ABSTRACT

In Ca t a l an the dis t inct ion between preposit ions (which take complements) and adverbs (which do not) is not a fundamental one; as w i l l become apparent, many c o m m o n items appear in bo th syntactic roles. Tradi t ional ly, adverbs and adverbials qualify verbs, adjectives, predicates and whole clauses or sentences. (The name adverbials is given to phrases, often preposi t ional phrases or n o u n phrases i n terms o f their internal structure, which function in a s imi lar manner to adverbs.) Adverbs which are themselves followed by preposi t ional phrase complements w i l l be treated i n 14.3, as c o m p o u n d preposit ions; those which are followed by que + a finite clause w i l l be discussed i n Chapte r 33, as adverbial clauses. The regular comparatives, etc., o f adverbs are formed i n the same way as those o f adjectives (see Chapter 5).