5.4.1 Adverbs

Another observation that can be made from the data in (170) is that adverbs may appear behind all verbal elements. There are a number of possible ways to capture this fact. One is to assume that adjunction is free from ordering restrictions. Indeed it does seem that different adjuncts can come on different sides of whatever they modify: the PP modifier, as we shall see, typically follows the verbal complex. Thus, adjunction in general is not restricted to a particular side as are complements and specifiers. Adverbs therefore may simply take advantage of this freedom and be adjoined either to the left or the right of the VP. The alternative would be to have adverbs generated on one side of the VP and then achieve the other position via a movement. Jackendoff (1977), for example, argued for this position on the basis of the similarity between adverbs and adjectives. Recall that in chapter 1 we analysed adverbs and adjectives as belonging to the same general category, so one might expect grammatical principles to apply to both in a similar way. Jackendoff’s observation was that adjectives typically precede the nouns that they modify: