A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

124 Chapter 6 Adjectives and adverbs

Impressive and impressively can both function as modifier (here of noun and verb
respectively), but only the adjective can be used predicatively. The same applies to
those adverbs that are not derived from adjectives - they cannot be used as predica­
tive complements:

[36] a. She almost succeeded. b. *Her success was almost.

Over lap between the categories

We do find some overlap between the adjective and adverb categories - items that
belong to both by virtue of occurring in both sets of functions.^2 Compare:

[37] 1 ADJ

ii Anv

their early departure

They departed early.

that � day

It's � good.

I don 't fe el well.

I didn 't play well.

With some items, such as early, the meaning is the same, while in others it is
different.

The adjective very, for example, means something like "particular": it empha­

sises the identity of the day (that one, not any other). The adverb very, on the

other hand, means approximately "extremely".

The adjective well means "in good health", while the adverb means "in a good

way" or "to a good standard".

Warning: addition of '/y sometimes forms adjectives, not adverbs

Although the addition of ·ly usually forms an adverb from an adjective, it does not
invariably do so. In particular, there are some adjectives that are formed from nouns
in this way; examples are given in [38]:

[38] N

ii ADJ

beast

beastly

coward

cowardly

death

deathly

fa ther

fa therly

friend

friendly

prince

princely

woman

womanly

It is clear that despite the ·ly ending the words in [ii] are adjectives, not adverbs.
They can function attributively and predicatively, but do not modify verbs, as illus­
trated for friendly in [39]:

[39] ATTRIBUTIVE USE

a friendly old man

PREDICATIVE USE

He seems quite friendly.

2.3 The structure of AdvPs

MODIFYING VERB

*He behaved friendly.

The structure of AdvPs is similar to that of AdjPs, but somewhat sim­
pler. Dependents can again be divided into complements and modifiers.

2 The overlap is much greater in some non-standard varieties than in Standard English: a well-known
non-standard feature, for example, omits the ·ly in many adverbs modifying verbs, as in !They pay the
rent regular.