ABSTRACT
Cantonese lacks a systematic means of forming adverbs from adjectives, although one function of reduplicated adjectives is as adverbs. Instead, adverbial modification is expressed by adjectives, in conjunction with adverbial constructions. Predicate adverbs are those which describe the manner of an action, and apply to the verb or verb phrase. Sentence adverbs describe the circumstances of events and states, such as time and probability; they apply to the whole sentence. The most general adverbial construction resembles that in Mandarin, with dak corresponding to Mandarin de. The adverbial construction with dak is most typically used in a generic or habitual sense, which do not refer to any particular occasion. An alternative adverbial construction uses an adjective followed by the adverbial gam 'in this way' before the verb, gam is to be distinguished from gam 'so' with mid level tone.
