What is an adverb?

Previously, we've seen how adjectives modify describe or add qualities to nouns.
Adverbs are similar, in that, they are used to qualify everything else!

In the tree on the hill, the phrase on the hill belongs to the tree; it identifies which tree we are talking about. This is an adjectival phrase. Whereas, rapidly belongs to the verb; it describes the manner of the action. This is an Adverb.

An adverb is a word used to qualify:

• a verb:      She swims quickly,
• an adjective:    She is very quick,
• another adverb:  She swims extremely quickly,
• or a clause:    Thankfully, she won.

Let's take a quick look at each of these...

Adverbs Modifying Adjectives

When modifying an adjective, an adverb clarifies the extent of or intensifies the adjective. If we look at an example:

a black bird sang

Here, black is an adjective describing or adding the quality black to the noun: bird.

a big black bird sang

The term big also qualifies the bird. It too is an adjective; the big bird.

a very big black bird sang

Notice the term very, unlike the adjectives, does not modify the bird; the very bird makes no sense. Instead, it modifies the adjective big, telling us the bird is very big.

Adverbs Modifying Adverbs

Likewise, when adverbs modify other adverbs, they clarify the extent or intensity of the following adverb.

the black bird sang rather too loudly

Adverbs Modifying Verbs

This is where adverbs flourish. When qualifying a verb, an adverb describes how, when, where, why, how often, or to what degree the action is performed.
They are often classified as follows:

answers the question:			example:
Adverbs of Manner	How?		I looked carefully
Adverbs of Time	When?		I looked yesterday
Adverbs of Place:	Where?		I looked everywhere
Adverbs of Frequency	How often?		I looked everyday
Adverbs of Degree	How much?		You've hardly looked

Adverbial Phrases & Clauses

The above examples are somewhat misleading. They might give the impression that adverbs are a class of words. However, it's better to think of them in terms of the job that they are doing; their function, which is modification.
I say this because, adverbs don't have to be single words. In which case, they are often called adverbials:

	Adverbial	Adjectival
word:	The girl sat there,	That girl there sat
phrase:	The girl sat on the hill,	The girl on the hill sat
clause:	The girl sat where she always sits.	The hill where the girl sat was big

These examples,show that pronouns, prepositional phrases and even relative clauses can be used either as adjectives, or as adverbials. This can make the adverb quite hard to pin down and still leads to arguments among grammarians. The key is to understand that adjectives describe nouns, while adverbials describe actions and occassionally whole sentences.

Adverbs in Pāli

Adverbs form a large class of words in Pali. Some grammarians notably Perniola pg.129 divide them by their use:

• adverbs of time: yadā when ajja today ratto by night sāyaṃ in the evening;
• adverbs of place: tatra there adho below idha here tiraṃ across;
• adverbs of manner: sukhaṃ happily evaṃ thus tuṇhī silently;
• adverbs of quantity, degree and extent: yāva how much mattaso moderately antamaso even;

But traditionally they tend to be classified by how they are formed.

1. Indeclinable:
• Pure adverbs, particles, they number about two hundred eg.

kira truly kva where? hi certainly khalu surely tu however;

• Derived adverbs formed by suffixes added mainly to pronouns but also some nouns & adjectives.
• of place: -to -tra -tha -dha -dhi
• of time: -dā, -dāni, -rahi
• of manner: -thā, -vā, -vaṃ, -ti

E.g.	Relative (ya) adverb	Correlative (ta) adverb
time	yadā when	tadā then
place	yattha (yatra) where	tattha / tatra there
circumstance	yato from which when	tato from that then
manner	yathā how… like which…	tathā thus like that,
quantity	yāva how much	tāva that much
type	yādisa like which	tādisa like such

These can be easily looked up. Their formation being of little interest to us. More intresting are the

2. Declinable:
• Case formed, from the oblique cases of nouns, pronouns and adjectives - especially pronouns. For instance:

Accusative	of Time	ciraṃ dīghaṃ addhānaṃ a long stretch of time
	of Space	yojanaṃ for a league
	of Manner	sādhukaṃ manasikarohi, thoroughly pay attention’
Instrumental	of Time	ekāhena pakkamiṃsu they left on the same day
	of Place	yena kāmaṃ pakkamati he goes wherever he desires
	of Manner	kicchena me adhigataṃ acquired by me with difficulty
Locative	of Time	tāyaṃ velāyaṃ at that time...
	of Place	loke uppajjati he is born in the world

All the cases with the exception of the nominative, vocative and genitive are adverbial in nature, in that they tend to qualify verbs more than other nouns. The foremost being the accusative case, the instrumental and the locative.

1 Indeclinable adverbs

Like adjectives, a modifying adverb generally precedes the thing it modifies be it a verb, an adjective or another adverb.

The indeclinable adverb can be placed:

• at the beginning of the clause, when qualifying the whole clause;
• before the verbs they qualify most common;
• after the verb, when they qualify the whole clause and to add emphasis;

Let's look at some examples:

evaṃ	me	sutaṃ
adv	ins	nom
		n
	sgl	sgl
	pn-1st	pp
like this	by me	(it)  heard
Like this, it (was) heard by me
Thus, have I heard

ahaṃ	kho	etarahi	rūpena	khajjāmi
nom		adv	ins	pres, act
			n
sgl			sgl	sgl
1st				1st
I	indeed	at this time	form	is eaten, consumed.
Indeed, I (am) currently consumed by form

sāvatthiyā	niyyāti	divādivassa
abl	pres, act	adv
f
sgl	sgl
	3rd pers
(from) sāvatthi	(he) leaves	(in) the middle of the day
(in) the noon, He leaves Sāvatthi

2 Case formed Adverbials

As I have attempted to make clear with my explanation above, as well as discrete words, both phrases and clauses can play the role of an adverbial. This means some prepositional phrases are actually adverbial phrases... And some relative clauses are adverbial clauses...

So, noun case plays an important role in adverbial use.

Adverbial accusatives can be placed:

• at the start of the clause, when they qualify the whole clause, or
• before their modified verb.

ekaṃ	samayaṃ	bhagavā	kurūsu	viharati
acc	acc	nom	loc	pres,act
m	m	m	m
sgl	sgl	sgl	pl	sgl
				3rd
one	occasion	blessed one	Kuru	(he) abides
(on) one occasion, the Blessed One abides among the Kurus

This is called the historic present, which is a very common construction in Pali. The adverbial accusative or instrumental heads the clause, acting as an adverb of time. This casts the whole passage into the past. Whereas the verbs are all present tense, thus, recounting past events as though actually happening in the present.

When adjectives are in accusative case, they often work as adverbials. Whereas, nouns generally take instrumental case.

ete-tayo	purisā	mahantaṃ	siriṃ	sīghaṃ	pāpuṇiṃsu
nom	nom	acc	acc	(acc)	aor
m	m	f	f
pl	pl	sgl	sgl		pl
					3rd
these three	men	great	splendour	swiftly	attained
these three men swiftly attained great splendour

suññatāvihārena	etarahi	bahulaṃ	viharāmi
ins	adv	acc	pres, act
m		n
sgl		sgl	sgl
			1st
dwelling in emptiness	now	frequently	(I) abide
I abide, frequently now, by dwelling in emptiness

 

dīghaṃ	assasāmi	passasāmi
(acc)	pres, act	pres, act
	sgl	sgl
	1st	1st
long	I inhale	I exhale
I inhale & exhale deeply

The acc. neuter sgl. pronouns (interrogative, relative and demonstrative) are widely used adverbially.

yaṃ	sukho	bhavaṃ	taṃ	sukhā	mayaṃ
acc	nom	nom	acc	nom	nom
n	m	m	n	m
sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl	pl	pl
					pn-1st
because, when	happy	Sir	therefore, then	happy	we
when Sir (is) happy, then we (are) happy
We are happy, when Sir is happy

Like the accusative, the instrumental adverbial phrase, can come at the head or before its qualified verb; but may also follow the finite verb.

And it should be noted, Adverbs of time have two usual positions: they may come first in the sentence or they may follow the subject of the sentence.

tena	samayena	buddho	bhagavā	sakkesu	viharati
ins	ins	nom	nom	loc	pres, act
m	m	m	m	m
sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl	pl	sgl
pn-dem					3rd
that	occasion	Buddha	blessed	Sākyans	(he) abides
(on) that occasion, the blessed Buddha abides among the Sākyans

ahaṃ	tena samayena	rājā	mahāsudassano	ahosiṃ
nom	instr	nom	nom	aor
		m	m
sgl		sgl	sgl	sgl
1st				1st
pn-1st	idiom
I	(on) that occasion	the king	Mahāsudassana (a king of Kusāvati)	(I) was
(on) that occasion, I was the king Mahāsudassana

An example of the locative

nivāsayitvā	pubbaṇhe	piṇḍāya	maṃ	upāgami
	loc	dat	acc	aor
	m	m
	sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl
absol			pn-1st	3rd
(having) dressed	(in) early morn	(for) alms	me	(he) approached
having dressed early, he approached me for alms

Well, I hope this has helped clarify the use of adverbs. In the next post I'll try to summarise what we have covered so far in a quick reference guide for dissecting Pali clauses