As controvérsias acerca do estatuto categorial dos advérbios

Abstract

Adverbs are a subject of constant debate in the literature, with authors who have studied the topic differing in their views on how to define this class of words. In the literature, adverbs are often considered a subclass of other categories, such as prepositions (LEMLE, 1984; EMONDS, 1976; LEE, 1999), pronouns (BOMFIM, 1988), or adjectives (BAKER, 2003; BASÍLIO, 2007; LOBATO, 2008), for example. However, arguing that adverbs exhibit a unique morphosyntactic behavior that sets them apart from other categories, some authors (JACKENDOFF, 1977; PAYNE et. al., 2010) propose that these elements constitute a distinct and independent categorical class. In this controversial context, this article reviews and organizes the literature on the categorical status of adverbs. It aims to revive debates surrounding this complex grammatical class and shed light on the problem of their linguistic classification, since this class poses a major challenge to linguistic theories, and there is still no consensus on its categorical status.