SEMANTIC ROLES OF ADVERBIALS IN THE TV SERIES “FRIENDS”

Teodora Popescu

1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Romania

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to offer an insight into the semantic roles of adverbials. The approach is mainly construed around the theory of adverb semantics propounded by Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik (1985) – grammatical functions and the realisation of semantic roles. The theoretical approach is complemented by a practical analysis of adverbial phrases occurring in social interactions (as well as script-based stage directions) from the TV series “Friends”. The main method used is corpus analysis; in addition, a semi-automated identification of adverbs was performed using both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The tools used were ConcApp software, as well as electronic dictionaries and lexical databases. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of -ly adverbials in the script was carried out to establish certain patterns of adverb occurrence in social interaction. The results reveal a large proportion of subjuncts, in particular emphasisers, intensifier subjuncts and downtoners (approximator) (in Greenbaum et al.’s taxonomy), or, in other taxonomies, speaker-oriented (Jackendoff 1972) / sentence adverbs (Swan 1988) / stance adverbs – attitude and epistemic (Biber et al. 1999). A second important finding is that the –ly adverbs used in this sitcom display high polysemy, including some novel semantic uses peculiar to present-day US English.

Keywords: Adjunct; Subjunct; Disjunct; Conjunct; Adverbials in social interaction; US sitcoms.

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How to cite this article: Popescu, T. (2021). Semantic roles of adverbials in the TV series “Friends”. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 14(1), 113-143. doi: https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2021.14.1.7

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