Locative adverb

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A locative adverb is a type of adverb that refers to a location, or to a combination of a location and a relation to that location. Generally, a locative adverb is semantically equivalent to a prepositional phrase involving a locative or directional preposition. In English, for example, "homeward" is a locative adverb, specifying a location "home" and a relation "toward" (in this case a direction), and is equivalent to the phrase "towards home". The relation need not be a direction, but any relation that can be specified by a locational preposition such as "to, from, in, at, near, toward, away from, etc." For example, the word "home" is itself a locative adverb in a sentence like "I took him home today" or "I found him home today"; in the former case, it is equivalent to the phrase "to home", and in the latter to the phrase "at home".

Pro-form locative adverbs generally form a closed class and are particularly important in a language. Examples in English are "there" (= "to/at that place"), "hence" (= "from this place"). As can be seen from these examples, the anaphoric locative adverbs generally have a close relationship with the demonstratives (in English, "this" and "that"). They are also usually closely related to locative interrogative adverbs; in English, there is even a formal relationship between e.g. "where/there/here" and "whence/thence/hence".

Some anaphoric locatives in English:

A fuller table is in the article on pro-form.