We now have the following categories in our grammatical taxonomy:
To be noted: the classical category of adverbs comprises here the following categories:
Let’s continue to rethink the gruesome (so is it argued here) category of adverbs (in the classical sense). Let’s now turn our attention to the category of ‘adverb modifiers’. Adverbs are understood here in a restricted sense: they are either verb modifiers or proposition modifiers. In this context, we are likely to encounter adverb modifiers. In general, the adverb modifier precedes the adverb. Thus, very (‘très’) is an adverb modifier in the sequence he was eating very rarely (il mangeait très rarement’, manghjava mori raramenti).
Likewise more (‘plus’, più) is in some cases an adverb modifier. This is the case in the sequence he was drinking more frequently (‘il buvait plus fréquemment’, biia più suventi).
Let’s consider again the case of adjective modifiers (in classical grammar, this category of words are considered as degree adverbs). These include the following: peu, très, extrêmement, surtout, étonnamment, à peine, vraiment, assez, bien, trop, tellement, … = pocu, assai, estremamente, sopratuttu, in modu stunante, appena, propriu/propria/proprii/proprie, abbastanza, bellu/bella/belli/belle, troppu/troppa/troppi, troppe, tantu/tanta, tanti/tante, … = not very, very, extremely, especially, surprisingly, hardly, really, enough, all/very, too, so,… We have argued that this category of words are ‘adjective modifiers’, when they precede an adjective. But is such an assertion likely to be proven, or is there some form of evidence available? Grammar, like other disciplines, requires that assertions be justified, and if possible proven. The notion of proof in grammar, however, is uncommon. Let’s see if we can provide such proof or justification?
Consider the case of ‘tellement’ (so much), which we consider to be an adjective modifier when it precedes an adjective. Now, let us consider the following translations, where ‘tellement’ is used:
It is patent here that ‘tellement’ preceding an adjective is translated in Corsican by:
Thus ‘tellement’ (so much, tantu/tanti/tanta/tante), employed in this usage, i.e. preceding an adjective, accords with the adjective to which it refers. This sounds as a justification of its classification as an adjective modifier.
What are adverbs in the present grammatical taxonomy? Adverbs have a much more restrictive definition here than in their traditional definition. Adverbs in this typology are verb modifiers. Therefore, adverbs are distinct from:
What is the status of adjective modifiers (tant, tout juste, un rien, un tantinet, très, extrêmement, … = so much, just a little, a little, a little, very, extremely, …) in the present grammatical typology? Adjectives are defined as noun modifiers. So adjective modifiers would be modifiers of noun modifiers? This sounds intriguing. In reality, we do not have the concept of ‘modifiers of modifiers’. In fact, we have the following rules:
What are the characteristics of the resulting grammatical typology? We now have the following categories:
What is the status of adjectives in the present grammatical typology? The notion of modifier is central to this taxonomy. Thus, the adjective is a noun modifier. In the expression ‘the blue sky’, ‘blue’ is a modifier of the noun ‘sky’. The definition of the adjective as a noun modifier is quite in line with the definition given for example by Merriam-Webster: ‘a word belonging to one of the major form classes in any of numerous languages and typically serving as a modifier of a noun to denote a quality of the thing named, to indicate its quantity or extent, or to specify a thing as distinct from something else’.
Another case that argues for the use of rule-based translation, i.e. human-like, is the following. Frequently we come across a new word, a word we have never seen before. More often than not, a human knows how to translate it. Because there are rules that allow to translate a word from a given language into another language, even if we do not know the meaning of this last word. For example, ‘anthranilic acid’ can be translated precisely as ‘anthranilic acid’ by a human, even if he has no knowledge of the acid in question. For this type of ability to translate new words encountered, the statistical method is not adequate and the machine translator must have the ability to determine (i) the grammatical nature of the word in question; (ii) translate the new word encountered based on the morphological rules for translating words of this grammatical type from one language to another. An AGI, capable of translating, should possess this type of ability.