EXPANDING THE VERB PHRASE: ADVERBIALS

EXPANDING THE VERB PHRASE:
ADVERBIALS

 

Adverbials That Do Not Follow the Verb

 This lesson deals principally with adverbs that occur in other places in the sentences. These include adverbs of frequency, intensifiers, qualifiers, and adverbials that are used before and after adjectives and in other place in the sentences.
Notice that the illustrative sentences in the chart represent different sentence patterns. The words nouns/adjective are used to include both the direct object of the noun + verb + noun sentence and the subject complement of the noun + linking verb + noun/adjective sentence.

If the complement is an adjective, it may have intensifiers before it.

                He become very worried.

If the complement is a noun, it will not have an adverbial modifier before it unless it preceded by an adjective.

                Prof. Ober gave an interesting talk.
                He gave a very interisting talk.
                He gave an almost perfect explanation.

Qualifiers and intensifiers have been put before adverbs and adjectives in the first chart to show that they may occur with either part of speech. The qualifiersand intensifiers modify the words that follow them.

Intensifiers and Qualifiers

These are words like very, extremely, exceptionally, exceedingly, rather, almost, nearly, completely, too, fairly, somewhat, especially, and quite. They are used before both adjective and adverbs.

                The very small boy can run exceedingly fast.
                The physicist is extremely brilliant.
                His work is exceedingly difficult to understand.
                I have tried very hard to understand it.
                Mozart was an exceptionally gifted musician.
                I am fairly certain that the student will do rather well.
                The quite boisterous young man drove his teachers nearly crazy.
                It is too dark tonight to travel very far.

Adverbs of Frequency

These include always, sometimes, often, usually, frequently, rarely, seldom, ever, hardly, hardly ever, occasionally, and never.

Adverbs of frequency occur before all verbs in the simple present and the simple past tenses except be. They follow be.

                Student usually prefer paperbound texts.
                They often worked late that year.
                Carmen never goes out alone.
                He is never late for dinner.

When the predicate is made up of a verb plus auxiliaries, the frequencyword usually occurs after the first auxiliary.

                She was rarely seen alone.
                He has usually seemed happy to help her.
                They might occasionally have asked her to dinner.

Some of these modifiers change their positions in the sentencequite readily to accommodate the requirements of emphasis and euphony. The most mobile of these modifiers are sometimes, often, usually, frequently, and occasionally. When these modifiers deviate from the normal position, they most commonnly occur at the beginning or at the end of the sentence and are usually separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma.

                Usually, students prefer paperbound texts.
                Often, we work late on Fridays.
                We work late on Fridays often.

The adverbs seldom, never, rarely, always, hardly, and hardly ever are much less likely to occur out of the normal position. When they do, a change in wording or in word order often occurs, and no comma is required.

                Never is John late.
                But not:
                Never John is late.
                Seldom does he go there.
                But not:
                Seldom he goes there.

Adverbs of Degree

Some adverbs of manner may be used as adverbs of degree with adjectives or other adverbs.

                The strange birds looked unbelievably exotic and breathtakingly beautiful.
                She run incridibly fast.
                He finds strictly authentic ballads greatly superior to other music.

Nouns

These may be used before adjectives to modify them. Thus, they are used adverbially.

                The milk is ice-cold.
                The suit is navy blue.
                The knife is razor-sharp.
                The price of bacon is sky-high.

This use of nouns adverbially implies a comparison. The preceding sentence mean:

                The milk is as cold as ice.
                The suit is as blue (or the same shade of blue) as the blue of the navy.
                The knife is as sharp as a razor.
                The price of bacon is as high as the sky.

Prepositional Phrases

These, as has been shown, are commonly used as adverbs followings verbs. They may also be used after adjectives to modify these adjectives.

                I thougt the entertainmentfit for a king.
                He is stil unsure of his abillity.
                I am optimistic about her chances of success.

Infinitves

These may also follow an adjective and be used adverbially to modify it.

                Tomatoes were once considered not good to eat.
                The tourists are ready to go on safari.
                All students are able to learn something.

Summary: Position of Adverbials

Adverbials in general may be described as the rovers of the English language. They do have some stable pattern of behavior, as has been shown. The general order of adverbials as they appear after verbs is: place, manner, time.

                Mr. Novak goes to Chicago by plane every Tuesday.

However, time adverbials may often appear at the beginning of the sentence.

Adverbs of frequency normally occur before the main verb unless the main verb is be, in which case they occur just after the verb.

These verbs may often occur either at the beginning or at the end of the sentence.

Only the intensifiers and qualifiers seem totally predictible. They are used immediately before the word they modify and do not vary from this pattern.

 

The sequential relationships between adverbial modifiers and the material modified, are summarized as follows.

MODIFIERS OF ADJECTIVES

intensifier  →  adjective noun  →  adjective adverb  →  adjective adjective  ←  prepositional phrase adjective  ←  infinitive

MODIFIERS OF VERBS

adverbs  →  verb verb  ←  adverb verb  ←  prepositonal phrase verb  ←  infinitive

MODIFIERS OF ADVERBS

intensifier  →  adverb qualifier  →  adverb

posted by : Rianda Rita Ayu