class
that shows little consistency both within and ​across languages. Adverbs are
less frequent than other parts of speech cross-linguistically, they seldom
inflect, and they are rarely used as a source for derivation to other
categories.

This dissertation focuses on adverbs that denote properties and that can be
used as modifiers within predicating expressions. The adverbs in this group
are roughly equivalent to the traditional manner adverbs (She walked slowly).
In their role as modifiers, these adverbs are parallel to attributive
adjectives, which also denote properties, and are modifiers in referring
expressions (a slow train). Adjectives often also occur in the predicative
function (The train is slow). This study compares adverbs to attributive and
predicative adjectives in a sample of 60 genealogically diverse languages from
around the world. Simple adverbs are attested in the majority of these
languages, including in some languages that do not have simple adjectives. The
comparison with attributive and predicative adjectives is carried out at three
levels of encoding: the root, the lexeme, and the construction. The analysis
shows that a great majority of languages have the same root encoding for
adverbs, attributive adjectives, and predicative adjectives. Many languages
have a class of lexemes that are used in the functions of both adverbs and
attributive adjectives, here called general modifiers. On the construction
level, where constructions are analyzed in their entirety, important encoding
similarities between adverbs and predicative adjectives are unraveled. In a
few languages, adverbs and attributive adjectives are encoded by the same or
similar constructions.

The attested simple adverbs and general modifiers both fall into certain
characteristic semantic types. For simple adverbs, a core type is SPEED, which
is found among the adverbs of most sample languages. The types VALUE, CARE,
and NOISE are also found among the simple adverbs of several languages. For
general modifiers, VALUE appears as a core type. These semantic types are
further attested in tendencies of adverb lexicalization and in adverbial
affixation across languages. 

This dissertation shows that adverbs constitute a cross-linguistically
prototypical part of speech, although they differ in many ways from other
categories. The basis for this class, just as for adjectives, is the presence
of simple lexemes that tend to have similar semantics in unrelated and
geographically distant languages. Adverbs are thus conceptually no less basic
than adjectives.




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