Adverbial
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In grammar an adverbial is a word (an adverb) or a group of words (an adverbial phrase or an adverbial clause) which modifies or tells us something about the sentence or the verb. The word adverbial is also used as an adjective, meaning 'having the same function as an adverb'. The typical functions of an adverb are those of modifying adjectives or other adverbs, in addition to modifying verbs and sentences. Look at the examples below:
- Danny speaks fluently. (telling us more about the verb)
- She is quite stupid. (telling us more about the adjective stupid)
Adverbials operate at sentence level as sentence elements, as in the example below:
- Lorna ate breakfast yesterday. (SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT + ADVERBIAL)
Adverbs may also be contained within sentence elements, as in the following example,
- A very tall man entered the shop. (SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT)
In the above example the adverb is contained within the subject.
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The form of adverbials
In English, adverbials most commonly take the form of adverbs, adverb phrases or prepositional phrases. Many types of adverbials (for instance reason and condition) are often expressed by clauses).
- James answered immediately. (adverb)
- James answered in English. (prepositional phrase)
- James answered in English because he had a foreign visitor. (adverbial clause)
Types of adverbials which form sentence elements
Adverbials are typically divided into four classes:
adverbial complements: these are adverbials that render a sentence ungrammatical and meaningless if removed, e.g.
- John put the flowers in a vase.
adjuncts: these are part of the core meaning of the sentence, but if omitted still leave a meaningful sentence, e.g.
- John helped me with my homework.
conjuncts: these link two sentences together.
- John helped so. I was, therefore, able to do my homework.
disjuncts: these make comments on the meaning of the rest of the sentence.
- Surprisingly, he passed all of his exams.
Adverbs which are within sentence elements
Adverbs within sentence elements can modify four different word classes:
verb modifying:
- He jumped up. (within the verb phrase)
adjective modifying:
- A very heavy bag. (within a noun phrase)
- He is rather ill. (within a predicative)
adverb modifying:
- She ate her food exceedingly quickly. (within a sentence adverbial)
preposition modifying:
- She sat very near the door. (within a sentence adverbial)
Since the adverbs occur within a sentence element, they are not adverbials.
Distinguishing an adverbial from an adjunct
All adjuncts are adverbials, but some adverbials are not adjuncts.
- If the removal of an adverbial does not leave a well-formed sentence, then it is not an adjunct
- If the adverbial modifies within a sentence element, and is not a sentence element in its own right, it is not an adjunct.
- If the adverbial is not grammatically tied to the sentence it is not an adjunct, e.g.
- Mr Reninson, however, voted against the proposal. (adverbial conjunct not adjunct)no:Adverbial