• Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Afrikaans
Show full table of contents
    Adverbs
    quickinfo

    Adverbializing word formation processes tend not to be very productive because most Dutch adjectives can be used as adverbs without an adverbial morphological marker (e.g. recent recent, recently). New adverbs can systematically be formed by means of a number of suffixes, such as -halve in beroepshalve occupationally or -lijk in recentelijk recently. Dutch does not have prefixes that productively form new adverbs, but new adverbs can develop directly out of words from other classes.

    readmore

    New adverbs can be formed by means of a number of suffixes that are discussed in Adverbial suffixes. Dutch does not have prefixes that productively form new adverbs. New adverbs can, over time, develop directly out of words of other classes, e.g. the accusative form of the noun morgen morning has become a full-fledged adverb morgen tomorrow. univerbation is another important source of adverbs: e.g. desnoods if necessary is originally a genitive noun phrase des noods Det.GEN_MASC need.GEN_MASC (out) of the need. Combinations of modal particles may develop idiosyncratic properties in terms of semantics or distribution, i.e., word-like behavior. Cases in point are the negative polarity itemsook maar also but even and zelfs maar even but even(Rullmann 1997), the modal particle wel eens well once once in a while, sometimes(Zwarts 2002), the degree adverb nogal yet already rather and the focus particle niet eens not once not even; this process may be analyzed as another case of univerbation.

    [hide extra information]
    x

    Although most Dutch adjectives can be used as adverbs without an adverbial morphological marker (e.g. recent recent, recently), this is not always reflected in the descriptive literature: according to Onze Taal , only one of the dictionaries consulted stated explicitly that recent recent, recently can be used adverbially. The same source states that recentelijk recently is also attested in adjectival use (e.g. De recentelijke aanval op de christelijke gemeenschap in Lahore the recent attack on the Christion community in Lahore), but this is judged to be unacceptable. There are a few minimal pairs where the long form in -elijk is supposed to be used adverbially and the short form adjectivally, but not all prescriptive sources agree on the validity of this norm (Haeseryn 1997: 394), whereas corpus data show that many native speakers do not follow it:

    Table 1: adverbs in -elijk and corresponding adjectives
    bepaaldelijk specifically, particularly bepaald particular, specific
    respectievelijk respectively respectief relative
    vagelijk vaguely vaag vague

    References:
    • Haeseryn, Walter, Romijn, Kirsten, Geerts, Guido, Rooij, Jaap de & Toorn, Maarten C. van den1997Algemene Nederlandse spraakkunstGroningenNijhoff
    • Rullmann, Hotze & Hoeksema, Jack1997De distributie van ook maar en zelfs maar: een corpusstudieNederlandse Taalkunde2281-317
    • Zwarts, Frans and Ton van der Wouden and Víctor Sánchez Valencia2002The aspectual significance of event particles Belgian Journal of Linguistics16175-208
    ABOUT THIS TOPIC
    Author(s):
    Ton van der Wouden
    Category:
    Dutch Morphology
    Publication date:
    14 May 2020
    Keywords:
    word formationderivationadverb
    cite
    print
    report error
    Jump to:
    X