grammar question for grammarian please?

The mistakes you're inadvertently making (probably due to previous lousy teaching) are: forgetting or not knowing that there are exceptions to the rules in English grammar, and blindly assuming that all words ending in -ly mean an adverb :)

If only English were that simple...then 2 & 3 year old toddlers of English speaking parents wouldn't make intuitive errors as psychological and linguistic research has found AND native speakers of other languages would have an easier method of learning it AND even native speakers of English, e.g African-Americans or white Australians, wouldn't make errors in everyday speech.

It can be either an adjective or an adverb depending on sentence construction or context. Your sentence has it as an adjective describing the noun "b***d".

If your sentence was: "Stop cowardly hitting that woman, you ***" then it would be an adverb because it means 'in the manner of a coward' modifying the verb "hitting."

I've listed some safe online dictionaries and one English as a second or other language site for your reference if you still doubt. Don't go to wikipaedia because it is a pool of common and unqualified "knowledge." I never consider myself a grammarian because there are a few out there with high achieving bachelors of art that I've met who have better grammar.

The word 'cowardly' can function as either an adverb or an adjective. It is functioning as an adjective in that sentence.

A common mistake is believing that words that end in 'ly' are automatically adverbs.

I'm an English major. Trust me. It's an adjective.

The "ly" may seem confusing. But if it was an adverb it'd have to be describing the verb, which is "hit." He's not cowardly hitting on her... He's a "cowardly bast...d"

It's an adjective. Adjectives describe nouns, adverbs describe verbs.

Since "bast...d" is a noun, "cowardly" is an adjective.

It's definitely an adjective. Where does it say that adjectives don't end in an ly. What about a friendly person or a deadly shot or a belly dancer?

I would think that it would be an adjective because it is describing the noun bastard. Some adjectives can end in -ly

Yea, I believe it would be the adjective, because it is describing a characteristic of the noun.

adjective, because it describes bast...d, which is a noun. although many adverbs end in ly, they describe verbs not nouns.

adjectives describe nouns

adverbs describe actions

cowardly is describing a person, or a noun, so it would be an adjective

I'm pretty sure its a adjective