3 Ahaotu IJAH Adverbial Mobility & L2 Competence

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IJAH, VOL. 6(4), S/N 23, SEPTEMBER, 2017
International Journal of Arts and Humanities (IJAH)

Ethiopia
Vol. 6 (4), S/No 23, SEPTEMBER, 2017: 178-192
ISSN: 2225-8590 (Print) ISSN 2227-5452 (Online)
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ijah.v6i4.15
The Impact of Adverbial Mobility on L2 English Competence:

A Study on Students of Emarid College, Port Harcourt
Ahaotu, Joseph Onyema

Department of English Studies
University of Port Harcourt
Port Harcourt, Nigeria
E-mail: joseph.ahaotu@uniport.edu.ng.
Telephone: +234- 8064390390
Abstract
This study examined the problems that some learners of English face due to the
mobility of adverbs. The investigation is based on the theory of Natural Order of
language acquisition. The study relied on four null hypotheses as background of
validation for the investigation and administered a test on the respondents, who are all
senior secondary three (SS3) students of the three campuses of Emarid College, Port
Harcourt. The respondents were given a pre-test and then a full test, which result was
analyzed with simple percentages to determine how effectively the respondents placed
adverbs. It was observed that many of the respondents used adverbs in certain positions
that produced ungrammatical and ambiguous sentences. It was also observed that some
learners confused adverbs and adjectives, and so, they use one class where they ought
to use the other. It could then be inferred that adverbs and adverbials actually exhibit
restricted mobility, since they cause awkwardness and ambiguity in some sentence
slots. The study submitted that adverbs’ mobility depends largely on the sub-type and
the nature of the adverb. It is therefore suggested that teaching and learning of adverbs
be approached from the perspectives of sub-categories and position, rather than the
entire class as an indivisible homogenous group that exhibits the same characteristic
mobility.
Key Words: Adverbs, mobility, L2, vocabulary development, Krashen, Natural
Approach
Introduction
Adverbs are generally described as a highly mobile word class in English. The adverb
category is a word class and has the capacity of expansion into larger grammatical
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structures such as phrases and clauses. Generally, they function as modifiers clarifying
sentence meaning, especially in descriptive writing. Leech (1974) explained that
meaning refers to an entire process of “signification”, a convergence of linguistic
(diction, tone, stress, idioms, etc.) paralinguistic, (gestures and the forms of
surrogating) and literary (symbolism, imagery, and figurative expressions) properties
of a language towards a single goal of meaningful expression. Ejele (2003, p. 2)
distinguished linguistic and non-linguistic meanings and concluded that linguistic
meaning covers the linguistic meaning of words, phrases and sentences abstracted from
situations, beliefs and individual experiences. Although there are many controversies
on the concept of meaning, (Ndimele, 2007b, pp. 6-9), it is the primary reason of
expression.
A writer chiefly achieves vivid description of adjectives, adverbs, and action/state of
verbs through the use of apt adverbs, which portray a mental picture of the writer’s
intended meaning. Perhaps, only adjectives may rival adverbs in enhancing description.
But a point of distinction between the two is that adjectives modify nouns, pronouns
and other adjectives (in a string), while adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, fellow
adverbs and other categories such as prepositional phrases (PP). This modification role
of adverbs may be illustrated in the following sentences:
1 (a) Patrick ate slowly, (modifies the verb “ate”)
1 (b) Timi spoke very timidly, (modifies the adverb “timidly”)
1 (c) Francis drives (rather) very fast, (Modifies the adjective “fast”)
In sentence 1(a) the adverb “slowly” modifies the verb “ate”, and we may consequently
visualize the manner of the verb. The impact of the modification is the enhancement
of inferential meaning. For instance, in “Patrick ate slowly” we may infer any one of
the following, subject to further contextual evidence occurring either before or after the
expression.
A. He is not hungry.
B. He is tired (or ill).
C. The meal is not delicious.
D. It is not his favourite dish.
E. He is distracted, absent-minded, or wary.
In sentences 1(b) and 1(c), the adverb “very” intensifies both the adverb “timidly” and
the adjective “fast”, and these modifications enhance the intensity of “timidity” and
“speed” respectively.
Types of Adverb
Adverbs are classified into categories (Okoh, 1995, pp. 48-49); Ahaotu, 2013, pp. 95-
101; Sinha, 2002; and Harmer, 2005, p.44) such as:
a) Adverbs of degree: rather, fairly absolutely, quite, securely, surely
b) Adverbs of time/frequency: once, often, last, since, now, later, tonight, early,
late, yesterday morning, and always

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c) Adverbs of place: in the classroom, there, anywhere, here, at the church, and
upstairs
d) Adverbs of reason: because, since, consequently
e) Adverbs of condition: if, unless, regardless
f) Adverbs of manner: well, stupidly, hurriedly, recklessly, quickly and fiercely
The purpose of this study is to investigate the pattern of mobility of adverbs and
adverbial groups, within various sentence positions and to determine the effect of this
mobility on the grammatical competence of students of Emarid College, Port Harcourt,
as representative of second language (L2) and foreign language (FL) learners of
English. The study focused primarily on the L2 learners’ competence in the syntactic
arrangement of adverbs, which, like adjectives, may produce dangling modifiers and
ambiguity if the order is improper (Eko 1992, pp. 55-56). The study sought to establish
whether adverbs are infinitely mobile or restrictively so.
Hypotheses
This research was guided by the following null hypotheses in the validation and
evaluation of its data:
(1) Adverbs do not perform modifying functions in sentences.
(2) Adverbial mobility is not patterned
(3) The violation of adverbial positioning does not lead to awkward expressions
and ambiguity.
(4) Learners of English have no difficulties in the use of adverbs.
Framework of the Study
This research is anchored on the Natural Order Hypothesis on language acquisition.
According to Krashen and Terrell (2000, pp. 23 - 38), there are five hypotheses that
constitute the “monitor model”, and these are:
1. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis
2. The Monitor Hypothesis
3. The Natural Order Hypothesis (Natural Approach)
4. The Input Hypothesis
5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis.
The Natural Order hypothesis is based on the observation that L2 and foreign language
(FL) learners of a language tend to “acquire features of the target language in
predictable sequences” similar to native-speaker acquisition (Lightbown & Spada
2008, p. 39). The theory stipulated that contrary to intuition, the simplest rules are not
necessarily the first to be acquired. It draws illustration from some advanced L 2
speakers that fail to observe simple rules, such as morphemic addition of “s” in plural
formation, in rapid conversation. Learners pass through stages in development and the
great paradox of language teaching is that “language is best taught when it is used to
transmit messages, not when it is explicitly taught for conscious learning.” (Krashen &
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Terrell, 2000, p. 55). A mastery of how adverbs are used to clarify messages contributes
a sequence in L2 grammatical capacity for effective description and vocabulary
development. Lightbown and Spada (2008, pp. 31-45) expatiated more on the theories
of L2 acquisition.
However, the Natural Order Hypothesis differs significantly from Chandler and
Stone’s (2003) suggestion because the former advocates that learners should not be
taught the written form of the target foreign language at the early stage but should rather
be first exposed to model spoken forms; which the learners should acquire through
repetitions and imitations of the model. According to the Natural Approach, the learner
should be allowed to see the foreign language in print only when “considerable
familiarity with the spoken word was attained” while “the study of grammar was
reserved for a still later period” (The Committee of Twelve [Modern Languages
Association], 1901, cited in: Krashen & Terrell, 2000, p. 9). The researcher hopes to
contribute to the literature of vocabulary development, as well as grammatical
competence through the interface of the Natural Approach to language acquisition and
the investigation of the mobility of adverbs.
The Adverb Class in English
Quirk and Greenbaum (2000, pp. 126 -136) posited that an adverbial is an adverb that
functions as a constituent distinct from subject, verb, object and complement in a
sentence. They noted that there are three classes of adverbials: the adjuncts, the
disjuncts and the conjuncts.
1. The Adjuncts
The adjunct sub-category performs basic adverb functions and may be either partially
or wholly integrated into the structure of the clause or sentence. Examples of this are
found in the following:
2. Haven’t you received your test score yet?
3. They are discussing upstairs.
4. You may now go home.
5. She really loves him, but he absolutely ignores her advances.
2. The Conjuncts
The semantic value of a conjunct is realized in its connective function. A conjunct is
similar to a conjunction: both essentially connect grammatical structures. But a
conjunct indicates the connection between two semantic units that co-occur in the same
or proximate sentences, while conjunctions link categories such as: words, phrases,
clauses, and paragraphs. In other words, conjuncts establish a link between statements
and what was said before them as in the following examples:
6. I have not looked into his qualifications. He seems very intelligent, though.
7. If they open all the windows, then I’m leaving (Quirk & Greenbaum, 2000, p.
126).
8. The lecture lasted three hours, and yet it was not boring.
9. We ought to sue him for damages, but then he is only a minor.
10. She wanted to be a boxer, but her parents openly dissuaded her.

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3. The Disjuncts
The disjuncts provide an evaluation of an expression in terms of either the form of
communication or its content. They are loosely connected to a sentence, but they
convey comments on its content or manner. Examples are:
11. Luckily, we finished our coursework before the strike.
12. Honestly, there is nothing I can do.
13. Fortunately, no one was injured.
14. Frankly, I dislike algebra.
The adverbials of these categories are essentially semantic connectors and modifiers in
the above illustrations; a contrast with conjunctions that are basically structural links
(between words, phrases, clauses and paragraphs). The examples in sentences (9 -11)
illustrate the difference between adverbials functioning as conjuncts and conjunctions,
and also prove that both can co-occur in a grammatical sentence.
Ndimele (2007a, p. 148) cautioned against a hasty delimitation of this category when
he stated: “The adverb class is the most troublesome part of speech to define. There is
no homogeneity in the form of or position of all the words that are referred to as
adverbs, i.e. they vary greatly both in their forms and position in a sentence”.
Contributing to the definition of adverbs, Huddlestone and Pullum (2002, p. 652)
offered what they described as the “starting point for the definition of adverbs”. They
described the adverb as:
… a grammatically distinct category of words whose members are
characteristically used to modify verbs but not nouns. Broadly speaking,
however the words that can modify verbs can also modify adjectives and
other adverbs – and many can also modify expressions of additional
categories other than nouns (or nominals).
The words that modify verbs (adverbs) are generally distinct from those that modify
nouns (adjectives). Adverbial modifiers cannot be used interchangeably with the
adjectival modifiers without producing ungrammatical expressions as in the following.
15. (a) Fred bought a new wristwatch (adjective ‘new’ modifying noun
wristwatch)
(b)* Fred bought a newly wristwatch.
16. (a) Our soldiers fought gallantly, (adverb “gallantly” modifying verb
“fought”)
(b) * Our soldiers fought gallant,
17. Achebe depicted Okonkwo as a gallant warrior. (the adjective “gallant”
modifies the noun “warrior”.
18. My uncle travels often (adverb “often” modifying verb “travels”)
19. (a) We’ve packed from our old house, (adjective “old” modifying noun
“house”.)
The category that modified the verbs is distinct from that which modified the nouns in
the examples above. Examples (20-28) below illustrate that adverbs not only modify
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verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, but also modify additional categories such as:
prepositional phrases (PP), verb phrases (VP), and noun phrases (NP). The modifying
adverb is italicized while the modified category is underlined and also stated in
parentheses.
20. He vehemently disagreed to withdraw the suit. (verb)
21. He was certainly too old for the job. (adjective)
22. She sang rather mournfully. (adverb)
23. Your team is clearly on the lead this season. (PP)
24. Unfortunately, he rigged the election again. (clause)
25. He would rather not count his chicks before they are hatched. (VP)
26. She probably did not know the content of the parcel. (VP)
27. They ate almost the whole food. (NP)
28. Very few modern humans are scrupulous. (determinative).
The nouns are distinct from NPs in this context, as adverbs do not occur as attributive
modifiers within an NP but may modify an NP from an external position. For instance,
contrast (28) above with:
29. (i)* They ate the almost whole food.
(ii)* They ate the whole almost food.
It is often noted that adverbials modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs (Nwokedi,
2003, p. 72; Osuafor, 2004, p. 59) but this view omits the other categories, such as
illustrated in examples (25 - 28) above, which adverbials equally modify.
The form of adverbs distinguishes them from adjectives. Certain classes of adverbs
may be identified by specific morphological endings that characterize them. Ndimele
(2007a, pp. 148-151) identified four distinct forms of adverbs and these are as follows:
A. Most adverbs, especially those formed from adjectives and the –ing/-ed forms
of verbs (gladly, grudgingly, hurriedly, etc) have the derivational affix -ly.
Examples are:
Adverb deadly frankly usually happily badly excitedly belatedly hurriedly fixedly
Adjective dead frank usual happy bad excited belated hurried fixed
Table 1: Forms of Adverbs Ending in -ly.

However, a small group of -ly words exist, which are not adverbs. Such words include
adjectives such as: burly, comely, bully and manly. Others are sisterly, brotherly,
fatherly, sickly, etc.
B. Some adverbs also take on the derivational affix –wise. Adverbs in this class are
generally derived from nouns to which the suffix –wise is attached. Examples are
available in:

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Noun health clock money length plot character cross

Adverb health wise clockwise moneywise lengthwise plot wise character wise crosswise
Table 2: Forms of Adverbs Ending in -wise.

A small number of adverbs in this morphological form are not necessarily derived from
nouns (see: likewise, otherwise, etc.)
C. Some adverbs are derived from the addition of the suffix –ward(s) to nouns
and prepositions; while others are formed when “a-” is prefixed to a variety of
word classes such as: nouns, adjectives and verbs. Examples of these are as follows:
1. suffixation of –ward:
Preposition in out for after
Adverb Inward; Outward; forward Afterward;
inwards outwards afterwards
Noun east home sky earth

Adverb eastward; homeward; Skyward; earthward;
eastwards homewards skywards earthwards
Table 3: Forms of Adverbs Ending in –ward(s).
2. Prefixation of –a:
Anew astir
Apace afield
Afresh aloud
Ahead ashore
Aground afloat
However, the affixation of either “–ward” or “–a” does not guarantee that a word is an
adverb. An illustration of this is that some adjectives (such as: afraid, aghast, alive,
awake, asleep, and awash) share this morphological structure with adverbs. This
adverbial-adjectival homogeneity is common and may be illustrated by the
homonymous pair “hard” in the following sentences:
30. (a) You asked him a hard question (adjective)
31. (b) She works hard on her new farm (adverb.)
D. Some adverbs are gradable (Okoh, 1995, p. 48; Ndimele, 2008, p.104) and so may
be expressed in absolute, comparative and superlative degrees. There are three basic
forms of such expression.
Some gradable adverbs can take “-er” and “-est” suffixes to form their comparative
and superlative forms from the absolute form.

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Absolute comparative Superlative

Fast faster fastest
Far farther (further) farthest (furthest)
Soon sooner soonest
Early earlier earliest
Hard harder hardest
Table 4: Gradable Adverbs that Accept Suffixes
2. Some adverbs take certain free lexical items like “more” and “most” to indicate the
comparative and the superlative forms, examples:
Absolute comparative superlative
Gladly more gladly most gladly
Quickly more quickly most quickly
Sincerely more sincerely most sincerely
Politely more politely most politely
Table 5: Gradable adverbs that accept “more” and “most”.
3. Some adverbs form their comparative and superlative forms in an unpredictable
pattern. This irregular pattern is illustrated in the forms of the following adverbs:
Absolute Comparative Superlative
Well better best
Badly worse worst
Much more most
Little less least
Table 6: Gradable Adverbs that are Irregular.
Other adverbs are of such nature that comparison is pointless. These are, therefore, used
in their only forms at all degrees of comparison. Examples are:
Always yes past back
Before no so seldom
Whenever not thus very
Never ever since than
There here past afterwards
Really yet twice otherwise
Table 7: Non-gradable Adverbs.

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The membership of the adverbial category is constantly growing through the

derivational process of affixation. Based on this, Okoh (1995, p. 48) classified the
group under the open word class, alongside nouns, adjectives and lexical verbs. With
regard to meaning, he identifies four (4) broad categories of adverbs:
Manner adverbs: stupidly, well, hurriedly, lackadaisically
Degree adverbs: rather, fairly, absolutely, quite, entirely.
Place adverbs: anywhere, there, here, in the house.
Time adverbs:
a) When: tonight, then, once, now
b) Frequency: often, regularly, weekly, never
c) Duration: always, briefly, long, temporarily
(Okoh 1995, pp.45-49)
Ndimele (2007a, pp. 152-158) highlighted eleven possible positions for adverbials in
sentences while Quirk and Greenbaum (2000, pp. 208-209) summarized positional
mobility of adverbs into the following four (4) positions:
(i) Initial position (i.e. before the subject of the main verb)
(ii) Medial position (1) (M1) (a) immediately before the first auxiliary or lexical
be, or (b) between two auxiliaries or an auxiliary and a lexical be
(iii) medial position (2) (M2):
(a) Immediately before the lexical verb, or
(b) In the case of lexical ‘be’ before the complement.
(iv) Final position: (a) after an intransitive verb, or (b) After any object or
complement. The final position includes any position after the stated clause
elements, e.g.:
32. (a) I asked immediately for a pen.
(b) I asked for a pen immediately.
Olagoke (1979, p.164, cited in Ndimele, 2007a, p. 151) quoted Lees as identifying five
(5) classes of adverbials. He further analyzed the mobility and appropriate position of
each class of adverbials and we present a summary of this analysis below.
(1) Sentence-adverbials: these modify the entire sentence and occur
predominantly in sentence-initial position:
33. (a) Usually, my parents spend their vacation at Ile Ife.
(b) My parents usually spend their vacation at Ile Ife.
(2) Pre-verb adverbials: they occur before the main verb:
34. (a) You have just won a lottery.
(b) You just won a lottery.

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(3) Place and time adverbials: these occur after the verb:
35. (a) The party ended just now.
(b)* The party just now ended.
36. (a) I hope to attend the service next Sunday.
(4) Manner adverbials. Adverbials in this group predominantly occur in
sentence-final position:
37. (a) She drove recklessly.
(b)* Recklessly she drove.
38. (a) Most girls eat slowly.
(b) Slowly most girls eat.
(c) Most girls slowly eat.
(5) Attributive adverbials: this class of adverbs usually precedes the adjective,
which it qualifies. Generally, they are degree words, such as the following:
39. (a) The portrait is rather beautiful.
(b) The portrait is beautiful rather.
40. (a) Some lovers are extremely jealous.
(b) Some lovers are jealous extremely.
Study Design, Methodology, Population and Sampling Procedure
This study included interactive lesson/exercises with the target student respondents.
The total research population is five hundred and eighty-two students of the secondary
school level in the three campuses of Emarid College, Port Harcourt. One hundred and
fifty SS3 students of this group were used as sample population. The school is a co-
educational secondary school. The students of the sample population did a pre-test
consisting of ten items in which they were asked to construct sentences using specific
adverbs and adverbials. Later, they were given another exercise consisting of twenty
(20) items designed to evaluate the learners’ competence in appropriately placing
adverbs. Both exercises are drawn from the learners’ course book, Intensive English
for senior secondary schools (3). The data collected were presented and analyzed with
the help of statistical tools such as tables, percentages, and proportionate evaluation.
The focus of the analysis was to determine how adverbial mobility affected the
grammatical competence of Emarid students as a sample of L2 learners of the English
Language.
Data Presentation and Analysis
In this study, the respondents are representative of ESL learners. The researcher
administered two separate tests on the respondents. The first exercise, a pre-test,
comprises ten adverbial phrases and was administered before an interactive session on
adverbs. The students were required to make a sentence with each of the adverbials
with a research focus on the positions where the students will put the adverbials. At the
end of the exercise, the following data were obtained.
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No of Students Score Percentile

35 7-10 24%
20 5-6 13%
95 0-4 63%
From this result, we deduce that the learners have significant difficulty in placing
adverbials in the appropriate positions in sentence construction since only a small
percentage (37%), or a raw figure of fifty-five (55) students out of one hundred and
fifty (150) were able to score up to the average mark of 5 and above on a scale of 1-10.
The researcher instructed the students on the positioning and mobility of adverbs. The
tutorial focused on the position and order of adverbs and adverbials. The researcher
guided the learners in class activities aimed at highlighting the positional mobility of
adverbs and explained how the category may function variously as: adjunct, conjuncts
and disjuncts.
At the next lesson, the students were given the second exercise comprising twenty items
in two sets of ten each. They were required to choose an appropriate order in completing
sentences with a sequence of adverbials and the result indicated an improvement in the
learners’ ability to put adverbials in their proper positions. However, some learners
were still unable to do this properly.
Ninety (90) students scored ten and above over twenty [10/20]; a figure that represents
61% of the sample figures. This shows a percentile increase of 24% over the last figure
of 37% that scored up to 50% in the pre-test. Also, the remaining thirty-nine (39%)
percent, representing sixty (60) students scored 9 marks and below. This figure
represents a decrease in the former failure figure of 63%, which is an indication that
the students benefited from the tutorial and so, obviously improved in their ability to
correctly use adverbs and adverbials.
Discussion of Findings
The findings prove the hypotheses (2), (4) and (5) wrong: adverbs are not infinitely
mobile; they are neither homogenous nor can they be used in just any sentence position.
The findings also show that misplacement of an adverb may lead to ungrammatical
expressions like the ones asterisked in this work. In some cases where such mobility is
not defective, meaning may be altered. Here are some examples of adverbs moving into
sundry positions in a sentence:
41. I ate only at the party. (not before or after it.)
42. Only I ate at the party. (not John or any other person.)
43. I ate at the party only. (not at the museum.)
Obviously, moving the adverb “only” into the various sentence slots indicated in (41 –
43) above produced variance in the shades of meaning of the sentence. Interestingly, a
movement of the same adverb into an adjective slot entirely changes the word class as
can be seen in the following examples:
44. I ate at the only party we held last year. (adjectival modifier of the noun “party”)
45. That was the only party she ever attended. (adjectival modifier of “party”)
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It is reasonable, then, to argue that sometimes, a structural mobility of adverbials entails

a semantic movement. On the other hand, our findings disprove null hypotheses (1) and
(3). It positively attests that adverbs perform modifying functions in sentences, and also
exhibit a pattern of varied mobility. But that mobility is restricted; not indiscriminate.
Summary
The crucial role of adverbs cannot be overstressed, especially in the process of
description. Adverbs enhance vivid description through the provision of details of
when, how, what reason, to what degree/extent, etc., of the actions, or condition of a
lexical verb and other categories. For instance, the simple clause “He sang” can be
granted a wider semantic field through the addition of adverbs and adverbials, as in the
following examples:
46. (a) He sang.
(b) He sang merrily.
(c) He sang quite merrily yesterday.
The addition of each new adverbial broadens the semantic scope of an expression and
the audience acquires more information (such as: the time, place, degree, manner, etc.
of a verb, adjective, adverb or other categories that adverbs could modify in a sentence.)
However, we observe that rather than clarify meaning, misplaced adverbs cause
ambiguity and awkwardness in a sentence. Although there is no homogeneity in either
the form or the position of adverbs (Ndimele, 2007a, 148), they are clearly not
absolutely mobile. The adverbial mobility is orderly and patterned according to the sub-
category of adverbial involved and the structural position in which the sub-category
occurs in a sentence.
Oluikpe et al. (1999, pp. 165-166) suggested an order for the occurrence of adverbials
in a sentence. This study adopts their analysis and submits that adverbs may be
appropriately arranged on the basis of the following order.
1. Remember that end-position adverbials are usually arranged in the following order:
Manner Place/direction Time
She walked elegantly towards her car a few minutes ago.
He worked conscientiously in the farm last holidays.
The man walked into our class twice yesterday
2. Note that when there are two adverbials of the same class, the more specific or
smaller unit comes first in the end position.
Examples:
Specific General Time
We held the meeting on a Saturday evening last week.
The match will start at 4 pm today.

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Smaller Unit Large Unit

His office is located in the tallest building in Port Harcourt.
Obi spends his holidays in a small village near Akure.
3. Remember also that of the adverbials in the end position, the one that is easily shifted
to the front position is that of time.
Examples:
Time
Last vacation my brother worked conscientiously in the farm.
At noon tomorrow the students will meet in the school hall.
4. Note also that the specific-time adverbial cannot be shifted to the front position in
isolation of the general-time adverbial.
Specific time General time Place
On Saturday evening last week we held the meeting in the farm.
Today the match will start ---------- in the school hall.
Specific time General Time Specific time
Today the match will start at 4 pm
Tomorrow the festival begins at midnight
Conclusion
A principal thesis of the study is that adverbs and adverbials provide an inexhaustible
repertoire of lexeme, which enhance expression both in written and spoken English.
Sentences obviously become more specific in meaning transmission when adverbials
are introduced into them. The ample illustrations provided above will suffice for this
submission. But the enhancement of meaning comes with a challenge to a learner in
the L2/FL classroom because the learner has to locate the balance between the
acclaimed high mobility of adverbs and the fact of adverbs being actually selective and
restricted to only few positions in a sentence. Adverbs are an important word class and
the learner that desires a mastery of the English language cannot avoid this class; nor
any word class anyway. The study of this important word class is necessary on account
of its significance in specificity of expression, and in aiding L2 vocabulary
development.
Recommendations
Based on the findings above, the study makes the following recommendations:
A. Lexicographers should produce a comprehensive dictionary of adverbs. The
project will achieve many goals, which include: drawing more experts’
attention to the category, encouraging further research and exposition on the
subject and providing an authoritative resource/reference material for teachers
and learners of English.

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B. Lessons drawn on the topic should be more task-based and focused on how
the learner may be assisted to acquire language and make comprehensible input
to the learning process (Krashen & Terrell (2000, p.55.) rather than on the form
of the message alone. Adverbial mobility may be presented as a relative
characteristic, and perhaps kept in the perspective of the sub-groups. Quirk’s
(2000) positional mobility and the superlative adverbial functions as adjuncts,
conjuncts and disjuncts would serve a good reference purpose. The learners
need ample materials and opportunity of usage of the adverbs so that they could
utilize them to transmit messages. For instance, the learners could be taught
that adverbs of frequency (usually, often, sometimes and always) may occur at
the beginning, medial or end position in sentences:
48. He usually goes to school by train. (medial)
49. Usually, he goes to school by train. (beginning)
50. He goes to school by train; usually. (end)
Yet, some adverbs of frequency like “never” can only occur in the middle position:
51. I can never drink alcohol.
52. *Never I can drink alcohol.
53. *I can drink alcohol never.
This could prove more effective than teaching adverbs explicitly for mere conscious
learning or even excessive emphasis on the generalized characteristic of mobility.
C. The study of adverbs should also include exercises such as revising sentences
in which adverbs are misplaced. We observe that this sort of exercise proves
effective in studying the nature of gerunds and modifiers, and how their
dangling forms may be revised. The proximity of an adverb to its headword is
crucial in the need to eliminate ambiguity. The further away an adverb is from
the headword it modifies, the more likelihood of such adverb dangling and
causing ambiguity. Hence, where learners are instructed on techniques of
eliminating dangling modifiers and revising awkward sentences to render them
more effective, such learners would likely master the use of not only the
adverbs but also other modifiers.
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178

IJAH, VOL. 6(4), S/N 23, SEPTEMBER, 2017

International Journal of Arts and Humanities (IJAH)

The Impact of Adverbial Mobility on L2 English Competence:

Ahaotu, Joseph Onyema

Copyright © International Association of African Researchers and Reviewers, 2006-2017:

Copyright © International Association of African Researchers and Reviewers, 2006-2017:

Table 1: Forms of Adverbs Ending in -ly.

Copyright © International Association of African Researchers and Reviewers, 2006-2017:

Noun health clock money length plot character cross

Table 2: Forms of Adverbs Ending in -wise.

Noun east home sky earth

Copyright © International Association of African Researchers and Reviewers, 2006-2017:

Absolute comparative Superlative

Copyright © International Association of African Researchers and Reviewers, 2006-2017:

The membership of the adverbial category is constantly growing through the

Copyright © International Association of African Researchers and Reviewers, 2006-2017:

No of Students Score Percentile

It is reasonable, then, to argue that sometimes, a structural mobility of adverbials entails

Copyright © International Association of African Researchers and Reviewers, 2006-2017:

Smaller Unit Large Unit

Copyright © International Association of African Researchers and Reviewers, 2006-2017:

Copyright © International Association of African Researchers and Reviewers, 2006-2017:

Gee, J. P. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method. New

Copyright © International Association of African Researchers and Reviewers, 2006-2017:

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3 Ahaotu IJAH Adverbial Mobility & L2 Competence

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