Why are words which qualify adjectives described as adverbs

[Jaggers]

Been years since I studied grammar but adverbs are supposed to be words which qualify verbs eg

"slowly" is an adverb and in this sentence it qualifies the verb "walked" - "I walked slowly"

But why are words like "rather", "somewhat", "quite" regarded as adverbs

eg "I am somewhat happy"

Is it because the "somewhat" qualified the verb "am"?

[Raymott]

Been years since I studied grammar but adverbs are supposed to be words which qualify verbs eg

"slowly" is an adverb and in this sentence it qualifies the verb "walked" - "I walked slowly"

But why are words like "rather", "somewhat", "quite" regarded as adverbs

eg "I am somewhat happy"

Is it because the "somewhat" qualified the verb "am"?

"Anadverb is a word that changes or qualifies the meaning of a verb, adjective, other adverb, clause,sentence or any other word or phrase, except that it does not include the adjectives and determiners that directly modify nouns."
Adverb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[BobK]

In short, modifying verbs is only part of an adverb's job.

b

[Jaggers]

Thanks very much for responses - it was the "verb" in "adverb" which bamboozled me!

[BobK]

Yeah - it's a bit of a misleading name. With 'pronoun', say, you can break it down into pro and noun.

b