![[P2] The Clause](gif/bnf/bnf02.gif)
| When the adverbial adjunct is a part of the whole clause in [P2], it is the adverb, phrase, or clause of justification (cf. §22-4) or else the neustic, cf. §6-4. These syntactic possibilities are enumerated in [P9]: |
| A sentence may also include a specification of the location of entities in space or also their location in time. We may also want to specify the direction or the manner of an activity or the frequency or the duration or the degree of intensity of an event. English speakers specify time in a way parallel to the way they specify place. This means the analyst will naturally want to consider time specification as a metaphorical extension of space specification. To make any of these specifications the English speaker may use an adverbial adjunct. The syntactic description has adverbial adjuncts first in phrase structure rule [P2]. They appear twice more in [P3] and once in [P6]. Phrase structure rule [P9], above, then gives its realization first as the adverb phrase. This is parallel to a prepositional phrase, which phrase is also usually adverbial in meaning. (We try to give other kinds of prepositional phrases different names syntactically.) There is also a clause that may appear as an adverbial adjunct. Such a clause will often reduce to a prepositional or other type of phrase. |
![[P3] The Predicate Phrase](gif/bnf/bnf03.gif)
![[P6] The Verb Phrase](gif/bnf/bnf06.gif)
The adverbial as a predicate adjunct.The adverbial adjoins the predicate in [P3]. In this case the adjunct is relatively independent of the meaning of the verb. Different phrases may be appropriate with various descriptions of states and events. |
| Sentence | Adverbial Adjunct | |
|---|---|---|
| (1) | Smith and Watson fought for the title in Las Vegas. | position in space |
| (2) | We could hear the sound of the crowd four miles away. | distance, relative position |
| (3) | The winner rejoiced from the ring to the bank. | direction in space |
| (4) | The crowd could tell who would win at the beginning of the twelfth round. | position in time |
| (5) | The loser fought on for three more rounds. | duration, relative time |
| (6) | Watson was staggering from the tenth round on. | direction in time |
| (7) | The fighters threw left hooks forty-eight times. | frequency |
| (8) | Both men wanted very much to win. | degree |
| (9) | Smith fought with much more vigor. | manner |
| The analyst can usually discern the meaning of the adverb phrase by knowing the nature of its parts. For example, suppose the adverb phrase describes a place. This regularly implies a verb of activity (10). A state may suggest that the time of occupying the place is meant (11). Yet, a phrase like “at school” may easily refer to a place regularly occupied at certain times. In this case it is much more natural when we use the adverb phrase of place with an activity as a temporal adverbial (13). |
| Sentence | Adverbial Adjunct | |
|---|---|---|
| (10) | The boys were studying near the computer. | activity - where |
| (11) | The girls were courteous near the computer. | state - when |
| (12) | The boys were obnoxious at school. | state - when |
| (13) | The girls were studying at school. | activity - where OR when |
The adverbial adjunct of frequency.Suppose the predicate describes a repeatable event. In this case the adverbial adjunct may describe the frequency of the event (how often) by reference to either time or place intervals. The analyst decides that in (1) “minutes” refers to time and in (2) “blocks” refers to space. |
| Sentence | Adverbial Adjunct | |
|---|---|---|
| (1) | The bus stopped for children every three minutes. | event - when, frequency |
| (2) | The bus stopped for children every three blocks. | event - where, frequency |
The adverbial adjunct with the copula.The fourth option in rule [P6] also specifies an adverbial adjunct. This rule describes the sentence that uses the phrase to specify the location of the subject. This is a case where the verb is the copula, a form of the verb “be.” The subject that the speaker locates in time or space denotes an activity or event. This is a variety of the subject complement. |
| Sentence | Adverbial Subject Complement | |
|---|---|---|
| (1) | Their home was on the top of a ridge. | position |
| (2) | The waterfall is still fourteen miles from here. | distance |
| (3) | The town is down the valley. | direction |
| (4) | The meeting was at four-thirty. | time when |
| (5) | The dinner will be one hour. | duration |
| (6) | Sundown will be towards seven. | direction in time |
| (7) | Bus stops were every two minutes (OR every mile). | frequency (see below) |
| (8) | The weight was fourteen pounds. | degree (see below) |
| There are a number of other verbs that are sometimes best analyzed as a variety of copula, sometimes called a catenative or linking verb. Often we see such verbs as having a characteristic complement (cf. the next two paragraphs). |
The adverbial complement of a full verb.Locating the subject in time or space by the use of a simple copula results in a rather flat written style. Fortunately the copula is often not as natural as a full verb. The analyst describes the appearance of an adverb phrase with a full verb in the fourth option of rule [P6], where it is generated as a complement in connection with a particular verb. This verb may be a type that requires the specification of one or more locative aspects. The locative aspect may refer to the beginning of an action (origin, terminus a quo), to its path, or to the ending of an action (goal, terminus ad quem). |
| Sentence | Adverbial (Verb) Complement | |
|---|---|---|
| (1) | She drove my car all the way across town. | place - beginning/path/ending |
| (2) | The bus arrived by way of the bridge. | place - path |
| (3) | The boys jogged from the river to the highway. | place - beginning & ending |
| The verb’s requirement may be spatial (4)-(5) or temporal (6)-(8). |
| Sentence | Adverbial (Verb) Complement | |
|---|---|---|
| (4) | The boxers stayed in the ring. | place where (path) |
| (5) | Switzerland lies to the north of Italy. | place - direction (ending) |
| (6) | The conference will start on Wednesday. | time when (beginning) |
| (7) | It will last for three days. | time - duration (path) |
| (8) | A baseball game usually ends after nine innings. | time when (ending) |
The structure of the adverbial adjunct. |
![[P9] The Adverbial Adjunct](gif/bnf/bnf09.gif)
| The first realization of rule [P9] is the adverbial phrase. Rule [P10] develops the adverbial phrase further. This rule expresses the fact that there may be an adverb of extent that modifies the adverb. The adverb also allows for an argument or a prepositional phrase to structure with it as a complement. |
![[P10] The Adverb Phrase](gif/bnf/bnf10.gif)
![[P13] The Extent Phrase](gif/bnf/bnf13.gif)
| Verbs that require adverbial complements of frequency (1), degree (2), distance (3), or duration (4) may take advantage of this structure (Adverb of Extent + Adverb + Argument) for their description. This involves unifying the description of the determiner modifier with that of extent adverbs, a topic of §15-3. |
| Sentence | Adverbial (Verb) Complement | |
|---|---|---|
| (1) | The bell sounded eight times. | frequency |
| (1') | The bell sounded eight (many) times (much) | (expanded with quantifiers) |
| (2) | The bell weighed fourteen pounds. | degree |
| (2') | The bell weighed fourteen (many) pounds (much). | (expanded with quantifiers) |
| (3) | The race extended eignt miles. | distance |
| (3') | The race extended eight (many) miles (far). | (expanded with quantifiers) |
| (4) | The race lasted fourteen hours. | duration |
| (4') | The race lasted fourteen (many) hours (long). | (expanded with quantifiers) |
| (5) | The comet traveled sixteen parsecs in two years. | rate (distance in duration) |
| (5') | The comet traveled sixteen (many) parsecs (far) in two (many) years (long). | (expanded with quantifiers) |
| Notice in example 3 and 4 where distance or duration are involved, there is a prepositional analysis: for eight miles, for fourteen hours. Similarly for the rate of travel in 5 there is for sixteen parsecs, over two years. In this case the second complement must be prepostional. This is part of what motivated [P14]. |
![[P14] The Complement](gif/bnf/bnf14.gif)
| We also often see linguists analyze these verbs as varieties of the copula. This makes the adverbial adjunct there available. The second realization of rule [P9] is the prepositional phrase, which appears on the left side in rule [P11]. There is no further discussion of the prepositional phrase structure in this book yet. It may be possible to meld it with the analysis of adverb, which, however, it may be a complement of in rule [P10] — “(all the way) in the house” from “(all the way) in (*of) the house” like “(clear) out of the house” and “(two steps) away from the house.” |
![[P11] The Prepositional Phrase](gif/bnf/bnf11.gif)
| The third realization of rule [P9] is the adverbial clause, the topic of several later chapters. |
The semantics of the adverbial.The meaning of adverbials is varied and plays a role in the ordering of adverbials when compounded. The accumulation of adverbials is a subject of chapter 10 and will be treated in more detail there. Figure 11 lays out some of the semantic roles of the descriptive adverbial. When multiple adverbials appear, there is a partial ordering to them, which we describe later. Most of the meanings are punctive or scalar and as we saw above modifiers are often used for their metrification. |
