Ministry of Higher education

And scientific research

University of Diyala

College of basic education

Dep. Of English

( phrasal adverbs )

Presented By

Suhaib Saeed Hammed

Supervised By

Dr. Sundus Talib Hassan

2018
1439
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 DEDICATION

To my Father’s memory

To my dear mother and

Benevolent family

To my professors

To everyone who helped me

IV

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 Contents
1.

No. Contents Page

1 Contents I

2 Dedication IV

3 Introduction III

4 Section One

5 1.1 Definitions of adverb and phrasal verbs. 1

6 1.2 characteristics of phrasal adverbs in English 2-3

7 1.3 The structure of adverbial phrase 3-6

8 Section Two

9 2.1 positions of adverbial phrases 7-9

10 2.2 Temporal adverbial phrases 9 – 12

11 2.3 Meaning and function of an adverbial phrase 12 -13

12 Conclusion 14

13 Reference 15

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 Section one

1.1. The definitions of adverb and phrasal adverbs.

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 Adverbs and phrasal adverbs are highly adaptive expressions. They
arise in a variety of environments from which they take on certain
characteristic features. This makes them a very flexible means of natural
language expression. Their semantics raises some intriguing puzzles for
linguistic theory that have attracted much interest in current semantic
research as documented, e.g., by the collections in Lang, Maienborn &
Fabricius-Hansen ,)2003(Austin, Engelberg & Rauh (2004) or McNally &
Kennedy (2008). The aim of this article is to provide an overview outlining
the major semantic issues involving adverbs and adverbials and sketching
some major theoretical approaches that have been developed to account for
adverbial semantics, as well as current issues of debate.
The term “adverb” refers to a specific word class or lexical category
and therefore contrasts with other word classes, such as nouns, adjectives,
verbs, or prepositions. On the other hand, both adverbs and prepositions are
uninflected, with adverbs differing from prepositions in having phrasal
status. Reductionist approaches have therefore proposed to analyze at least
some adverbs as intransitive, i.e. objectless, prepositions.

The term “phrasal adverbs” refers to a specific syntactic function

within a sentence and therefore contrasts with other syntactic functions,
such as subject, object, and predicate. Adverbials are traditionally conceived
of as being those elements that serve to specify further the circumstances of
the verbal or sentential referent. They are restricted to a set of semantically
limited usages, prototypically specifying time, place, or manner, cf. the
italicized strings in (Foley, M. and Hall, D. (2003). Advanced Learner’s
Grammar. Harlow : Longman P. 288)

1.2. Characteristics of phrasal adverbs in English

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 In dealing with the adverb phrases in English, more attention is
given to the function of the adverbs which modify verbs, adjectives and
adverbs. Adverbs are the most mixed of all the major word classes. Adverbs
are difficult to define because there are many subclasses and positional
variations. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary)2004( defines an adverb
as a word that adds more information about place, time, manner, cause or
degree to a verb, an adjective, a phrase or anther adverb: In 'speaking kindly',
'incredibly deep', 'just in time' and 'too quickly', the words 'kindly',
'incredibly', 'Just' and 'too' are all adverbs. An adverb modifies a verb by
giving circumstantial information about the time, place, or manner in which
an action, event or process takes place. It adds new bits of meaning to the
sentence, but does not change the basic meaning. Even it is left out, the
sentence is still grammatical.

Considering the forms of adverbs, many adverbs, although not all,

are formed by adding the suffix iy' to an adjective, e.g. sadly, quickly,
suddenly. 2. Some are formed from nouns in combination with other
suffixes: clockwise, lengthwise. 3. A set of common adverbs have no suffixes:
here , then, now, just, well, therefore, soon. These adverbs can be identified
by their distribution in sentences, that is, where they occur and which lexical
categories they co-occur with (The Practical Application Of Intellegent
System. Mcarhur, 2005: 11-15).

Gradable adverbs can take comparative and superlative inflections.

There are three types of adverbs of comparison:

Absolute : easily
Comparative : more easily
Superlative: most easily

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 The comparative is used for a comparison between two, and the
superlative is used for a comparison where more than two are involved
(Quirk and Greenbaum, 2007: 142-3).

Comparison is expressed by

1. the inflected forms in - er and - est,

2. the use of more and most,
3. the forms of equational, lesser and least degrees of comparison, 'as, less,
least.''

There are some adverbs that have the comparatives and superlatives
formed from different stems:

well better best

badly worse worst etc.

For example:
He behaves more/ less politely than his friend.
He behaves as politely as his friend.
Ben writes more clearly than his brother does.

1.3. THE STRUCTURE OF ADVERBIAL PHRASE

The adverb phrase is a group of words not containing a subject

and verb and usually contains an adverb as a headword, and acts as an
adverb. It may be preceded by pre-modifiers and followed by post-
modifiers. However, many head adverbs do not take either pre-modifiers or
post-modifiers. Thus, it is normal for an adverb phrase to have only the
head adverb. Intensifying adverbs can realize the pre-modifier of the

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adverb in an adverb phrase. (Muqattash & Kharma, 1996, p. 221) For
example:

• She went home quite soon.

• He visits his parents very seldom.
• He drives his car so carefully.
• She speaks English perfectly / surprisingly well.
• She behaves rather / too / very nervously.
"Adverbial phrases with post-modification are rare. But there are
some cases of post-modification, namely post-modification by enough and
indeed":

•He paid (fairly enough).

• He paid (very fairly enough).

In comparative constructions, the adverb can be followed by a

finite clause:

• She cleans much (carefully) than you do.

In other cases in comparative constructions the adverb is followed

by an ellipted clause:

• He finished (earlier) than you.

Sometimes, in comparison, the adverb is followed by a finite

ellipted clause:

• She spoke so (quickly) that we couldn’t understand her.

• She studied so (hard) that she got A+.

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 As shown in the examples above, one can observe that most
adverbial phrases are made up of one adverb. Intensifiers are adverbs
premodifying other adverbs (very, pretty, rather, too, so).

Like adjectives, intensifiers can pre-modify the head of an adjective

phrase. Hence, pre-modification can only be realized by intensifiers.
Whereas post-modification is rare. It is worth saying that the realization of
pre-modification and post-modification at the same time of a head adverb is
not usual. Though there are some exceptions:

•She speaks very positively indeed, (where very is a pre-modifier, positively

is the head adverb and indeed is the post-modifier).

The term "adverb" is appropriately used instead of "adverbial"

phrase" since the adverbial phrase is often made up of one head
adverb.Notice that sometimes the intensifier can be pre-modified by
another adverb (Muqattash & Kharma, 1996, p. 221):

• Drive (much more carefully)

As it has already been said, an Adverbial Phrase is a linguistic term

for structures operating to express adverbial meaning. Like other phrases, it
can be simple or complex. It is as well an endocentric structure.

The internal structure of Adverbial Phrases would look like this

(mod (s) pre) + H + (mod (s) post)

and it could be continuous and discontinuous.

Head Word in Adverbial Phrase

From the structural and functional point of view, each Adverbial

Phrase must contain a head. |The head is the most important word in the

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phrase, first it bears the crucial semantic information: it determines the
meaning of the entire phrase.

Head words in Adverbial phrases are basically adverbs. They are a

heterogeneous class, belong to the open-class items mostly, but varying in
their functional and positional ranges. They constitute a series of overlapping
subclasses, and some of them belong to more than one subclass. For
example, the adverb very is an intensifier that functions only as a pre-
modifier (very large, very carefully), whereas too is an intensifier when it
functions as a pre-modifier (too small, too quickly), but it has a different
meaning in addition when it functions as an adjunct (The food was good,
too.) We may regard as a complex adverbs certain fixed expressions that
have the form of prepositional phrases, such as of course and as a result.

Beside adverbs a head in Adverbial Phrase can be represented by

other structures that function as adverbs known as adverbials, such as
adjectives, nouns ,particles, etc .Adverbs tell when, where, why or under
which condition something happens or happened. Adverbs frequently end
in –ly; however, many words and phrases not ending in –ly serve an adverbial
function but an –ly ending is not a guarantee that a word is an adverb. The
words lovely, lonely, motherly, friendly, neighborly, for instance, are
adjectives (Tallerman, 2011:108):

That lovely woman lives in a friendly neighborhood.

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 Section Two

2.1 Positions of Adverbial Phrase

It is a fact that adverbials can appear nearly anywhere within a

sentence and often not so close to the words they modify, whereas
adjective modifiers usually appear adjacent and often immediately
preceding the word they modify. (Eggo, 2006, p. 4)

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 "Although some adverbials can only occur in fixed position, most
adverbials are mobile, i.e. they can come at different places in the sentence."
(An Examination Of The Interrogative Caluse Leech & Svartvik, 1988,P 197)

Hence there is a need to highlight the three different positions:

Front-position (Initial position), for example:

Happily the father kissed his daughter.

Mid-position (Medial position), for example:

The father happily kissed his daughter.

End-position (Final position), for example:

The father kissed his daughter happily.

As demonstrated in the examples, one can notice that:

•Front-position: before the subject:
Only Ali spoke to me yesterday.

•Mid-position: Immediately before the main verb if no auxiliaries

are present:
He never speaks foreign languages
 After the first auxiliaries if there is more than one:
He has never been to Rome.
 After forms of Be when it is a main verb:
He is never at school now.

• End-position:

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  After an object or complement:
He took his son to the hospital.
 After the verb:
He spoke very politely.

The position of adverbs depends partly on their structure (adverbs,

prepositional phrases, noun phrases, finite verb clauses, non-finite verb
clauses, Verbless clauses). It also depends partly on its meaning (viewpoint,
focusing, intensifier, manner, subject, place, time). Long adverbials (such as
clauses, prepositional and noun phrases) normally occur in the final position,
though the initial position is common, especially for emphasis or contrast.
For example:

 He went to Sana'a on Friday.

 On Friday he went to Sana'a.
 She was a brilliant as far as philosophy is concerned.
 As far as philosophy is concerned, she was a brilliant.

Long adverbials are not common in medial position. Medial

position is usually used for short adverbs such as sometimes, never, almost,
hardly, just:

 I sometimes go for sightseeing.

 They've just finished exercising
The ability of adverbials to move around in a sentence is also
restricted or conditioned by the function of the adverbial; whether it is an
adjunct, conjunct or disjunct. For example, the position of adjuncts "depends
mainly on the semantic role of the adjuncts. For instance, place adjuncts
favor end positions irrespective of their function or role". (Muqattash &
Kharma, 1996, p. 224)

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2.2 Temporal Adverbial Phrases
Adverbs of time function as responses to the questions,
'when','how long' and express some relation in time (Quirk, 2007: 242). The
examples of the adverbs of time in English are: just, today, then, afterwards,
before, lately, soon, now, and after lunch etc. In this category of adverbs,
components of a temporal phrase in Thai will be discussed in detail. The
positions of the phrase is then considered. Vichin Panupong (1970: 106 ff)
has provided a detailed account of a temporal phrase with its components
which are demonstrated in the succeeding sections.

A temporal phrase in Thai consists of one of the following:

1 .a sequence of two or three time-words

2 .one, two or three time-words followed by a high-tone determinative or by

one of the fixed phrases

3 .a cardinal numeral accompanied by two or three timewords

4 .a cardinal numeral preceded by a time-word, and followed by two time-

words and a high-tone determinative, or followed by a time-word and the
fixed phrase.

5 .a time-word or two followed by an ordinal numeral

6 .a time-word preceded by a pre-numeral and followed by an ordinal

numeral.

1). A sequence of two or three time-words:

a) A sequence of two time-words:

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'just now'

'formerly'

b) a sequence of three time-words:

'the other day'

'this morning'

2. One, two or three time-words followed by a high-tone determinative or

by one of the fixed phrases:

a) one, two or three time-words followed by a high-tone determinative:

'that night'
'some years back'
'yesterday'
'in the old years'
'this very morning'
'yesterday morning'

b) one, two or three time-words followed by a fixed phrase:

'last month'
'last year'
'last week'
'next month'

3. A cardinal number accompanied by two or three time-words:

a) a cardinal numeral preceded and followed by a time-word:

'at 10. p.m.'

'at 2.p. m.'

b) cardinal numeral preceded by one and followed by a sequence of

two-time words:

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'at six in the evening'
'five years ago'

c) cardinal numeral preceded by two and followed by one time word:

'at 7 a.m.'

4. A cardinal numeral preceded by a time-word, and followed by two

time-words and a high-tone determinative, or followed by a time-word and
the fixed phrase.

A) a cardinal numeral preceded by a time-word and followed by two

time-words and a high-tone determinative:

'two weeks back'

'three months ago'

B) a cardinal numeral preceded by a time-word and followed by a time-

word and the fixed phrase:

'ten minutes ago'

5. A time-word or two followed by an ordinal numeral:

'second month'
'the third year'
'next week'

6. A time-word preceded by a pre-numeral and followed by an ordinal

Numeral:

another year'
'for a month'

Temporal adverbs in Thai are significantly similar to the temporal

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 adverbs in English as far as the position in a sentence is concerned. They
may be put at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. Adverbs of time in
English can appear at the begriming or the end of a sentence:

I am leaving today.
Yesterday you did not come in time.

2.3 MEANING AND FUNCTION OF AN ADVERBIAL PHRASE

It is obvious that according to meaning an Adverbial Phrase

corresponds to the meaning of either an Adverb or and Adverbial Clause,
answering the question when, where, how, why, etc. and expressing the
meaning of time, place, manner ,reason, etc. From the point of view of
function, an Adverbial Phrase appears on a phrase level structure and on a
clause or sentence level structure, as it is mentioned before .On a phrase-
level structure, it functions mostly as pre-modifier in difference structures.
Sometimes it may function as a post-modifier, too. ( Aarts, B., 2001, p. 166)
Being a subordinate element in an endocentric structure, a
modifier is a word or word group that affects the meaning of a headword. In
that it describes, limits, intensifies, and/or adds to the meaning of the head.
Modifiers may appear before or after the head word they modify, and
sometimes they are separated from the head by an intervening word.
An adverb may pre-modify another adverb, and function as
intensifier:
* They are smoking very heavily.
* They did not injure him that severely.
* I have seen so very many letters like that one.

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 As with adjectives, the only post-modifier is enough, as in
cleverly enough .A few intensifying adverbs, particularly right and well,
pre-modify particles in phrasal verbs:

* He knocked the man right out.

* They left him well behind.

The few adverbs that pre-modify particles in phrasal verbs

also pre-modify prepositions or rather prepositional phrases:

* The nail went right through the wall.

* His parents are dead against the trip.
* He is there now.

Intensifying adverbs can pre-modify indefinite pronoun, pre-

determiners and cardinal numbers:

* Nearly everybody came to our party.

* Over two hundred injuries were reported.
* I paid more than ten pounds for the book.
The indefinite article can be intensified when it is equivalent to the
unstressed cardinal one:
 They will stay about a week

Conclusion

Adverbials and their dedicated word class, the adverbs, comprise a

heterogeneous set of lexical and semantic classes and subclasses with very

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specific c inferential and distributional properties. They are only loosely tied

to the surrounding syntactic and semantic structure, leaving much space for

variation and adaptation. What the vast majority of adverbs has in common

is that they are non-subcategorized linguistic parasites: Wherever they find a

suitable integration site, they attach to it and supply additional and uncalled-

for information. Precisely because of this parasitic nature and their frap pant

flexibility, adverbials constitute a challenge for linguistic theory, which, in

turn, must account for this flexible means of natural language expression in

terms of a sufficiently rigid account of their lexical, compositional, and

conceptual semantics.

References

1. Aarts, B. (2001). English Syntax and Argumentation. New York : Palgrave

2. Abdallah, H. (1994). A Dictionary of International Relations Conference
Terminology. Librairie du Liban
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3. Alexiadou, Artemis 1997. Adverb Placement: A Case Study in
Antisymmetric Syntax. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
4. Alexiadou, Artemis 2004a. Adverbs across frameworks. Lingua 114, 677–
682.
5. Alexiadou, Artemis (ed.) 2004b. Taking up the Gauntlet. Adverbs across
Frameworks. Lingua 114, 677–682.
6. Ali, A. Y. (1989). The Holy Quran Text Translation and Commentary.
Kuwait: Dar-Al-Salasel.
7. Eckersley, C.E. (1958). A Concise English Grammar for Foreign Students.
London: Longman.
8. Foley, M. and Hall, D. (2003). Advanced Learner’s Grammar. Harlow :
Longman.
9. Leech & Svartvik, (1988) an examination of the interrogative clause.
10.McArhur, (2005). the practical application of intelligent system.
11.Schwarzschild, Roger 2005. Measure phrases as modifi ers of adjectives.
Recherches Linguistiques de Vincennes 35, 207–228.

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