Carol A. Chapelle - The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics

Formwise, adverbs are morphologically more complex than the other word classes. Of the three constituent categories, two are closed class: simple adverbs ( back ; down ; just ; only ; through ; under ; well ; up ) and compound adverbs ( herein [ here + in ], therefore [ there + fore ], nowhere [ no + where ], somehow [ some + how ], whenever [ when + ever ]. Closed class adverbs are fixed or finite in number and rarely admit new members. Many refer to time, position, or direction and are also known as “function words” or “grammar words”: they tend to be abstract in meaning and signal the structural relationships between words and even sentences.

The third category, derivational adverbs, is open class: New adverbs can always be added. Many end in that most productive adverbial suffix ‐ly , which can be glossed ‘in an adjective manner/way’ ( It is essential that all these issues be addressed openly > in an open manner; Each side listened attentively to the other > in an attentive way) or ‘to an adjective degree/extent’ ( I have enjoyed my time enormously > to an enormous extent; the tabloids actually have the power to influence significantly > to a significant degree). However, there is no regular or necessary correspondence of meaning between adjectives (adj.) and their ‐ly adverb derivatives: There was a major and unexpected change in current (adj.) trends versus This is currently one of the most popular and safest ways of setting up on your own ; The trainer has used a touch of pure (adj.) genius to prepare his players for the match versus It's purely a matter for the Central Committee ; They were greeted with an almost eyewatering (adj.) aroma of disinfectant and cigarette smoke versus It's expensive, but not as eye‐wateringly costly as owning your own jet . (See further in Huddleston & Pullum, 2002, p. 566; Crystal, 2004, p. 269.)

Adverbs ending in ‐ly sometimes co‐occur in complementary opposition: You can have one life publicly and another life privately ; Too carefully led or too carelessly ignored ?; The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily ; They sometimes but not always pay attention . Just occasionally ‐ly attaches to a noun, as in this recipe title for beef tripe: Offaly‐Delicious !; or to a phrase: Relaxed and humorous, he spoke matter‐of‐factly about his addiction : the theatre . Adjectives and adverbs (in that order) may act in concert to give emphasis, as in advertising copy: X wants to live his private (adj.) life privately ; It's about absolute (adj.) performance absolutely . The ‐ly domain is a veritable stomping ground for verbal dexterity.

As regards usage, adverbial neologisms sometimes attract criticism for stylistic reasons, as in the blending of the adjectives huge and tremendous : The breathtaking and humongously big dancehall . Alternatively, a simple adjective may be a better choice than (overblown) adjectival–adverbial modification: The cavernous (adj.) dancehall . Use of hopefully as a sentence modifier: Hopefully, the language police are no longer opinion‐formers continues to exercise its angst‐ridden detractors: “I'm afraid ‘hopefully’ is here to stay, like pollution and sex and death and taxes”! Yet no voices disparage certainly or surely so used (Merriam‐Webster, 1994, pp. 512–13). Advertising copy regularly exploits the creative potential of (especially) ‐ly adverbs: One “Paws‐itively” Posh Pup (ad for dog figurine)! Dickens could not resist their collocational potential: exasperatingly comfortable , happily hanged , nomadically drunk (Hori, 2002, pp. 158, 155, 159). Manner adverbs are a prime powerhouse of figurative wordplay. Note that the ‐ly suffix does not always signal adverbial status; several adjectives also end in ‐ly : the early (adj.) bird , a friendly (adj.) greeting , a likely (adj.) story , the ugly (adj.) duckling . Less common are those adverbs with endings such as: ‐wise > counterclockwise, edgewise, lengthwise; ‐ ward > sideward, downward, eastward; ‐ fashion > orderly‐fashion, parrot‐fashion, timely‐fashion; or rare combinations > stepwise‐fashion . (See further in Quirk et al., 1985, pp. 438–9; Huddleston & Pullum, 2002, pp. 565–70.)

Modern grammars typically describe adverbs as the head of “adverb phrases”: adverbs may occur on their own (as in the examples above) or they may be modified by one or more dependents, themselves adverbs. While these modify the adverb head, it is the head nonetheless that is the most loaded for lexical meaning. In these examples, the head is the adverb occasionally: She tends to paint anything although occasionally a portrait > very occasionally a portrait > only very occasionally a portrait . Traditional terminology implies that adverbs are primarily verb modifiers, specifying the mode of action of the verb. Adverbs, in fact, act in a variety of ways: to modify other elements in clause structure, such as adjectives ( remarkably quick ), other adverbs (quite+possibly); occasionally nouns ( the very top of the profession ); verbs ( They had completely forgotten about it ); or, often, the clause as a whole ( Luckily, they had some friends ; It might be worthwhile actually ).

Syntactically, adverbs can be related to such questions as “where?” ( here , there , somewhere , nowhere ); “when?” ( now , tomorrow , soon ); “how often?” ( frequently , never twice ); “how?” ( well , quickly , carefully ); “to what extent?” ( quite , rather , fairly ), and so on (Crystal, 2008, p. 14). By relating adverbs to these types of question, their functional correspondence to multiword units, called “adverbials,” soon becomes apparent. The query “When are they leaving?” might elicit: soon / tomorrow (adverb phrase, with an unmodified adverb as its head); pretty soon (adverb phrase, with the adverb soon as its head, modified by an adverb intensifier pretty ); in a few days' time (prepositional phrase, with the preposition in as its head); when I see fit (finite clause). An adverbial is thus a syntactic unit, distinct from other clause elements—subject, verb, object, and complement. It is the next most frequent constituent after subject and verb (Quirk et al., 1985, p. 478n), and as Quirk et al. remark: “The vast majority of clauses . . . contain at least one adverbial” (p. 478n). When contrived data are used in sentence grammar or English‐language learning and teaching materials, this point is often ignored; adverbs are regularly omitted unless chosen for the purpose of commentary (Crystal, 1980, pp. 160–5).

Adverbs are the most mobile of all clause constituents. They enjoy greater freedom than their structurally more complex multiword counterparts, which generally favor end position. They can appear initially (I), medially (M: within the clause, in a variety of positions), and finally (E), without this affecting the grammatical acceptability of the clause: Possibly they may have been sent to Hong Kong (I); They possibly may . . . ; They may possibly . . . ; They may have possibly . . . ; They may have been possibly . . . ; They may have been sent possibly . . . (M); They may have been sent to Hong Kong possibly (E) (see Quirk et al., 1985, pp. 490–501; Huddleston & Pullum, 2002, pp. 575–8; Crystal, 2004, p. 274). Adverbs at M are more or less integrated in clause structure and restricted in their compass, whilst those at I or E tend to be peripheral—their orientation and scope affects the entire clause. Ultimately, adverb(ial) placement is often a matter of focus and stylistic choice. As Huddleston and Pullum (2002, p. 576) remark: “There is a great deal of variation in [adverb] use, and features of context, style, prosody, and euphony play a role in some decisions [on placement and focus].”