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An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, noun phrase, clause, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering questions such as ''how?'', ''in what way?'', ''when?'', ''where?'', and ''to what extent?''. This function is called the adverbial function, and may be realised by single words (adverbs) or by multi-word expressions (adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses). Adverbs are traditionally regarded as one of the parts of speech. However, modern linguists note that it has come to be used as a kind of "catch-all" category, used to classify words with various different types of syntactic behavior, not necessarily having much in common except that they do not fit into any of the other available categories (noun, adjective, preposition, etc.) ==Functions== The English word ''adverb'' derives (through French) from Latin ''adverbium'', from ''ad-'' ("to"), ''verbum'' ("word", "verb"), and the nominal suffix ''-ium''. The term implies that the principal function of adverbs is to act as modifiers of verbs or verb phrases.〔Rodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 122ff.〕 An adverb used in this way may provide information about the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty, or other circumstances of the activity denoted by the verb or verb phrase. Some examples: *She sang loudly (''loudly'' modifies the verb ''sang'', indicating the manner of singing) *We left it here (''here'' modifies the verb phrase ''left it'', indicating place) *I worked yesterday (''yesterday'' modifies the verb ''worked'', indicating time) *You often make mistakes (''often'' modifies the verb phrase ''make mistakes'', indicating frequency) *He undoubtedly did it (''undoubtedly'' modifies the verb phrase ''did it'', indicating certainty) Adverbs can also be used as modifiers of adjectives, and of other adverbs, often to indicate degree. Examples: * You are quite right (the adverb ''quite'' modifies the adjective ''right'') * She sang very loudly (the adverb ''very'' modifies another adverb – ''loudly'') They can also modify noun phrases, prepositional phrases,〔 or whole clauses or sentences, as in the following examples: * I bought only the fruit (''only'' modifies the noun phrase ''the fruit'') * She drove us almost to the station (''almost'' modifies the prepositional phrase ''to the station'') * Certainly we need to act (''certainly'' modifies the sentence as a whole) Adverbs are thus seen to perform a wide range of modifying functions. The major exception is the function of modifier of nouns, which is performed instead by adjectives (compare ''she sang loudly'' with ''her loud singing disturbed me''; here the verb ''sang'' is modified by the adverb ''loudly'', whereas the noun ''singing'' is modified by the adjective ''loud''). However, as seen above, adverbs may modify noun ''phrases'', and so the two functions may sometimes be superficially very similar: *Even camels need to drink *Even numbers are divisible by two The word ''even'' in the first sentence is an adverb, since it is an "external" modifier, modifying ''camels'' as a noun phrase (compare ''even these camels ...''), whereas the word ''even'' in the second sentence is an adjective, since it is an "internal" modifier, modifying ''numbers'' as a noun (compare ''these even numbers ...''). It is nonetheless possible for certain adverbs to modify a noun; in English the adverb follows the noun in such cases,〔 as in: *The people here are friendly *The show features dances galore *There is a shortage internationally of protein for animal feeds Adverbs can sometimes be used as predicative expressions; in English this applies especially to adverbs of location: *Your seat is there. When the function of an adverb is performed by an expression consisting of more than one word, it is called an adverbial phrase or adverbial clause, or simply an adverbial. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「adverb」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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