Ngwi-Burmese languages tend to exhibit a functionally versatile class of nouns which can be used not only as arguments but also as adjuncts, covering functions typically associated with adverbs. Hence, some prominent areal experts treat most adverbial expressions as nominal, recognising only a handful of residual exceptions as true adverbs. This article aims to complement the picture of adverbiality in this subbranch by offering novel data on Phola, a Ngwi language of Yunnan. It is shown how lexical adverbs of time, place and manner exhibit unique constructional properties, which set them apart from nouns. On the basis of two diagnostic tests revolving around nominal modification and relativisation, it is argued that the precisely those syntactic properties that uniquely characterise time, place and manner expressions in contradistinction to canonical nouns point at their adverbial nature, i.e., at the properties that adverbs typologically tend to exhibit in languages where the distinction is uncontroversial. These findings call for a stronger focus on constructional-distributional criteria informing definitions of wordhood in Ngwi languages.
Manuel David González Pérez (Wed,) studied this question.