Manner is ubiquitous in human life. When we do things, we often do them in a particular way. This way of doing things is reflected in our language. You can drive slowly, think aloud, handle things with care, and act as if you’re a fool. MiMa addresses the question of how ‘manner’ is encoded in the structure of human language. Specifically, it examines the grammar of Manner Adverbials (MA).  MiMa’s first line of research consists in the strict decomposition of MAs into smaller linguistic components. Theoretically, this quest for inner structure aims to show that MAs, even though superficially different, have a uniform underlying structure, viz., an adpositional structure. MiMa’s second line of research focuses on the distributional behavior (word order) of MAs. Theoretically, it aims to show that MA’s inner structure is a key determinant of MA’s outer behavior in the clause. By focusing on a single adverbial class, MiMa reaches empirical scope along two lines. Constructionally: MiMa investigates manner-adverbial constructions that have hitherto been largely ignored. Comparative-linguistically: MiMa undertakes a comparative study at three levels: macro (languages from different language families), meso (languages from a subfamily: Germanic), and micro (Dutch dialects). This layered comparative-linguistic methodology —novel in the study of adverbials— leads to the discovery of coarse- and fine-grained cross-linguistic differences in the grammar of manner. Theoretically, MiMa aims to show that these dimensions of diversity are reducible to the system of functional categories in human language. Overall, MiMa advances our understanding of what is (in)variant in human language.

• prof. dr. Norbert Corver
• L. (Lex) Tavenier MA