On 05-02-18 10:19, fortuna11111 wrote:
> I found your post most useful. Can you give me a reference on all
> this? I would like to read it in detail. Thanks.
If you want a guide to modern usage, any good reference book on English
grammar will do, e.g. Rodney Huddleston & Geoffrey K. Pullum, 2002, _The
Cambridge Grammar of the English Language_ (CUP), with a whole chapter
entitled "Adjectives and Adverbs". The history of English adverbs is
discussed in such popular handbooks as Celia Milward's _Biography of the
English Language_ or Barbara Strang's _A History of English_. The whole
story is also summarised in the Oxford English Dictionary under "-ly"
(two entries, each with a lengthy article, are devoted to the suffix).
The formation of Old English adverbs is described in detail, in a
separate small chapter, in Alistair Campbell's _Old English Grammar_
(which may be more difficult to get hold of).
Piotr