Forms of Adverbs

FORM AND COMPARISON OF ADVERBS

FORM OF SIMPLE ADVERBS

Genitive, dative, and accusative used as adverbs
'This,' 'that,' 'the,' used as adverbs

COMPARISON OF ADVERBS

Relative comparison Irregularities
New forms of expression
Absolute superlative.


In the following articles are discussed matters pertaining to the form of adverbs in the positive, comparative, and superlative.

1. Form of Simple Adverbs.

Adverbs have in part no distinctive form, as in the case of here, there, then, when, where, why, late, straight, far, near, close, quick, slow, fast, high, low, much, little, very, right, wrong, cheap, just, well, etc.; in part they have the distinctive suffix -ly, as in rapidly, diligently, hurriedly, powerfully, etc.; also often in the case of some of the words in the first group, which have a form in -ly alongside of their simple form, as in slowly, quickly, highly, rightly, cheaply, etc.

Sometimes the two forms are differentiated in meaning: 'I'll go as high as a hundred dollars,' but 'The wood is highly polished.' 'He aimed higher,' but 'We ought to value our privileges more highly.' 'He sat up late, but 'He died lately.' 'We are doing fine' (colloquial for very well), but 'These greenish tints contrast finely (= splendidly) with the moon's own soft white.' 'He works hard,' but 'I could hardly hear him.' 'He lives near (originally an adverb, as shown here by its comparative form nearer, but now widely felt as a preposition) us, nearer to us,' but 'It is nearly done.' 'He is real (colloquial for very) good, but 'He is really (sentence adverb) good. The bird is now flying quite low,' but 'He bowed lowly before the duchess,' i.e. bowed humbly and respectfully. 'You know jolly (slang for very) well,' but 'He smiled jollily.' 'Speak loud and distinctly,' but 'He boasted loudly of his power.' With certain adverbs we use the simple form after the modified word and the form with ly before it: 'He guessed right,' but 'He rightly guessed that it was safe.' 'He spelled the words wrong,' but the wrongly spelled words. Earlier in the period the old simple form was often used where we now employ the form in -ly: 'to haue him stand in the raine till he was through (or thorough) wet' (Thomas Nashe, The Vnfortunate Traveller, Works, II, p. 246, A.D. 1594), now thoroughly wet'; but the old simple form is preserved in thoroughbred, thoroughgoing, etc. She is not near (now nearly) so small as I had expected' (Horace Walpole, Letter to Miss Mary Berry, Sept. 25, 1793). Scarce was widely used in early Modern English, but is now employed only in rather choice language, yielding to scarcely in normal speech. In older English, many adverbs had the suffix -e, which distinguished them from the corresponding adjectives. In the fifteenth century, after this ending had disappeared, many adjectives and adverbs had the same form. For a long while there has been a tendency to distinguish the adverb from the adjective by giving it the suffix -ly, as indicated above. The old simple form, though often replaced by the new form in -ly, often remains firm before an adjective or participle: light yellow, dárk blue, déad drunk, précious little, mighty delightful, búrning hot, réd hot, stárk naked, pretty bright; néw làid eggs, módern built house, foreign born citizens, etc. These are in large measure modern formations, but we feel them as groups akin to our old compounds for which we still have a lively feeling. In the old compounds the modifying word always precedes the governing word, so that the word-order of itself makes the grammatical relations clear and hence the lack of a distinctive adverbial ending is not keenly felt. But here, as also elsewhere, distinctive grammatical forms are sometimes introduced: an uncommon or uncommonly fine fellow; terrible or terribly strong; an exceeding or exceedingly great joy; a newly married pair; the newly appointed chaplain; etc. We should distinguish between a good-natured boy,' where the compound good náture has been converted into a derivative adjective by means of the suffix -ed, and 'a well-behaved boy,' where behaved is an adjective participle and well the modifying adverb. Simi larly, we say 'a high-tempered man,' but 'highly seasoned food.' In many cases we can construe a group of words according to either of these two types, hence we often find a difference of usage: ill mannered, 'the most sweetly mannered gentleman alive' (Disraeli, Endymion, III, III, 25), but also géntle-mannered, simple-mannered. In both constructions the stress shifts to the second component in the predicate: 'He is good-nátured.' 'He is well behaved.'

On the other hand, after verbs, where the word-order is always different from that required in compounds, the tendency is to give the adverb its distinctive suffix: 'wide-open,' but 'He advertises widely'; 'tight-fitting,' but 'He clàsped his hands tightly together.'

While in the literary language the form with -ly is becoming ever more firmly fixed, colloquial and popular speech still cling tenaciously to the older type of expression without -ly, especially in American and Irish English: 'I wanted to do it bad (instead of the usual literary form badly) enough, and if it was to do over again I wóuld' (Mark Twain, Joan of Arc, Book I, Ch. IV). 'He (a certain dog) isn't anyway near (instead of literary nearly) as full blooded as Duke' (Tarkington, Penrod Jashber, Ch. I). 'I beat them easy' (instead of the literary form easily), but also in good English with the short form in 'to take it easy' and 'to let one off easy. This conservative tendency in colloquial and popular speech to employ the old type is especially noticeable in the case of sentence adverbs, where in the literary language the form with ly is most firmly established: 'It sure (in the literary language surely) will help.'

In older English, -ly was often added to adverbs formed from adjectives in -ly, and this older usage survives in a few adverbs: holily, jollily, sillily, wilily. In general, -ly is now avoided here as awkward, although elsewhere there is a strong tendency toward it on account of its distinctiveness. The present tendency in this particular group is to employ the adjective also as an adverb, as in early, daily, hourly, friendly, kindly, only, etc. In many other words, however, we avoid such adverbs, as we feel their lack of distinctive form.

It is common to form an adverb out of a compound adjective provided the final element in the compound is an adjective form: world-wide, adv. world-widely; high-minded, adv. high-mindedly. If the final element is a noun we must employ the compound adjective also as an adverb: 'a first-rate (adj.) machine.' 'I am getting along first-rate' (adv.).

a. Genitive, Dative, and Accusative Used Adverbially.

In oldest English, nouns in the genitive, dative, and accusative were often used adverbially. The old adverbial genitive survives in a few nouns and adverbs in the literary language and in a much larger number in popular speech: must needs, nowadays, once (i.e. ones, from one), twice (formerly twies), thrice, unawares, afterward (especially in America) or afterwards, backward or backwards, forward or forwards, onward or less commonly onwards, seaward or seawards, sideways, always, etc.; in popular speech anywheres, somewheres, nowheres, etc., instead of the literary forms anywhere, somewhere, nowhere, etc. In colloquial speech it is still common in a few nouns to indicate repeated occurrence, but is now felt as an accusative plural: 'returning nights to his home' (F. J. Mather, Chaucer's Prologue, p. vii). 'Farmer Spurrier could see the plow at work before he got out of bed mornings' (H. C. O'Neill, Told in the Dimpses, p. 28). After the analogy of such common expressions we now often use this plural accusative: 'The museum is open Sundays' (or on Sundays). The modern prepositional genitive is used in 'of a morning,' 'of an evening,' 'of a Sunday afternoon,' of late years,' 'of rainy afternoons,' etc. In popular speech an excrescent t is often added to the genitive form once: wunst. While the literary language rejects the genitive form with excrescent t here, it has adopted it in the case of amongst and whilst, adverbial genitive forms now used alongside of among and while as preposition and subordinate conjunction.

The old dative plural survives in whilom (formerly), now used only in poetry or archaic language. It is the old dative plural form of the noun while, used adverbially: 'Whilom she was a daug of Locrine' (Milton, Comus, 827). It is sometimes, like certain other adverbs, used also as an adjective: 'his whilom associates.'

The old adverbial accusative of extent is well preserved in the case of nouns: 'They remained a long while, three years.' 'It is a long way off.' 'He went the full length.' 'That went a long way toward remedying the evil.' 'He walked two miles.' 'He will not swerve a hair's breadth from the truth.' 'The lake is three miles wide.' 'He is fourteen years old.' 'The garden is one hundred and seventy feet long.' 'He towers head and shoulders above his con temporaries. The sober sense of the community are heart and soul with the Chief of Police in his crusade.' 'Vivisection must be abolished root and branch.' In early Modern English, the genitive was not infrequently used here instead of the accusative, and this older usage still lingers in popular speech, which here, as in the first paragraph, is quite fond of the genitive as a more distinctive form: 'He'd given up sea-faring and moved quite a way's inland' (Amy Lowell, East Wind, p. 188, A.D. 1926). 'It seems a long ways off.'

The adverbial accusative of extent is common also in the case of indefinite pronouns, especially a bit, every bit, a lot, lots, a sight (colloquial and popular), and whatever in the meaning at all, also with other indefinites when used in connection with too or a comparative: 'Wait a bit.' 'I am every bit as good as you.' 'I am not a bit tired.' 'I have a lot (or lots) more to tell you.' 'I have lots more things to show her' (Clyde Fitch, Letter, Feb. 10, 1903). 'It is a long sight better' (Concise Oxford Dictionary), or more commonly 'a darn sight better.' 'There is no doubt whatever.' 'Is there any chance whatever?' 'I cannot see anyone whatever.' 'No one whatever would have anything to do with him.' 'What (= to what extent or in what way) is he the better for it?' 'The help came none too soon.' 'It is much too large.' "The triumphant people haven't any too much food' (Westminster Gazette, No. 7069, 6 a). 'He is none the worse for his fall.' 'The baby is dying slowly but none the less surely.' 'He is resting all the better for it.' 'Is he resting any the better for it?' 'Is he resting any better today?' 'I began to think that it was of no use crying any more.' 'She is not any less beautiful today than she has ever been.' 'Isn't it any later than that?' or in American colloquial speech also: 'Is that all the later it is?' 'Nothing daunted, he began again.' 'He is a little better.' 'He is much better, much taller.' Much and little are often used outside of the comparative: 'I don't care much about it.' 'I care little about it.' Much is often used sarcastically: 'Much (= not at all) you care about my feelings!'

In general, any, some, none, except with too and the comparative, are now not so common in England as earlier in the period, but in American colloquial speech there is still a great fondness for these forms: 'I slept none that night,' or 'I didn't sleep any that night.' 'If our readers are any like ourselves, we think they cannot help laughing' (Analetic Magazine [Phila.], IX, 437, A.D. 1817). 'A tall fellow... stammers some in his speech' (runaway advertisement in Mass. Spy, Apr. 28, 1785). 'I walk some every day.' This usage survives also in Scotland: 'You will quarrel nane with Captain Cleveland' (Scott, Pirate, Ch. XVIII). 'Having slept scarcely any all the night' (Hugh Miller, Scenes and Legends, XXX, 450). Scotch influence has strengthened the conservative American tendency here. It occasionally occurs in English writers after verbs: 'He may walk some, perhaps not much' (Dickens in Forster's Life, III, IV). In American slang some often assumes strong intensive force: The papers will make it some hot for you' (Robert Herrick, Memoirs of an American Citizen, p. 310).

Similarly, the accusative of the comparatives more, less, and the superlatives most, the most, least, the least are much used adverbially: 'If indiscretion be a sign of love, you are the most a lover of anybody that I know' (Congreve, Love for Love, I, II, 354, A.D. 1695); now more commonly the most a lover of all that I know,' or 'more a lover than any other person that I know.'

The old adverbial accusative of goal after verbs of motion is preserved in home: 'He went home.' 'They brought the charge home to him.' 'I was home by six.' In the last example the verb of motion is not expressed, but the idea of motion is im plied. In colloquial and popular speech home is improperly used where there is no idea of motion implied: 'I won't live home (for literary at home) even if the old gent would let me' (Eugene O'Neill, Dynamo, p. 99). In compounds, however, home is used also in the literary language where there is no idea of motion im plied: home-made, home-grown, home-brewed, etc. Home is here an old uninflected locative meaning at home. This type of expression has come down to us from the prehistorie period.

The accusative of definite and indefinite time is common: 'I go to Europe every two years.' 'The money was paid the follow ing day. First thing in the morning he smokes a cigarette' (Krapp, A Comprehensive Guide to Good English). 'He often goes round the last thing to make sure that all is right' (Routledge's. Every Boy's Annual). 'I met him one day on the street.' Also the accusative of way: 'Step this way, please!' 'I will take you another way. Also the accusative of price: 'This hat cost five dollars.'

The adverbial accusative construction has replaced others less common and even some once common, since we now feel that the accusative is the natural case form of a noun that completes the meaning of the verb. It is now much used to denote manner: 'He came full speed.' 'The blindfolded man ran full tilt into the fence.' 'Have it your own way.' "The windows of the tower face both ways.' 'Having sampled America [in] that way, Europe believes and trusts America' (Woodrow Wilson, July 4, 1919). 'She ran her fingers comb fashion through her hair.' "They went at it hammer and tongs.' 'Let us go shares, halves!' 'I came and went to bed the same as usual.' 'Then why do you come your frowning high and mighty airs with me?' (William Heyliger, American Boy, Sept., 1927, p. 34). 'You can't come it with me.' In colloquial speech sure thing is often used as an intensive form of colloquial sure (literary surely): 'Now that you boys know what the expedition is going to face are you still anxious to go along?' -Sure thing' (Victor Appleton, Don Sturdy in Lion Land, Ch. IV). Also to indicate time, where in more careful language we find a preposition: What (or at what) time do you go?' Also to indicate place in certain set expressions, but rarely with a single unmodified noun: 'He struck me on the head, but 'He smote them hip and thigh.' 'Bind them hand and foot!' In the concrete language of popular speech the adverbial accusative of a modified noun is often used instead of an adverb: 'I looked every place (instead of literary everywhere) for it.' 'What place (instead of literary where) would we run? (Synge, The Well of the Saints, Act.III). Compare 27 2 b for the use of the relative pronoun that as an adverbial accusative. In many distributive expressions, the noun following a is now construed as an adverbial accusative of extent, but the a, though now felt as an indefinite article, is in fact the reduced form of the preposition on: 'I visit him twice a year.' 'A robin frequently raises two broods a season.' This construction was originally con fined to expressions of time, as in these examples, but it now has much wider boundaries: 'His terms are a penny a line.' 'She asks five dollars a lesson.' 'I paid six dollars a pair for my shoes.' The definite article is sometimes used here instead of the indefinite: 'She sold her corn at ten shillings the bushel' (Winthrop, Journal, Apr. 27, 1631). 'Wheat was at twenty shillings the quarter' (Macaulay, History, I, Ch. III). Five cents the copy' (The Saturday Evening Post, Aug. 8, 1925). 'How much is salmon the can now?' (Zona Gale, Miss Lulu Bett, Ch. I). We now feel can in the last example as an accusative of extent; but perhaps, originally, it was a nominative, an appositive to salmon. Most of these expressions, except those indicating time, may have originated in this way.

b. 'This' and 'That' Used Adverbially.

In the fifteenth century the principle of employing the accusative of indefinite pronouns adverbially to indicate extent or degree was extended to the definite pronouns this and that: This (or that or thus or so) much I hold to be true.' This usage is best established in the case of this much' and 'that much,' but in colloquial language it has spread much farther: 'I've never been this sick before.' 'He didn't get home until after one o'clock, and his mother told him if he ever came home that late again she would punish him severely.' On account of the accuracy of expression here adverbial this and that are sometimes employed in the literary language, in spite of the protests of grammarians: ""Oh, Mimo! how could you let him sit on the grass!" Zara exclaimed reproachfully, when he got this far' (Elinor Glyn, The Reason Why, Ch. XV). I didn't think he was that young' (Jack London, Martin Eden, I, Ch. II). Also used like so, pointing to a following clause of result: 'I'm that hungry, I could eat a dog' (Hall Caine, The Woman Thou Gavest Me, Ch. IV). Quite commonly in popular speech: 'I was just that pleased I set down an' bust out cryin" (Alice Hegan Rice,

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, Ch. VII). The demonstrative that is thus often used adverbially, but the demonstrative such, which has a somewhat similar meaning, always remains an adjective, although often classed as an adverb. That it is an attributive adjective when it stands before a descriptive adjective is shown by the fact that it can never be used when there is no noun after the descriptive adjective, i.e. when the descriptive adjective is used predicatively: 'such severe weather,' but not "The weather is such severe.'

c. Adverbial Use of 'The.'

The old neuter instrumental case of the determinative and demonstrative that still survives in the form of the in two common constructions:

(1) In clauses of degree expressing proportionate agreement: 'This stone gets the harder the longer it is exposed to the weather.'

(2) As a determinative adverb of cause standing before a comparative, indicating cause, however, in only a formal way, pointing forward to a following clause or phrase of cause which contains the real cause: 'His unkindness hurt me all the more because I had been previously so kind to him' (or because of my previous kindness to him). 'The indications of inward disturbance moved Archer the more that he too felt that the Mingotts (name) had gone a little too far' (Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, Ch. V). 'I think a little the worse of him on this account.' 'She clung the more fiercely to her father for having lost her lover.' The cause is often not thus formally expressed in a clause or phrase of cause but implied in some thing that has preceded: 'Sir Arthur looked sternly at her. Her head only dropped the lower.' 'If she were silent there was one listener the more.'
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2. COMPARISON OF ADVERBS