Adverbs

In the UNL framework, adverbs are classified in four different categories: specifiers, adjuncts, conjuncts and disjuncts.

• Specifier adverbs (such as “not”, “more”, “less”, “very”, “rather”, etc) are adverbs that do not really introduce new information, but only specify the information conveyed by a verb, an adjective or another adverb. They do not constitute properly an open class category and many of them may even be replaced by other closed class categories, such as affixes (not happy = unhappy, write again = rewrite, more happy = happier). In UNL, specifier adverbs are represented by attributes of degree (@not, @more, @less, @plus, @minus, @almost, @again, etc);

Specifier adverbs

Type	English	UNL
Negative	not happy	happy.@not
Comparative	more intelligent	intelligent.@more
Intensifier	very sad	sad.@plus
Downtoner	a little sad	sad.@minus

• Adjunct adverbs (such as “slowly”, “always”, “frequently”, “here”, etc) are adverbs that qualify a verb, an adjective or another adverb by indicating manner, time, place and frequency. They answer questions such as "how", "when", "where" and "how often". They differ from specifier adverbs in the sense they introduce and can be associated to independent concepts. In UNL, adjunct adverbs are always represented as UWs:

Adjunct adverbs

Type	English	UNL
Manner	go fast	man(go, fast)
Time	go now	tim(go, now)
Place	live here	plc(live, here)
Frequency	do usually	man(do, usually)

• Conjuncts (such as "in addition", "in other words", "for instance", etc) are connecting adverbs that add information to the sentence that is not considered part of the propositional content (or at least not essential) but which connects the sentence with previous parts of the discourse. In UNL, conjunct adverbs are to be represented as UWs linked to the whole sentence (to be treated as a hypernode) by the relation man (manner).

Conjuncts

English	UNL
He has no money. In addition, he has no means of getting any	man("he has no means of getting any", "in addition")
The French love music. In other words, music is appreciated in France.	man("music is appreciated in France", "in other words")

• Disjuncts (aka as adverbs of viewpoint or commenting adverbs, such as "fortunately", "in my opinion", etc) express information that is not considered essential to the sentence it appears in, but which is considered to be the speaker's or writer's attitude towards, or descriptive statement of, the propositional content of the sentence. In UNL, disjunct adverbs are to be represented as follows:
  • As attributes, if their meaning can be subsumed by any of the attributes of modality (such as @emphasis, @belief, @conviction, etc); or
  • As UWs, otherwise.

Disjuncts

English	UNL
Fortunately, I have it right here.	man("I have it right here", "fortunately")
In my opinion, the green one is better.	"the green one is better".@opinion