The adverb (traditionally) modifies the verb but it also has the
function of modifiers of other PoS, e.g. adjectives molto magro,
molto presto.
It has morphological features not very common to other PoS.
Morphological features:
The following classes can be individuated:
- simple: bene, male;
- compound: infatti (in+fatti), perfino (per+fine);
- derived, -mente: fortemente, grandemente.
Syntactic features:
- They can be subdivided into two classes:
1) Predicatives adverbs: they are internal to the predicate, i.e. modify
syntactically the verb and can be semantically subdivided into the
following classes:
| pos=adv | |||
| D e s c r i p t i o n | E x a m p l e s | ||
| time | domani/adv , poi/adv | ||
| place | vicino/adv , lontano/adv | ||
| manner | fortemente/adv , grandemente/adv | ||
| negation | non/adv | ||
| quantity | molto/adv , poco/adv | ||
2) Phrasal adverbs: they are external to the predicate, i.e. the are
connectives between sentences (very similar to conjunctions).
| pos=adv | |||
| D e s c r i p t i o n | E x a m p l e s | ||
| modals | certamente/adv | ||
| evaluatives | ovviamente/adv | ||
| enunciatives | francamente/adv | ||
- Syntactically the adverb does not govern a complement: * Sono
felicemente di questa cosa.
``Position criteria":
- Its preferred collocation is after the verb, lo vedro'
certamente, and before the adjective e' certamente bello.
- Phrasal and predicative adverbs can also be found before the whole sentence, probabilmente andremo al cinema, domani mi alzero' alle sette.
- The
position in the middle of the compound verb is also admitted: aveva
distrattamente riposto l'abito.