COMPLEMENTATION OF ADVERBS
The wh-items when, where, why, how and their compounds (somewhere, anywhere, etc.) have nominal as well as circumstantial value, as is shown in their post-modification by AdjGs (somewhere more exotic), PPs (everywhere in the world), non-fin cl (nowhere to sleep) and the adverb else:
where else? = in what other place?
when else? = at what other time?
how else? = in what other way?
why else? = for what other reason?
The forms somewhere, anywhere, nowhere are often replaced in informal AmE by someplace, anyplace, no place, though not in wh-questions, e.g. someplace else, anyplace else, no place else. Circumstantial adverbs are sometimes qualified by others of a similar type, so that it is not always clear which is the head and which the modifier:
We’ll be meeting them sometime soon.
I need a drink. There must be a pub somewhere near.
In informal speech intensification and reinforcement of circumstantial adverbs may be expressed by post-modifiers, such as the following:
The train will be arriving now any minute/any minute now.
It always arrives punctually on the dot (= on time).
Curiously enough, he doesn’t seem to mind criticism.
The police never found out, oddly enough, who stole the jewels.
