Semantic features and the distribution of adverbs
Thomas Ernst · 2003
This paper proposes that we can predict which adverbs cannot adjoin to the right in headinitial languages by means of a particular semantic property, that of being a "subjective" adverb, one which maps an event or proposition onto a scale with the high degree of indeterrninacy and context-dependence.Such adverbs, such as probably or luckily, cannot adjoin to the right with non-manner readings, while other adverbs (hke politically, often, or deliberately) may.This supports the view that the distribution of adverbs depends heavily, and subtly, on their lexicosemantic properties.