An ADVERB is a word used to modify the sense of a _verb_, a_participle_,
an _adjective_, or another _adverb_.
Recollect, an adverb never qualifies a _noun_. It qualifies any of the
four parts of speech abovenamed, and none others.
To _modify_ or _qualify_, you know, means to produce some _change_. The
adverb modifies. If I say, Wirt's style _excels_ Irving's, the
proposition is affirmative, and the verb _excels_ expresses the
affirmation. But when I say, Wirt's style _excels not_ Irving's, the
assertion is changed to a negative. What is it that thus modifies or
changes the meaning of the verb _excels_? You perceive that it is the
little word _not_. This word has power to reverse the meaning of the
sentence. _Not_, then, is a modifier, qualifier, or negative adverb.
When an adverb is used to modify the sense of a verb or participle, it
generally expresses the manner, time, or place, in which the action is
performed, or some accidental circumstance respecting it. In the
phrases, The man rides _gracefully, awkwardly_, _badly, swiftly,
slowly_, &c.; or, I saw the man riding _swiftly, slowly, leisurely, very
fast_, &c., you perceive that the words _gracefully, awkwardly, very
fast_, &c., are adverbs, qualifying the verb _rides_, or the participle
_riding_, because they express the _manner_ in which the action denoted
by the verb and participle, is done.
In the phrases, The man rides _daily, weekly, seldom, frequently, often,
sometimes, never_; or, The man rode _yesterday, heretofore, long since,
long ago, recently, lately, just now_ or, The man will ride _soon,
presently, directly, immediately, by and by, to-day, hereafter_, you
perceive that all these words in _italics_, are adverbs, qualifying the
meaning of the verb, rides, because they express the _time_ of the
action denoted by the verb.
Again, if I say, The man lives _here, near by, yonder, remote, far off,
somewhere, nowhere, everywhere_, &c., the words in _italics_ are adverbs
of _place_, because they tell where he lives.
Adverbs likewise qualify adjectives, and sometimes other adverbs; as,
_more_ wise, _most_ wise; or _more wisely, most wisely_. When an adverb
is joined to an adjective or adverb, it generally expresses _the degree_
of comparison; for adverbs, like adjectives, have degrees of comparison.
Thus, in the phrase, A skilful artist, you know the adjective _skilful_
is in the positive degree; but, by placing the adverb _more_ before the
adjective, we increase the degree of quality denoted by the adjective to
the comparative; as, A _more_ skilful artist: and _most_ renders it
superlative; as, A _most_ skilful artist. And if we place more and most
before other adverbs, the effect is the same; as, skilfully, _more_
skilfully, _most_ skilfully.