well

ssean · Post by **ssean** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 11:12 pm

Well can be used as an adjective or as an adverb
'I am well today' seems to me to be following the pattern of an adjective, whereas 'He ran very well' would be using well as an adverb to describe how he ran. There must be any number of words that serve dual functions

thethinker · Post by **thethinker** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 11:25 am

Yes there are lots of words that serve dual functions, but I've never seen them replicated as frequently in other languages as "well" is. I also can't think of another example in English where the adjective form persists alongside the adjectival use of the adverb form.

Metamorfose · Post by **Metamorfose** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 2:44 am

I guess the Portuguese word bem has this dual function as frequent as the English well.

Ele está bem. (He is fine or he is well in a literal translation.)

Ela fez isso bem. (She did or has done it well.)

But one might argue that the adjective in Portuguese concord with the noun (characteristic and typical for Romance languages), whether it be masculine, feminine gender or singular/plural, the word bem doesn't change, but the verbs ser and estar (be) are link verbs, What do you say?

José

thethinker · Post by **thethinker** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 9:20 am

But one might argue that the adjective in Portuguese concord with the noun (characteristic and typical for Romance languages), whether it be masculine, feminine gender or singular/plural, the word bem doesn't change, but the verbs ser and estar (be) are link verbs, What do you say?

What about other adjectives used with "be"? In Greek and Italian, for example, if you were talking about somebody being "good", as in a good person, then the adjectives "bouno" and "kalos" do change for gender and number with "be" (this is also the case for other adjectives used with "be"). These words are from the same root as the "well" adverbs/adjectives "bene" and "kala". As I said before, it seems particularly strange in heavily inflected languages that adverb forms, which don't decline, are used instead of adjective forms.

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 4:30 pm

In Arabic, which is a Semitic language, we have two separate words for 'good' and 'well': 'jarid' and 'qwais'.

Now note that as in English, the two words are not related. 'Well' is not the adverb from 'good'; it is a separate word that has come to take over that function.

And what about German? As far as I know German doesn't have this function.

Let's look at the latinate pair 'bueno/bien' to use Spanish which I am conversant with.

Note that in Spanish we use 'bien' with 'estar' and 'bueno' with 'ser'. That is to say we use 'bien' when we are talking about states susceptible to change, and I believe that here is where the distinction we are looking for resides.

Certainly there does seem to be a fairly consistent semantic space across languages that is filled by 'well', 'bien' and 'qwais' but that is not uncommon. There is also a semantic space filled by 'big', 'man' and a lot of other words

The fact that 'well' doubles up as an adjective and adverb is not at all unusual - we see this with other common adverb/adjectives such as 'late'. 'early'', 'near' or 'loud'.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 5:56 pm

Note that in Spanish we use 'bien' with 'estar' and 'bueno' with 'ser'. That is to say we use 'bien' when we are talking about states susceptible to change, and I believe that here is where the distinction we are looking for resides.

Except you can say Tu hermano/a está bueno/a to mean your sister/brother is extremely attractive....

As I've said before, none of the words mentioned are regular adverbs so it doesn't surprise me that they shouldn't behave the same as furiously/furiosamente etc...

thethinker · Post by **thethinker** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:20 pm

In Arabic, which is a Semitic language, we have two separate words for 'good' and 'well': 'jarid' and 'qwais'.

Do you mean "well" as an adjective (i.e. fine, healthy) or adverb? If it's the adjective, then what's the adverbial form of "good" (if there is one)?

Now note that as in English, the two words are not related. 'Well' is not the adverb from 'good'; it is a separate word that has come to take over that function.

This depends on what you mean by related. Etymologically they aren't related, but semantically they certainly are. Would you say that the words "be" and "am" are unrelated? Only in one sense. Anyway, I'm not sure that etymology is really relevant, particularly if, as I understand it, "well" was established as the adverb form of "good" before it started to be used as an adjective meaning "healthy, fine". If there is some process that produces the phenomenon, this would presumably be unaffected by etymology.

And what about German? As far as I know German doesn't have this function.

But adverbs aren't marked at all in German - the adjective forms are just used.

The fact that 'well' doubles up as an adjective and adverb is not at all unusual - we see this with other common adverb/adjectives such as 'late'. 'early'', 'near' or 'loud'.

One of the things that puzzles me is that yes, we do have words like "late", "early" etc., but in these cases their adjectival and adverbial meanings are the same. But with "well" as an adjective we have a much more specific (and I would say slightly different) meaning than the adverb form. Why is it the word "well" that has come to be used as an adjective? Why don't we say "I am healthily" (in English or in any other language)?

It's funny - I really can't believe this hasn't been researched at some time or another, but I can't find anything.