earticle

영어

The purpose of this paper is to account for the syntactic distribution of English adverbs, the properties they have and the formal licensing conditions they obey. Specifically, it critically reviews some major analyses of the structural integration and licensing of English adverbs proposed within the theoretical framework of the Minimalist Program and discusses some of their potential problems. The Minimalist proposals assume that the semantic classes of adverbs, their canonical linear order and their scope properties are defined syntactically in relation to the clause structure which is conceived as a unique and universal hierarchy of functional projections with each projection having its own specific semantic interpretation. Adverbs integrate into clause structure as unique specifiers of designated functional projections and thus enter into transparent semantic relations with the head of the functional projection they occur in. As its background, this study also makes a brief survey of major issues in the syntax and semantics of English adverbs in generative grammar in general and of theoretical and empirical problems of the adjunction-based analyses proposed specifically in the GB/PPT theory.