Descriptive and Theoretical Investigations into the Properties and Licensing of English Adverbs

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In this research, basing on the critical examination of the previous studies especially within the framework of generative grammar, we made theoretical and descriptive examination of what meanings English adverbs can express and what functions they can bear in particular sentences. This research has made clear the following points :Almost all of English adverbs are ambiguous, but the ambiguity can be dissolved in particular sentences, where their meanings and functions are specifically determined.The positions and structures that English adverbs occupy in particular sentences are important for detenruning their meanings and functions.First of all, the positions and structures that adverbs occur can determine which function the adverb bear in the sentence : sentence adverb (including conjunctive adverb), subject-predicate adverb, subject adverb or predicate adverb.The determination of meanings and functions of English adverbs can be made by means of not only the above mentioned positions and structures that adverbs occur but also lexical properties of adverbs (I.e., the range of the meanings and functions that adverbs can bear).The lexical properties of /y-adverbs can usually be predicted by their stem adjectives, but the properties of some /y-adverbs cannot ; then, the lexical properties that cannot be predicted must be specified as lexical idiosyncrasies.The properties of adverbial prepositional phrases cannot be specified in dictionaries because they are quite productive, just like /y-adverbs, but they must be determined from the properties of prepositions and nouns.The determination of the meanings and functions of English adverbs, especially subject adverbs and verb phrase adverbs, will need some kind of checking mechanism, because there can be close associations between adverbs and neighboring elements in sentences.