A pronominal adverb is a type of
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
occurring in a number of
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, E ...
, formed in replacement of a
preposition and a
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not c ...
by turning the former into a
prepositional adverb and the latter into a
locative adverb, and finally joining them in reverse order.
For example:
* For that → therefor (not therefore)
* In that → therein
* By this → hereby
* To this → hereto
* In which → wherein
Usage in English
In
English, pronominal adverbs are most commonly encountered in literary registers or in
legal usage. They are used frequently by
lawyers and
drafters of legal documents primarily as a way of avoiding the repetition of names of things in the document (or sometimes as a
self-reference to the document itself). For this reason, pronominal adverbs are often seen as a type of legal
jargon
Jargon is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a partic ...
.
Usage in Dutch
In
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
, pronominal adverbs are very common and are almost mandatory in many situations; neglecting to use them often makes a phrase sound unnatural to native speakers. Dutch maintains a three-way distinction of reference in its demonstrative pronouns, with pronouns for things close by and far away, and a third pronoun that is unspecific for distance. This distinction is faithfully reflected in the use of pronominal adverbs, and other pronouns also often have a corresponding adverbial form.
Joop van der Horst
Joop is a Dutch masculine given name, often a short form (hypocorism) of Johannes, Joseph, Jacobus, or other names. It may refer to:
* Jogchum T. Joop Alberda (born 1952), Dutch volleyball coach, coach of the 1996 Olympic champion Dutch team
* Joh ...
(2008) ''Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse syntaxis'', Deel 1: 272-277
References
Adverbs by type
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