Chapter 1 - Grammatical Foundations: Words(108) a very fondly
b as quickly as lightning
c too happily to notice
d so foolishly that he believed me
We see from these examples that the same kinds of words (very, as, too, so, etc. ā
known as degree adverbs) are used to modify both adjectives and adverbs. Such
things cannot be used to modify words of other categories:
(109) a very smiled
b too disaster to think about
Thus, it seems that adjectives and adverbs are closely related categories if they are not
the same category. Of course, over a larger domain adjectives and adverbs do not
distribute the same: adjectives tend to modify nouns and adverbs modify verbs or
whole sentences:
(110) a a hot cup of tea a hotly cup of tea
b it was debated hotly it was debated hot
Yet, if we consider the total set of possible positions for adjectives and adverbs, we
notice that where an adverb can appear an adjective cannot and vice versa. In other
words, the two are in complementary distribution, just like transitive and intransitive
verbs. In the case of verbs we took their complementary distributions to be evidence
that they are of the same category and, therefore, there is no reason why we should not
argue the same here in relation to adjectives and adverbs.
As a further observation, adverbs, like adjectives, can appear in contexts of
comparison and hence in comparative and superlative constructions:
(111) more beautifully most beautifully
more fortunately most fortunately
more smilingly most smilingly
Adverbs, however, tend not to have comparative or superlative forms:
(112) cleverer/cleverest cleverlier/cleverliest
nicer/nicest nicelier/niceliest
smarter/smartest *smartlier/smartliest
The reason for this is probably because these adverbs are morphologically complex
and as we have seen morphologically complex adjectives tend not to have such forms.
This is supported by the fact that adverbs not formed with the -ly morpheme can have
morphological comparative and superlative forms:
(113) a his horse was running faster than mine his horse ran fastest
b I arrived sooner than Iād expected I came the soonest that I could
Interestingly, for adjectives the derivational morpheme -ly does not block the
comparative and superlative morphemes, as we have seen: