ADVERBIALS, ADVERBS & ADVERBIAL PHRASES

ADVERBIALS
I.

An Adverbial is any word, phrase or clause that functions like and adverb.
She lives there.
She lives in London.
She lives wherever there is a shelter.

II.

Types of adverbials:
Adjuncts: integrated in the clause structure; modifying the verb.
e.g. She drives badly.
Disjuncts: peripheral in the clause structure; they are adverbs that modify the
entire sentence (also called sentence adverbials).
e.g. Obviously, she didnt regret it. / She obviously didnt regret it.
Compare:
Naturally, they arent walking.
They arent walking naturally.
Conjuncts: peripheral in the clause structure, too; connect sentences.
e.g. She cant walk because she has broken both legs.

III.

Adverbial functions are realized by:

adverbs: She left yesterday.

noun phrases: She will do it next week.
prepositional phrases: She lives in London.
Finite/ non-finite adverbial clauses: When she feels sick, she cries./ Feeling sick,
she cries.

ADVERBS
A. What is an adverb and what it does?
The word adverb suggests the idea of adding to the meaning of a verb. This is what many
adverbs do.
She plays soccer in the afternoon.
They visit her once a week.
She moved to London.
We drove carelessly.
However, they can also modify:
-> adjectives: very good; awfully hungry

-> other adverbs: very soon; awfully quickly

-> prepositional phrases: Youre entirely in the wrong.
-> complete sentences: Strangely enough, I won first prize.
-> nouns: The man over there is a doctor.
Adverbs can be single words (slowly) or phrases ( in the garden) and the term adverbial
is often used to describe both types.
Adverbs are not essential to the structure of a sentence, but they often affect the meaning.
Compare:
e.g. Doris has left.
Doris has just left.
B. Kinds of adverbs
Process: manner , means and instrument (How?)
Place or direction (Where?)
Time (When?)
Frequency (How often? / How many times ?)
Intensifiers : Degree ( To what extent?)
Focus (focus attention)
Comment adverbs (reveal our attitudes, or help us to present information in a
coherent fashion)
Viewpoint adverbs

C. Definitions of positional terms:

We distinguish four positions of adverbs for the declarative form of the clause:
Initial position ( before the subject)
Medial position:
M1: (a) immediately before the first auxiliary or lexical be, or (b) between two
auxiliaries or an auxiliary and lexical be.
M2: (a) immediately before the lexical verb, or (b) in the case of lexical be, before the
complement.
Final position: (a) after and intransitive verb (b) after any object or complement.
Notes:
1. When adverbs of manner (which say how something is done) go in mid-position, they are
normally put after all auxiliary verbs.
e.g. Do you think the repair has been properly done?
When do you think you will have completely finished?
2. In negative sentences, some adverbs come before not and others after, depending on the
meaning. Compare:
e.g. I certainly do not agree. I do not often have headaches.

Both positions are possible with some adverbs, often with a difference of meaning.
Compare:
e.g. I dont really like her.
I really dont like her.
When adverbs come before not , they may also come before the first auxiliary verb; they
always come before do.
e.g. I probably will not be there.
I will probably not be there.
He probably does not know.
(* He does probably not know.)
Only one position is possible before a contracted negative.
e.g. I probably wont be there.
3. The order of adverbs ( and adverb phrases) in end-position depends partly on questions of
rhythm and emphasis, so it is difficult to give exact rules. In general, however, we put
adverbs of manner (how) before adverbs of place (where); and adverbs of time
(when) come last of all.
e.g. I went there at once.
Come to my office at four oclock.
I worked hard yesterday.
She sang perfectly in the town hall last night.
With verbs of movement like come, go, arrive , it is often more natural to put adverb of
place (destination) first, before an adverb of manner or time.
e.g. She went home quickly.
Adverbs of place can refer to direction (like backward) or position (like in London).
Adverbs of direction usually come before adverbs of position.
e.g.
I went to school in York.
Whos the man walking around in the garden?
4. The inversion of subject and operator is of course obligatory in most questions; more
relevant is the obligatory subject-operator inversion when a negative element is fronted
for emphasis:
e.g.
Not a word did he say.
Hardly had I left before the trouble started.
Only later did they realize what a terrible thing had happened.
Never will I tell her the truth.
5. Time adverbials in end-position tend to occur in the order DURATION + FREQUENCY
+ TIME-WHEN
e.g.
I used to swim for an hour or so every day during my childhood.

I. Manner, means and instrument

A. Manner
There three chief ways of expressing manner:

(a) an adverb (usually ending in ly)

(b) in manner (or way)
(c) with + an abstract noun phrase
Since most adjectives have matching ly adverbs and many have matching abstract nouns, there
may be three ways of expressing the same idea :
e.g. He spoke English

fluently
in a fluent manner/way
with fluency.

Note: When an adverb of manner is available, give preference to its use as it has the advantage of
being shorter and less formal than the other constructions.
- > Other ways of expressing manner:
e.g. She cooks turkey (in) the way I like.
(in) the same way as I do.
(in) a number of different ways.
like my mother
as my mother did.
B. Means and Instrument
Means is expressed by a prepositional phrase introduced by by:
e.g. I usually go to work by bus. They must have left by the back door.
We managed to sell the house by advertising it.
Instrument is expressed by a prepositional phrase introduced by with:
e.g. He caught the ball with his left hand.
Someone killed the fly with a rolled paper.
II. Time
A. Time-when adverbs:
As seen before, time- when can be expressed by tense, aspect, and auxiliaries in the verb phrase.
It can also be expressed by means of adverbials, which can be of a number of types:
e.g. The little girl arrived
yesterday
(adverb)
on Saturday.
(prep. phrase)
last week.
(noun phrase)
when they left.
(adverbial clause)
Time-when adverbs can be divided in two groups:
1. definite (those denoting a point or a period of time directly): today, just,
tomorrow, yesterday, now, tonight, then, presently, nowadays, etc.
2. indefinite (those identifying a time indirectly, by reference to another point
of time understood in the context): formerly, immediately, just, lately, later, once,
previously, presently, recently, since, soon, etc.

B. Time frequency adverbs:

The upper and lower limits of frequency are expressed by always ( on every occasion) and
never (on no occasion). Between these extremes, a rough indication of frequency
(INDEFINITE FREQUENCY) can be given by:
Most frequently

nearly always, almost always

usually, normally, generally, regularly
often, frequently (= on many occasions)
sometimes ( = on some occasions)
occasionally, now and then (informal)
rarely, seldom
hardly ever, scarcely ever (=almost never)

Least frequent
A more exact measurement of frequency (DEFINITE FREQUENCY) can be expressed in
one of the following ways:
1. once a day, three times an hour, several times a week
2. every day (= once a day), every morning, every two years
3. daily, hourly, weekly, monthly, yearly.
Note: daily and weekly can act as adjectives as well as adverbs.
A further type of frequency expression involves the use of quantifiers like some, any, most,
many:
e.g. Some days I feel like giving up the job.
Come and see me any time you wish.
We play tennis most weekends.
III.

Degree adverbs

Degree adverbs can be used before adjectives, verbs, or other adverbs to give information about
the extent or degree of something. Compare:
e.g. Theyre extremely happy.
I really hate traveling by plane.
Hes almost always late.
Adverbs of degree are often formed from adjectives by adding ly and they come directly before
the word they qualify:
e.g. She is absolutely wrong.
She largely ignored the weather conditions.
Not all verbs, adjectives, etc can be modified by a degree adverbial. Degree can only apply to
GRADABLE WORDS, ie words whose meaning can be thought of in terms of a SCALE. Most
pairs of words of opposite meaning, like old and young, are gradable:
e.g. That man is very old/ quite young.

Here is a list of adverbs of degree:

Absolutely
Extraordinarily
Adequately
Extremely
Almost
Fairly
Altogether
Fantastically
Amazingly
Fully
Awfully
Greatly
Badly
Hugely
Completely
Immensely
Considerably
Incredibly
Dearly
Intensely
Deeply
Just
Drastically
Largely
Dreadfully
Nearly
Enormously
Partly
Entirely
Perfectly
Exceedingly
Positively
Excessively
Pretty
Extensively
Quite

Rather
Really
Reasonably
Simply
Slightly
Somewhat
Strongly
Surprisingly
Terribly
Totally
Tremendously
Truly
Unbelievably
Utterly
Very
Well
Wonderfully

Notes:
1. A few adverbs of degree are nearly always used in front of the main verb: almost, largely,
nearly, really, virtually.
2. Some adverbs of degree are almost always used after the main verb: altogether, somewhat,
well, enormously, tremendously.
3. A group of adverbs of degree are called emphasizing adverbs. These are formed from
emphasizing adjectives: absolutely, completely, entirely, just, perfectly, positively, purely, quite,
really, simply, totally, truly, utterly. Emphasizing adverbs usually come in front of the verb.
4. Very and very much -> we dont use very before verbs, but we can use very much before
some verbs to emphasize how we feel about things.
e.g. I very much agree with the decision.
We (very) much enjoyed having you here.
Verbs like this include: agree, doubt, fear, hope, like, want; an also admire, appreciate, enjoy, and
regret.
We can use very but not (very) much before participle adjectives
5. Quite has two practically opposite meanings:
(a) The football ground was quite (= completely) full; you couldnt get another person in it.
(there is strong stress on quite and on the following adjective)
(b) As a pianist Peter is quite (=fairly) good. (there is a weaker stress on the adjective)
IV. Focusing adverbs
If you want to indicate the most relevant thing involved in what you are saying, for example the
main reason for doing something or the main quality of something, you can use a focusing
adverbs. We distinguish two groups of focusing adverbs:

(a) restrictive adjuncts, which make explicit that what is being communicated is restricted to a
part that is focused. They are: alone, exactly, exclusively, just merely, only, precisely, purely,
simply, solely; chiefly, especially, largely, mainly, notably, particularly, primarily, principally,
specifically. Most restrictive adjuncts can either precede or follow the part on which they are
focused, though it is more usual for them to precede. * On the other hand, alone normally must
follow the part on which it is focused.
e.g. You can get a B grade just/merely/purely/simply for that answer/ alone.
(b) additive adjuncts, which make explicit that a focused part is an addition. They are: again,
also, either, equally, even, further, likewise, neither, nor, similarly, too; as well, in addition. As
regards position, again, also, similarly normally precede a focused part in the predicate but
follow a focused subject; too and as well normally follow a focused part; even normally
precedes; neither and nor are restricted to initial position and either to end position.
e.g. You can get a B grade just for that answer.
I am simply asking the time.
Even Bob was there.
We bought some beer as well.