MODIFIERS

Adjectives and adverbs are not conceived of as separate grammatical entities, just a way to conjugate nouns and verbs. There are three types of modifiers, noun-derived, verb-derived, and a third class comprised of irregulars. They inflect into four forms: adjectival, adverbial, conjunctive (for linking chains of modifiers), and plain case (target of the copula). Grammatically speaking, any noun or verb can be made into a modifier, but they are not guaranteed to be meaningful. (Ex: “He walked bookly.”)

Type I modifiers are created from nouns (mostly Class 5 abstract nouns)

Ex:

mood → moody, moodily

circle → circular, circuitously

Type II are created from verbs

Ex:

to be accomplished easily = făsĕl

→ easy – făsĕlīs

→ easily - făsĕlīsīn

Type III is a grab bag of all the leftover (and almost always irregular) modifiers that aren’t derived from nouns or verbs. They don’t have a conjunctive form because they don’t form chains with other modifiers, and have much more flexibility about where they can be placed in a sentence.

( List of nouns and verbs that are often used as modifiers, and a list of Type III irregulars )

Adjectival and adverbial forms modify nouns and verbs, respectively, and are placed in front of the word they affect, although adverbs can also be moved further up in the sentence to change the emphasis, or for artistic effect: “Swiftly she ran” vs. “She ran swiftly,” although keep in mind that this construction would be used in a story, where there is a purpose to the running, but not to tell someone “Oh hey, that chick? Yeah, she runs fast.” For the latter, you would use the adjectival form with the copula.

Example 1:

Verb: to turn/twist/curl = măgŭl

Target of the copula, takes adjectival suffix -īs.

Example 2:

Noun: speed = fai

Target of the copula, takes adjectival suffix -bĕx

Example 3:

Noun: speed = fai

Modifying the verb “run,” takes adverbial suffix -bĕsīn

Both examples are grammatically correct, but the second one sounds incomplete and leaves the listener expecting a punchline, so to speak, a location or a reason for the running.

If an adverb is positioned at the front of the sentence for effect (“Swiftly she ran”) then it is not grammatically correct to include another adverb in the usual place with the verb (“Swiftly she ran gracefully”), thought it is heard fairly often in casual speech when the speaker decides mid-sentence to include another modifier.