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ADVERBIAL MODIFIER
IS A SECONARY PART OF THE SENTENCE WHICH MODIFIES
ANOTHER PART OF THE SENTENCE EXPRESSED BY A VERB,
OR AN ADJECTIVE, OR AN ADVERB, DENOTING THE TIME,
PLACE, MANNER, DEGREE, QUANTITY, ETC.
MAY REFER TO:
A) THE PREDICATE-VERB OR TO A VERBAL PHRASE
e.g. She walked fast between the flowers.
B) THE WHOLE OF THE SENTENCE, particularly if placed at the
beginning of the sentence
e.g. Upon arrival they went to the restaurant.
C) ADJECTIVES (which serve either as attributes or predicatives)
e.g. The air was delicately sweet.
D) ADVERBS (which serve as adverbials)
e.g. He hit him very hard
WAYS OF EXPRESSING
1) AN ADVERB (SOMETIMES PRECEDED BY A PREPOSITION)
e.g. I slept unusually well.
2) AN ADVERBIAL PHRASE
e.g. I came to live here three years ago.
3) A NOUN, PRONOUN OR NUMERAL (with preposition)
e.g. He could jump for joy.
4) A NOUN W/OUT ANY PREPOSITION, EXPRESSING EXTENT, DISTANCE,
TIME, PRICE, ETC.
e.g. She was silent a moment.
5) A PARTICIPLE (PP)
e.g. He went upstairs, tiptoeing past the door.
6) A GERUND W/PREPOSITION
e.g. After tearing the envelope open she absorbed the contents for a while.
7) AN INFINITIVE
e.g. He was too tired to go any further.
8) A CLAUSE (as part of a complex sentence)
e.g. We played indoors because the weather was nasty.
CLASSES OF ADVERBIALS
a) of place (place, direction, distance) /where? where to? how far?/
e.g. He lives far from his parents
b) of time (time, frequency, duration) /when? how long? how often?/
e.g. She comes here from time to time.
c) of manner /how? in what way? by what means?/
e.g. He drank with short quick sips.
d) of cause /why? for what reason? because of what?/
e.g. He died of starvation.
e) of purpose /what for? for what purpose?/
e.g. Mr. Johnson’s here to see you, sir.
f) of result
e.g. I was standing too close not to hear it.
g) of condition /in what case? on what condition?/
e.g. But for the girls I wouldn’t have gone to college.
h) of concession /in spite of what?/
e.g. Despite his pessimism, he’s a nice company
PLACE OF ADVERBIALS (ADVERBS)
HAVE GREATER FREEDOM OF POSITION THAN ANY OTHER PART OF THE
SENTENCE
A) ADVERB MUST NOT SEPARATE THE DIRECT OBJECT FROM THE
TRANSITIVE VERB WHICH GOVERNS IT
e.g. Wendy shook her head meditatively.
B) ADVERBS OF TIME STAND EITHER AT THE END OR AT THE BEGINNIG
OF THE SENTENCE
e.g. Yesterday the day was fine, today the weather is dreadful.
C) ADVERBS OF TIME AND FREQUENCY STAND BEFORE THE VERB,
BUT FOLLOW THE VERBS TO BE, TO HAVE, MODAL VERBS
e.g. I never thought of it that way. You are always the last to arrive.
D) ADVERBS STAND AFTER THE FIRST AUXILIARY VERB e.g. Sam was
still standing in the doorway.
E) ADVERBS OF PLACE FOLLOW THE VERB OR ITS DIRECT OBJECT BUT
PRECEDE THE ADVERBS OF TIME
e.g. I saw him there once.
F) ADVERBS OF MANNER ARE PLACED AFTER THE VERB (NO split
infinitive!)
e.g. He began to get up off the floor slowly. I’d like to really understand syntax.
INDEPENDENT ELEMENTS OF THE
SENTENCE
NOT GRAMMATICALLY DEPENDENT ON ANY PART OF THE
SENTENCE, BUT REFER TO THE SENTENCE AS A WHOLE
1) DIRECT ADDRESS
e.g. Sally, honey, give me that book. What’s the problem, doctor?
2) PARENTHESIS
A) EXPRESSING THE SPEAKER’S ATTITUDE
e.g. Surely, he can’t have done that. Thank Goodness, it’s Friday!
B) TEXT ORGANIZERS
e.g. First, I’d like to introduce myself. By the way, I was there too.
C) SPECIFYING WHAT IS SAID OR EXPRESSING A COMMENT
e.g. To be honest, I am glad about that. That was your luck, so to speak.
WORD ORDER
fulfils several functions: GRAMMATICAL, EMPHATIC,
COMMUNICATIVE, LINKING
GRAMMATICAL FUNCTION OF WORD ORDER
DIRECT WORD ORDER: S (subject) V (verb) O (object)
Allows variation only for secondary parts of the sentence
a)
b)
c)
Attributes (pre-modify blue eyes, post-modify the materials
available, or frame up head-words the best player possible)
Adverbials (front, after verb, after the first auxiliary verb, end
position)
Prepositions (between the words; at the end of the sentence)
WORD ORDER
INVERTED WORD ORDER
FULL INVERTION e.g. Here comes the sun.
PARTIAL INVERTION e.g. Nor do I know his whereabouts.
DOUBLE INVERTION e.g. Hanging on the wall was a picture.
INVERTION IN COMMUNICATIVE TYPES OF SENTENCES:
A) GENERAL QUESTIONS, POLITE REQUESTS, TAG
QUESTION e.g. Won’t you sit down?
B) PRONOMINAL QUESTIONS e.g. What is he up to?
C) THERE-SENTENCES e.g. There appeared an ugly face.
D) EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES e.g. God bless Estonia!
E)
EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES NEGATIVE IN FORM, BUT
POSITIVE IN MEANING e.g. Is she stupid! Wouldn’t that be fun!
F)
NEGATIVE IMPERATIVE SENTENCES e.g. Don’t you dare!
WORD ORDER
INVERTION IS USED AS A GRAMMATICAL MEANS OF
SUBORDINATION IN COMPLEX SENTENCES:
A) IN CONDITIONAL CLAUSES e.g. Had I had it then, I wouldn’t
have asked it from you.
B) IN CONCESSIVE CLAUSES e.g. Happy as I was, there still was
some anxiety in me.
INVERTION IN SENTENCES BEGINNING WITH ADVERBS OF
PLACE (reflection of OE norms)
There you are. Here we go!
INVERTION IN STAGE DIRECTIONS e.g. Enter Philip and Carol.
INVERTION TO INDICATE DIRECT/INDIRECT SPEECH e.g.
“That’s not true,” exclaimed Mary.
INVERTION TO AGREE WITH A SHORT SENTENCE: e.g. Nor is he
(but: You said you would call me. – So I did.)
WORD ORDER
EMPHATIC AND COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS OF WORD
ORDER
These two functions are different in their purpose, but often either go
together or overlap, and are difficult to differentiate.
Prominence and emphasis are achieved by putting any word in an
unusual position:
1)
Subject at the end e.g. Is such an idiot, this brother of yours!
2)
Object or a predicative at the front e.g. Dreadful these weapons are,
plentiful, merciless.
3)
Adverbials at the front e.g. Many a day have they spent together.
4)
Word functioning as adverbs and post-positions e.g. Up went the
balloon.
5)
Attributes put after their headword e.g. The day following was to
decide our fate.
WORD ORDER
Prominence and emphasis are generally achieved not by reordering, but
by using special constructions:
1)
THERE + verb + noun e.g. There comes a time in life when you
start questioning the reasons why you were born.
2)
INTRODUCTORY “IT” constructions:
e.g. It was she who told the police. It was to Istanbul that he went.
THE LINKING FUNCTION OF WORD ORDER
Is used to express continuity of thought in sentences following one
another. Often used with demonstrative pronouns and adverbs:
e.g. They must go to the dean and confess. Such was his plan.
The word marking continuity is sometimes placed at the beginning of the
sentence, with the verb immediately following:
e.g. Next comes the juicy bit of the story.
THE PREDICATIVE COMPLEXES
THEY ARE STRUCTURES INTERMEDIATE BETWEEN A PHRASE
AND A CLAUSE.
UNLIKE PHRASES THEY CONTAIN TWO WORDS WHICH ARE
SEMANTICALLY IN SUBJECT-PREDICATE RELATIONS.
UNLIKE CLAUSES THE SUBJECT-PREDICATE RELATIONS ARE
NOT GRAMMATICALLY EXPLICIT. THUS, COMPLEXES HAVE
NEITHER REAL SUBJECT, NOR REAL PREDICATE.
e.g. I saw her walking down the street.
The bicycle was painted green.
It being bright outside, we went for a picnic.
SUBJECTIVE PREDICATIVE
CONSTRUCTIONS
CONSISTS OF A NOUN OR A PERSONAL PRONOUN AND AN
INFINITIVE SEPARATED BY A FINITE VERB-FORM. THE
FINITE VERB TOGETHER WITH THE INFINITIVE FORM A
COMPOUND VERBAL PREDICATE OF DOUBLE
ORIENTATION:
e.g. He is thought to have left the country.
THE CONSTRUCTION IS USED WITH:
1)
PASSIVE VOICE VERBS: (to hear, to see, to watch, to think, to
expect, to say, to predict, to make, to allow)
e.g. They were heard to quarrel. This one is considered to be the best.
2) ACTIVE VOICE VERBS: (to appear, to happen, to turn out, to seem)
e.g. Everyone appeared to be having a good time.
THE OBJECTIVE PREDICATIVE
CONSTRUCTIONS (COMPLEX OBJECT)
CONSISTS OF A NOMINAL PART AND A PART WHICH STANDS
IN SUBJECT-PREDICATE RELATIONS TO THE FIRST PART.
THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF CONSTRUCTION:
1) THE OBJECTIVE W/THE INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTION:
e.g. I heard the boy cry. I would like you to play for us.
2) THE OBJECTIVE WITH PARTICIPLE I OR II:
e.g. I saw you dancing. They found him stripped and tied to the chair.
3) THE OBJECTIVE WITH NON-VERBAL PART:
e.g. We consider him unique. They elected her President. The girl
snapped her purse shut. The sight scared the child stiff.
ABSOLUTE NOMINATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS
SO CALLED BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT DEPENDENT ON ANY
PART OF THE SENTENCE, BUT CANNOT BE USED W/OUT
IT, AS THEY LACK A FINITE VERB (HAVE NO PREDICATE)
TYPES:
1) WITH PARTICIPLE I (MOST FREQUESNTLY USED)
e.g. It being late, we went home. He kicked the ball, a sweat coming on his forehead.
Weather permitting, we’ll finish the tennis match tomorrow. The tea having brewed, we
2) WITH PARTICIPLE II
e.g. Dinner served, everyone sat down to table. His hair disheveled, he felt he needed a
comb.
3) WITH NON-VERBALS
e.g. He rushed in, his face pale. The door ajar, I could hear them swear badly.
Party over, she confronted a pile of dirty dishes.
4) PREPOSITIONAL ABSOLUTE CONSTRUCTIONS:
e.g. With hat in had, he cut a pitiful figure. He stood there paralyzed, with his jaws
agape.