On “lightly” and “playfully” and other such manners

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Abstract

A lot of research has been done on adjectives, their meaning, their behaviour in modification and their gradability (e.g. Kennedy & McNally, 2005; Sassoon, 2012). Research on adverbs is comparatively sparse (though see e.g. Jackendoff, 1972; Geuder, 2000; Piñón, 2007). In this paper, I will present some data from work in progress that call for a fine-grained analysis of adverbs and their behaviour during modification. I will draw a connection to Sassoon’s 2012 typology of multidimensional adjectives (e.g. sick, healthy) and formulate a couple of linguistic tests to show that the distinction multidimensional vs onedimensional can be extended to adverbs. For example, while to hit someone playfully gets a reading similar to that of to hit someone lightly, this reading can be cancelled in the case of playfully, but not in the case of lightly. The paper will finish with the formulation of several precise research questions, designed to find a way to formalise these findings in a model of modification.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2014
EventTiN Dag 2014 - Utrecht, Netherlands
Duration: 1 Feb 20141 Feb 2014

Conference

ConferenceTiN Dag 2014
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityUtrecht
Period1/02/141/02/14

Keywords

  • semantics
  • adverbs
  • modification

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