The use of verbal adverbs and other verbal adverbials in formal versus informal and written versus spoken Bulgarian
The use of verbal adverbs and other verbal adverbials in formal versus informal and written versus spoken Bulgarian

Summary/Abstract: The Bulgarian verbal adverb in -ejki/-ajki is a relatively peripheral component in the contemporary language. It is a dialectal form that was intentionally introduced into the literary language, and is regarded by many to be an artificial, bookish construction. The current study uses corpus analysis of a number of data bases to investigate the contemporary use of Bulgarian verbal adverbs in various types of communicative settings. Data from colloquial conversations, formal speeches, chatroom transcripts, literary fiction, journalism and scholarly prose are analyzed and compared. Competition from participles, i.e. the extent to which speakers and writers are using historically adjectival participles in an adverbial function, is also addressed. This is relevant because participles in an adverbial function, like the -ejkif -ajki verbal adverbs, can be viewed as syntactic reductions of adverbial clauses which answer the questions “when?”, “why?”, “how?” and “despite what?”. The study shows and discusses how register of communication (informal versus formal language use) appears to be the most important factor in the frequency of use of -ejkif-ajki verbal adverbs, while bringing the adverbially used participles into the analysis highlights mode of communication (oral versus written use) as an important factor.

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