The Minor Parts of Speechdown is not followed by a noun phrase, nor has it been stranded, since no
noun phrase that could be construed as its object occurs elsewhere in the
sentence. Moreover, we do not infer from (27b) that I fell down some in-
clined place—any more than we understand that some object did or did not
cause me to fall. Since we cannot apply any test of moveability to the right
that helped us to identify particles, we have no justification for calling down
in (27b) a particle. Must we then invent a new part of speech? The answer
is YES—unless we can fit the word into some other existing part of speech.
Can you think of a candidate for the word down? Consider sentences (28a-
d):
(28) a. Harriet visited often.
b. Often, Harriet visited.
c. I fell down.
d. Down I fell.
These sentences provide evidence that down in (27b/28c) may be an adverb,
since it fits criteria for adverbs (namely, that of relative moveability), that it
modifies a verb, and that it represents direction. In practice, we would like
to have more support for our analysis than this, but sometimes we do not
have that luxury.
We should note, however, the semantic motivation for the tendency
of prepositions to blend with adverbs. If you turn back to our discussion
of adverbs, you will notice that the meanings expressed by adverbs (e.g.,
Time, Place, and Manner) partially coincide with those of prepositions.
This tendency for parts of speech to overlap in meaning is just one more
reason to prefer an analysis that separates them on the basis of form.
intensifiers
Our earlier discussion of adjectives and adverbs made reference to a class
of words specifically associated with them. This class includes words like
more, most, very, quite, rather, somewhat, and a few others. Traditional
grammars often call such words degree adverbs, as if they were ordinary ad-
verbs—like extremely and thoroughly—that happen to indicate the extent
to which the meaning of the adjective or adverb holds. If you consider the
criteria for adverbs that we suggested earlier, you will quickly realize that
the words we have listed as intensifiers—even though they do indicate
degree—do not share the formal or functional characteristics of adverbs.
For instance, intensifiers do not have the moveability of true adverbs, nor
can they occur in the comparative or superlative constructions, nor can