Adverbs are the ‘mixed bag’ among the word classes, today comprising such diverse items as time, space or manner adverbs (PDE now, here, quickly), intensifiers (PDE very, terribly) or stance (PDE surely, frankly) and linking adverbs (PDE however, therefore). After a rough sketch of the formal developments in adverbs, in particular the emergence and establishment of the adverbial suffix –ly by re-analysis, this chapter will show that the functional heterogeneity within today’s English adverbs is a rather recent development. Overall, we see semantic and functional diversification in the category ‘adverb’, gradually becoming more varied in signalling epistemic, evidential and textual speaker attitudes. This diversification is here seen to have been supported by the new distinct mark of adverbial status, the adverbial suffix –ly.

This chapter discusses null-subject clauses, those that do not have the subject in the nominative case. Viewing Slavic languages in their totality, there is a range of null subjects from grammatically obligatory to optional (the presence of the subject signifies emphasis or juxtaposition) to pragmatically motivated. If we view the pro-drop feature as a continuum, as suggested by Pešková, from pro-drop in West Slavic and South Slavic to partially pro-drop in East Slavic (more so in Ukrainian, less so in Russian), then we could correlate a construction of the type (i) Uk. Hru-ACC zakinčeno-ppl ‘Game over (finished)’ with the pro-drop languages, and a construction of the type (d) Rus.-Uk. Udarilo-pastNEU gromom-INSTR ‘Hit by lightning (thunder)’ with partially pro-drop languages. In addition, Russian has a propensity to form infinitive constructions that are absent in other languages.

This chapter gives an overview of the grammatical features of Chinese adjectives and how to use them, specifically the way they can be used as the main predicate in a sentence. The forms and functions of the reduplication of adjectives are also discussed.

This chapter introduces the two types of modification in a sentence: attributive and adverbial. Attributive modification generally assigns properties to nouns, and adverbial modification generally assigns properties to predicates. Special attention is paid to the uses of the marker 的 de for attributive modifications and the marker 地 de for adverbial modifications.