/ instituut voor de Nederlandse taal / Taalportaal
bibliography glossary about
  • Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
    Clause adverbs
    quickinfo

    Clause adverbs can be used in the syntactic frame that is given below, accompanied by an example.

    Syntactic frame: Dit is it is ADVERB dat that CLAUSE.

    Example:

    1
    Gelukkig het ons onthou.
    fortunate have.AUX we remembered
    Fortunately we remembered.
    2
    Dit is gelukkig so dat ons onthou het.
    it is fortunate so that.COMP we remember have.AUX
    It is fortunately so that we remembered.

    Verb phrase (VP) adverbs fail this test, as shown below:

    3
    Ons het betyds onthou.
    we have.AUX remembered in time
    We remembered in time.
    4
    *Dit is betyds so dat ons onthou het.
    it be.PRS in.time so that.COMP we remembered have.AUX
    It is in time so that we remembered.

    Five types of clause adverbs can be semantically distinguished, as below. The syntactic position of the various adverbs when occurring together in a sentence follows a certain pattern, corresponding more or less to the sequence as indicated below:

    1. Modal blykbaar apparently
    2. Subjective gelukkig fortunately
    3. Frequency altyd always
    4. Time gister yesterday
    5. Emphasis werklik really

    readmore

    Modal adverbs

    Modal clause adverbs express modalities such as necessity, possibility, probability, certainty, etc.

    Table 1
    blykbaar apparently
    beslis definitely
    miskien maybe
    dalk possibly
    natuurlik of course, naturally
    waarskynlik probably
    klaarblyklik evidently

    In some cases, there are semantic equivalents belonging to a different syntactic category. Thus, the adjectival adverb klaarblyklik evidently is roughly equivalent to the PPvoor die hand liggend obviously. At the same time, some modal adverbs also function as adjectives, such as beslis definite, natuurlik natural and waarskynlik probable. Here are some examples of adverbial use:

    5
    Miskien gaan dit duur·der kos.
    maybe goes it expensive·CMPR cost
    Maybe it will become more expensive.
    6
    Dit is klaarblyklik baie ingewikkeld.
    it be.PRS evidently very complicated
    It is evidently very complicated.

    Subjective adverbs

    Subjective clause adverbs express the speaker's subjective emotion or evaluation concerning the denotation of the clause, such as hope or happiness. They include the following:

    Table 2
    gelukkig fortunately
    ongelukkig unfortunately
    hopelik hopefully

    While the last example, hopelik hopefully can only operate as a subjective adverb, the first two, which can also be used as adjectives, differ not only syntactically from the adjective counterparts, but also semantically. If used as adjectives or VP adverbs, gelukkig and ongelukkig can also mean happy or happily and unhappy and unhappily, respectively. The threefold applications are illustrated below:

    7
    Hulle het gelukkig net betyds opgedaag.
    they have.AUX fortunately just in.time arrived
    Fortunately, they arrived just in time.
    8
    My jare in die Kaap was baie gelukkig.
    my years in the Cape be.PST very happy
    My years in the Cape were very happy.
    9
    Hulle het lank gelukkig saamgewoon.
    they have.AUX long happily lived.together
    They lived happily together for a long time.

    Frequency adverbs

    Frequency adverbs provide information about the frequency of occurrence of events, and are distinguished from time adverbs, which indicate duration or point of time. Examples of frequency adverbs incluce weekliks weekly and jaarliks annually:

    10
    Die kabinetsvergadering vind weekliks plaas.
    the cabinet.meeting takes weekly place
    The cabinet meeting takes place weekly.
    11
    Die wingerde word jaarliks gesnoei.
    the vineyards be.AUX.PASS.PRS annually prune.PASS
    The vineyards are pruned annually.

    Frequency adverbs are often NPs rather than APs, such as below. This type of frequency expression is built on the quantifier elke every:

    12
    'n Kanonskoot word elke middag om twaalfuur afgeskiet.
    a canon.shot be.AUX.PASS.PRS every midday at twelve.o'clock down.shoot.PASS
    A cannon shot is fired every day at noon.

    In addition, PPs are often used, especially in idiomatic expressions, to express similar content as adverbs, for example

    Table 3
    al om die hawerklap time and again
    met elke nuwemaan with every new moon

    Some more frequency adverbs include the following:

    Table 4
    heeltyd continually, all the time
    dikwels often
    soms, somtyds sometimes
    meestal mostly
    gereeld regularly
    selde rarely
    eenkeer once

    Time adverbs

    Time adverbs provide information about the time at which an event occurred.

    Time adverbs include the following:

    Table 5
    nou now
    toe then
    vandag today
    deesdae today the day > in these days
    môre tomorrow
    gister yesterday
    al already
    vroeër in the past, earlier, previously
    uiteindelik eventually
    oplaas finally
    destyds in the past, formerly
    net just
    laas, onlangs lately, recently
    later later
    sedertdien since
    gou soon
    nog still
    nog yet

    Emphasis

    Adverbs of emphasis add emotional emphasis to the utterance, and include examples such as

    Table 6
    regtig really
    absoluut absolutely
    veral especially
    spesifiek specifically

    As in the case of frequency adverbs, PPs such as in die besonder in particular also occur to provide emphasis to clauses, as in

    13
    Ons verwelkom in die besonder die besoekers uit die buiteland.
    we welcome in the particular the visitors out.of the foreign.country
    We welcome in particular the visitors from abroad.
    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Ernst Kotzé, Adri Breed
      Category: Afrikaans Syntax
      Keywords: syntactic framefive types of clause adverbspositional aspectsmodalitydenotation of the clausefrequency adverbtime adverbadverb of emphasisorder of clause adverbs
      Version: 1.0, May 2020
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Ernst Kotzé, Adri Breed May 2020
      This is a beta version.
      printreport errorcite
      Jump to:
      X