ADVERBIALS

1. Definition

2. The Difference Between Adverbs and Adverbials

"Adverbs and adverbials are similar but not the same. Though they share the same modifying function,
their characters are different. An adverbial is a sentence element or functional category. It is a part of a
sentence that performs a certain function. An adverb, on the other hand, is a type of word or part of
speech. We can say that an adverb may serve as an adverbial, but an adverbial is not necessarily an
adverb." (M. Strumpf and A. Douglas, The Grammar Bible. Owl, 2004)

In order to distinguish between an adverb and an adverbial, keep in mind that, an adverb can be an
adverbial but an adverbial cannot be entirely just an adverb.

3. Forms of Adverbials

Adverbial is a larger category than an adverb. It encapsulates all those phrases/clauses which combine
adverbs with other nouns, prepositions or adverbs, in order to elaborate the meaning of the verb in a
sentence. The forms of adverbials include:

a. Simple Adverbs

She is working quickly.

b. Adverb Phrases

The parcel would reach you quite soon.

c. Prepositional Phrases

He is sitting in the room.

d. Noun Phrases

I met George this evening.

4. Types of Adverbials

The different types of adverbials include the following:

a. Adverbial Complements

These are adverbials that become compulsory to be used in a sentence. If they are removed from that
particular sentence, it shall become grammatically wrong and would not convey the desired meaning.
For example,

 The dinner is on the table.

 My friend was in the hotel.

b. Adjuncts

These are adverbials that function to provide meaning in a sentence, but if they are removed, the sentence
still remains grammatically correct and continues to be meaningful.

For example,

 I am ready for the party.

 She is playing with me.

Adjuncts are an integral part of the sentence, which provide the reader with information which is
additional to that contained in the subject, verb, object or complement. They convey information about:

• where (place and direction): in the park, over the hill, next to sofa, at a 90° angle, into the forest,
towards the sea

• when (time, duration, frequency): at midnight, on Tuesday, for 3 minutes, during the Jurassic
period, while they are spawning, until you reach the station, often, never, regularly, daily, rarely,
continually, occasionally

• how (manner, means and instrument): in silence, angrily, with a smile, as carefully as you can,
with great skill, cautiously, by train, by means of a trick, with the lawnmower, with a pencil

• why (reason, purpose): because of the rain, since he left, due to her carelessness, for ease

The above types of adjuncts are those we most commonly use in primary education; however, the list is
not exhaustive and there are others types. For example, adjuncts can also:

• intensify (definitely, certainly, indeed, really, surely, of course, completely, entirely, fully)

• focus (just, only, purely, simply)

• modify adjectives and other adverbs, to provide degrees of intensity

• contrast (however careful, though unsure)

c. Conjuncts

These are types of adjuncts that function to connect two sentences or phrases together. Their existence
adds meaning, but their removal will still keep the sentence grammatically correct.

For example,

 This school is not popular. Still, I like to study here.

 I kept working late at night. Therefore, I couldn’t wake up early.

Conjuncts are those adverbial words, phrases and clauses which have a cohesive function, connecting
different sections of a text. We generally use them at or near the beginning of a sentence, so that they
provide a link to the previous sentence or paragraph. They help the text to flow by giving continuity to
earlier information for the reader.

As with adjuncts, there are different ways of using conjuncts:

• addition – also, furthermore, moreover, in addition, what is more

• opposition – however, nevertheless, on the other hand

• reinforcing – besides, anyway, after all

• explaining – for example, in other words, that is to say

• listing – first(ly), first of all, next, finally

• indicating result – therefore, consequently, as a result

• indicating time – just then, meanwhile, later, in the meantime

d. Disjuncts

These are types of adjuncts that function to add comment of the speaker on the core subject matter of the
sentence. Their removal will not affect the grammatical structure of the sentence.

These words are helpful in informing the listener about the speaker’s degree of truthfulness in declaring
the particular statement.

For example,

 Hopefully, she will come home today.

 Frankly, I don’t like our teacher.

Disjuncts are adverbial words, phrases and clauses which enable the speaker or writer to express beliefs
or opinions about what they are communicating. They signal the attitude of the speaker/writer. For
example, obviously, unfortunately, personally, of course, in my opinion, which is certain, although this is
clearly incorrect.

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6. Sentence-Final Adverbials

Sentence-final adverbials occur in the form of adverbial clauses, adverbial phrases, or prepositional
phrases.

Meaning of adverbial:

Direction - northwards, to the store

Position - where Main St. crosses First Ave., quite locally, in the garden

Goal - at the station

Manner - just as I do, very quickly, with gusto

Time - after he saw the report, quite recently, at six o’clock

Frequency - as often as you can, (almost) always, every Monday

Purpose - in order to finish the job, for the glory

Reason (Cause) - because we were able to go there, because of the weather

When more than one sentence-final adverbial occurs, there are unmarked orders that tend to be followed.
According to a study by Miller (1991), the semantically-based sequences are the following:

a. Direction comes before position

I last saw Phil walking across the street in Atlanta.

b. Manner before time or frequency

Mrs. Lee worked very quickly yesterday.

c. Position or direction before time or frequency

Tourists travel to the Caribbean every December.

d. Goal before time or frequency

The train arrived at the station before dinner.

e. Reason or purpose comes last

Niko studies hard to get good grades.

f. Manner and position occur in either order as with time and frequency.

Bill weeded energetically in his garden.

Bill weeded in his garden energetically.

Sarah jogs every morning at 6 AM.

Sarah jogs at 6 AM every morning.

7. Sentence-Initial Adverbials

Like sentence-final adverbials, sentence-initial adverbials can be phrasal (Single words), prepositional, or
clausal.

Phrasal: Fortunately, Helen won the election.

Preposition: With our help, Helen won the election.

Clausal: After we had a recount, Helen won the election.

With such capability of being a sentence modifier (sm), we can then expand “Advl” to directly generate
all the adverbials that readily occur in sentence-initial position before the subject and predicate.

Initial adverbials are syntactically more detached and in some respects ‘superordinate’ in that they have a
scope that extends over the sentence as a whole. (Quirk, et. Al, 1985)

- Their scope includes the entire following sentence

S-I Adverbials are often considered as attitudinal in that it expresses speaker stance and attitude.

Four Functional Categories for Sentence-Initial Adverbials (Halliday, 1994)

(these four refer to different facets of speaker attitude)

1. Probability: maybe, perhaps, certainly, surely

2. Usuality: usually, generally, typically, occasionally
3. Presumption: of course, obviously, clearly, evidently
4. Desirability: (un)fortunately, luckily, hopefully, regrettably

8. Reduced Forms of Adverbial Clauses

Some adverbial clauses of time, both initial and final, may appear in subordinate clauses in which the
subject and sometimes also the auxiliary verb seem to have been deleted. Thus we can have synonymous
pairs like the following:
When the barber was finished with the haircut, he took the customer’s money.

When finished with the haircut, the barber took the customer’s money.

Until I came to this city, I did not know what excitement was.

Until coming to this city, I did not know what excitement was.

He did his homework while he was listening to music.

He did his homework while listening to music.

When teaching such reduction, the principle by which we may infer the identity of the deleted subject
should be kept in mind.

Talking about reduction, we now move on to another structure in addition to the adverbial phrases,
adverbial clauses, which we call as ADVERBIAL PARTICIPLES.

(Discussed reduction),

Not all adverbials retain an adverbial subordinator, in fact, many simply begin with an –ing verb form or
an –en verb form.

He did his homework while he was listening to music.

He did his homework while listening to music.

While listening to music, he did his homework.

The adverbial use of –ing and –en participle in clause-initial position is a potential problem; errors
traditionally referred to as “dangling modifiers” or “dangling participles” may occur.

Laughing hysterically and unable to answer Miss Fidditch, she sent poor Tom to the principal’s office.

Torn and bent beyond recognition, I received my mother’s letter.

In such cases, the subject of the participle shold also be the subject of the main clause. Whenever this is
not the case – as in the two examples above—a dangling participle results.
Reduced forms of adverbial clauses – but the reduction is grammatically acceptable only if both clauses
have the same underlying subject. With this condition in mind, we can now correct the above sentences:

Because Tom was laughing hysterically and unable to answer miss Fidditch, Tom was sent to the
principal’s office (by Miss Fidditch).

Laughing hysterically and unable to answer Miss Fidditch, Tom was sent to the principal’s office.

After my mother’s letter had been torn and bent beyond recognition, my mother’s letter was delivered to
me yesterday.

Torn and bent beyond recognition, my mother’s letter was delivered to me yesterday.

It is also possible to have a sentence-initial adverbial participle with a subject that us different from the
subject of the main clause; in such a case, the subject of the participle must be overtly stated.

The house having been constructed poorly, the new owners had to cope with many unexpected repairs.

9. Preverbal Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbials of frequency usually occur at the end of a sentence. Some of these adverbials express a
specific and others a general sense of frequency.

Specific Frequency: Bob does his laundry once a week.

I brush my teeth every day.

General Frequency: Helen does the dishes once in a while.

You should call your parents every now and then.

Although these adverbials tend to occur at the end of the sentence (the activity is in focus), they may also
occur initially if the adverbial of frequency is in focus.

Once a week Bob does his laundry.

Every now and then you should call your parents.

In contrast to these adverbials of specific or general frequency, English also has a class of preverbal
adverbs of frequency (PAFs) that tend to occur most naturally in the middle of a sentence.

Josh never writes his parents. Bill often forgets to make his bed.
Mary is always late for class. I can usually do my shopping on Saturday.
The preferred position for such adverbs of frequency is somewhat complicated but predictable. Because
of the complexity, however, misplacement of these forms is a common problem for ESL/EFL learners,
who produce ill-formed sentences such as the following:

Always Mary is coming late to class. Bill has forgotten often to make his bed.

The most important generalization to make about preverbal adverbs is that in any given sentence, they
modify the entire sentence in which they occur.

Barry frequently drives faster than the speed limit. (It is frequently the case that Barry drives faster than
the speed limit)

Cynthia never smiles at strangers. (It is never the case that Cynthia smiles at strangers.)

SUBJ (Advl) PRED

This rule accounts for all indicative and imperative sentences with preverbal adverbs that do not have
auxiliary verbs:

Gerald seldom goes to church.

Joan always jogs in the morning.

Never talk with your mouth full.

The rule also accounts for all cases where there is an operator ( an auxiliary verb or copula be) that carries
emphatic or contrastive stress; that is, the preverbal adverb always precedes a stressed auxiliary or
copula.

You never are ready on time! Jim never did talk to Raymond!
I never have met the President!

This rule also accounts for reduced sentences where the operator occurs in final position, and thus cannot
take reduced stress the way it might if it occurred in a complete sentence.

A: Is Mr. Franks strict?

B: Yes, he often is.
(Yes, he is often strict.)

A: I want to be class president.

B: You never will (be).

(You will never be class president.)
However, we need to adjust the output of our rule to account for the many cases where a complete
sentence contains an unstressed operator (auxiliary verb or be copula). In such a case, a rule of adverbial
movement will move the PAF directly after the operator (and before not in syntactic negation).

Mary is always late for classes. I can usually do my shopping on Saturdays.

Adverbial Movement Rule

All preverbal adverbs of frequency can be generated between the subject and the predicate then adjusted
for surface position with respect to the operator.

When negative PAFs (express zero or low frequency) are moved to initial positions for stylistic reasons, it
is necessary to invert the subject and the operator in response to the fronting to ensure grammaticality.

We have never, seldom, rarely, hardly ever seen such a sight!

Never, seldom, rarely, hardly ever have we seen such a sight!