ABSTRACT |
The suffix –ly has usually been associated with the adverb
word-class, since the majority of derivational adverbs present this
suffix (Quirk et al. 1985: 438). However, the history of the adverbial
suffix –ly, also known as -ly², reveals the existence of a
homomorphic counterpart, -ly¹, which has been used to form new
adjectives, and whose origin has given rise to the appearance of the
abovementioned adverbial –ly. Apart from the etymological
relation between the adjectival –ly¹ and the adverbial -ly²,
a new relation can be established between them as regards the
word-formation processes involved in the creation of adverbs in -ly.
Thus, in this paper, once the productivity of the adjectival suffix -ly¹
after Middle English is proved, and those pairs of homomorphic words
consisting of an adjective and an adverb in –ly are checked, I
will state that the origin of some apparently derivational adverbs in –ly
is found in -ly¹ rather than in -ly² by means of a process
of conversion with an already existing adjective in -ly¹.
References:
CAMPBELL, A. (1959). Old English Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.
OED
=
The Oxford English Dictionary on CD-ROM (1989). [2nd
ed.]. Ed. by John A. Simpson & Edmund S.C. Weiner. Oxford: O.U.P.
PLAG, I. (1999). Morphological Productivity: Structural Constraints
in English Derivation. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
------------- (2003). Word-Formation in English. Cambridge:
C.U.P.
QUIRK, R., S. GREENBAUM, G. LEECH, AND J. SVARTVIK (1985). A
Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.
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