Syntax of Adverbials

(Advl) within Verb

Phrases (VPs)
Content Topic 5.2.1
 TOPIC 5.1
• Syntax of Adverbials within VPs
• VP   →       V’ ({PP, AdvP, NP})
• V’    →       Vgp (NP ({NP, AP, PP}), AP, PP
(PP)})

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VP – V’({PP, AdvlP, NP})
Verb Phrase – Verb ({Prepositional Phrase, Adverbial
Phrase, Noun Phrase})
 THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF ADVERBIALS
three syntactic possibilities for each sentence-final
adverbial
Advl
Advl CL
Advl P
PrepP
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 Example of each structural
possibility follows:
Remember that the curly •Advl CL: The boys left
brackets indicate that for
each adverbial generated, before their father
one, but only one, of the could find them.
three choices must be
selected-an adverbial •Advl P: The boys work
clause (Adv] CL); an very quickly.
adverbial phrase (Adv] P);
or a prepositional phrase •PrepP: The boys eat
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(PrepP). lunch in the city.
An adverbial clause
can be expanded to
include an adverbial
subordinator
(adv sub) followed by
a new sentence (S):
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This rule reintroduces S as a constituent. Phrase
structure rules are recursive and can be applied
as often as needed. Let us consider the tree
diagram for a sentence with an adverbial
clause:

Advl CL adv sub S

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EXAMPLE:
This rule means that an adverbial phrase contains an
obligatory adverb, ADV, optionally preceded by one or
more intensifiers, (intens). An intensifier occurs not only
before but also before adverbs. The following sentence
and tree diagram illustrate a case where the optional
intensifier has been selected to modify an adverb:

Advl P (intens)nADV
EXAMPLE:
The superscript n after the optional intensifier allows for more
than one intensifier to occur. As is also the case with adjective
phrases in rule 5, some intensifiers may be repeated, while
other series of intensifiers can consist of different lexical items:

VERY REALLY QUITE EAGERLY

VERY QUICKLY
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Finally, an optional adverbial may also be
expanded as a prepositional phrase.
Advl CL adv sub S
EXAMPLE
THE
ORDERING
OF
SENTENCE-
FINAL
ADVERBIAL
S
The final point to make about sentence-final adverbials is that when more
than one occurs, the ordering is not random. To understand the order, it is
important to first establish that there are many semantically different types
of sentence-final adverbials (the following list is not exhaustive):

manner adverbial: John runs quickly.

direction adverbial: John ran to the store.
position adverbial: John is at home.
time adverbial: Judy eats lunch at noon.
frequency adverbial: Judy eats lunch every day.
purpose adverbial: Harry works to earn money.
reason adverbial: Harry works because he has to pay bills.
Adverbials of Manner, Direction, and Position:
1. Direction and manner have variable order with respect to each other.
2. Manner and position have variable order with respect to each other.
3. Direction tends to precede position, and they tend to be adjacent.
Adverbials of Time and Frequency:
1. Time and frequency tend to follow manner,
direction, and position.
2. Time and frequency are variable in order with
respect to each other:
Example: She eats lunch
quickly (every day at noon/at noon every day).
manner frequency time time frequency
Adverbials of Purpose and Reason:
I. Purpose and reason tend to follow all other adverbials.
2. Purpose tends to precede reason.

Example: in order to have time to read.

Example: She eats lunch quickly every day purpose
manner frequency because she likes to have time to read.
reason

Jane went to Ohio to visit her uncle because she hadn't seen him for years.
purpose reason
?Jane went to Ohio because she hadn't seen her uncle for years to visit him.
reason purpose
The ordering of sentence-final adverbials thus exhibits
some variability, yet it is far from being random, since
sequences such as the following are awkward if not
ungrammatical:

? Marcia walked this morning to the shopping center.

?Jane fixes dinner every day quickly.
?Harry goes jogging in order to stay fit at noon.
Many nonnative speakers of English order multiple adverbials in unacceptable ways. They also make other common word-order mistakes involving adverbs, such as putting an adverb between the verb and object noun in a verb phrase, which is ungrammatical in English:
*Mary speaks fluently French.
*Judy eats quickly lunch.

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REFERENCE:

Celce-murcia, Marianne & Larsen-freeman Diane. (1999). THE GRAMMAR BOOK AN ESL/EFL Teacher’s
Course Second Edition. Heinle & Heinle Publishers.