Hi, why are some adverbs described as と adverbs, for example しっかり.
When should it be followed by と and how does the particle change the
meaning?
The why of it goes back to historical Japanese and I don’t fully get it, but… Basically one can either “be in” an attributive state (なる, derived from にある, which in modern Japanese has become な／だ) or “be with” an attribute (たる, derived from とある). If you want to say someone does something in the manner of that attribute (i.e. adverbially), then you simply drop the ある from the historical form and substitute another verb.
Hazarding a guess as to why some attributes work with に and others work with と is really above my ability. However, an English parallel is readily available: one can “do something quietly” (静かにする) but we don’t really say someone “does something dignifiedly”; instead we say someone “does something with dignity” (堂々とする). It’s perhaps just coincidence that those particular Japanese attributes line up with the English ones so nicely, but it gives an idea.
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Just a note on my たる thread, not everything that takes と and is an adverb is that kind of word.
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