The position and FSP role of -ly adverbials in small distributional fields
The position and FSP role of -ly adverbials in small distributional fields

Summary/Abstract: In the theory of FSP, context-independent adverbials are usually interpreted as constituting either the setting or specification, with the line between the two sometimes difficult to draw. Adverbials in -ly have been shown to be nearly always context-independent, functioning as a specification and generally being more dynamic than the verb. At the same time, the CD of these adverbials is thought to be higher when they are placed after the verb than when they precede it. The present research explores sentence structures such as she smiled coldly, where the adverbial is the only complement of the verb in addition to a non-rhematic subject. Examples of these structures retrieved from the BNC show that the SVA sequence is considerably more frequent than SAV (she coldly smiled), while the proportion of the two variants is more balanced when there are other postverbal complements in addition to the adverbial, as in she coldly analysed his features/she analysed his features coldly. This paper aims to show that among the SVA structures in question, there are instances where the verb is actually more dynamic than the context-independent adverbial, and where linear modification is weakened as an indicator of FSP. These conclusions seem to be supported, among other clues, by translation into Czech.

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