Adverbs in Durban Zulu appear to have contradictory properties. On the one hand, when they appear with intransitive verbs, they phrase prosodically with the verb, just like direct objects. On the other hand, adverbs which appear with transitive verbs are like typical adjuncts, which are adjoined above νP, and they are prosodically phrased separately from the rest of the sentence. We suggest that due to the nominal character of adverbs in Zulu, they can be selected by the verb. Selected materials (including selected adverbs) are merged at the time of main structure building, while non-selected adverbs and other adjuncts are merged late. e timing of the merger of adverbs re ects their prosodic phrasing properties.* We thank Meritta Xaba, our language consultant, for her patience in going over the Zulu sentences with us. Unless indicated otherwise, all the Zulu data in this paper come from elicitation work with Meritta Xaba, a native speaker of Durban Zulu.