English "-ly" adverbs: From subject orientation to conversion
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Date
2014
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
Unlike subject-orientation in English ‘-ly’ adverbs, subject-relatedness does not conflate two
syntactic functions in one and the same form: subject-related ‘-ly’ adverbs are predicative elements
in the clause and do not function as adverbials. Therefore, the morphological make-up of
subject-related ‘-ly’ adverbs does not match the syntactic function and the categorial meaning
usually associated with the adverbial suffix ‘-ly’. In subject-relatedness, the association of the
predicative function with the ‘-ly’ suffix differs from that of the well-known set of ‘-ly’ adjectives
where the suffix is the present-day form of Old English ‘-līc’. Subject-relatedness raises the question
of how these ‘-ly’ adverbs should be classified and the implications of this classification on
their place in the system of word-classes. Specifically, it raises the question of the place of this
morphological, syntactic and semantic behaviour with respect to word-class membership. In this
respect, the paper explores the interpretation of subject-related ‘-ly’ words in frameworks where
adjectives and adverbs are considered one and the same word-class and also where they are considered
separate ones. The interpretation of subject-related ‘-ly’ words as belonging to the categorial
space between adjective and adverb is relevant especially in respect of the morphosyntactic
processes described in the literature for similar cases: although the profile of subject-related ‘-ly’
words appears to meet the conditions of conversion, they do not become lexicalized, as in lexical
conversion, and cannot be traced back to a syntactic process, as in syntactic conversion.
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This paper was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (research project FFI2012-39688).
Keywords
subject orientation, subject-relatedness, conversion, ‘-ly’ adverbs
Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, 2014 vol. 49.1, pp. 77-102
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ISSN
0081-6272