The Adverb

This is a brief summary of the theory in "A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language," by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik.



HELLO, EVERYBODY!

This lesson is about the

WHAT IS AN ADVERB?

An ADVERB is a word which describes or gives more information about a verb, adjective, another adverb or phrase, and it functions as the head of a adverbial phrase with or without modification. 

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ADVERBS AND ADVERBIALS?

The main difference is that adverb is a word class, whereas adverbial is a syntactic unit that performs the function of adverbs.

ADVERBS, ADVERBIAL PHRASES, and  ADVERBIAL CLAUSES belong to the "ADVERBIAL" syntactic category. 

👉An ADVERB usually consists of one word. 

The dog runs QUICKLY. 

👉An ADVERBIAL can be a word, a phrase or a clause. 

The cat is UNDER THE TABLE.

ARE ADVERBIALS OBLIGATORY?

Adverbials are described as a rather PERIPHERAL category, since they are mostly OPTIONAL. 

(Yesterday) it rained (for three hours).

However there are certain verb patterns where adverbials are obligatory:

💥COPULAR VERBS: 

                 👉I'm AT HOME.

                 👉She is LATE.  

💥COMPLEX TRANSITIVE VERBS:

👉We keep the bread IN THE FRIDGE.

HOW ARE ADVERBS CLASSIFIED?

Adverbs can be classified from different points of view:

👉MORPHOLOGICALLY: There are SIMPLE, COMPUND, and DERIVATIONAL adverbs.

👉SYNTACTICALLY: We can distinguish between adverb as CLAUSE ELEMENT and adverb as MODIFIER of adjectives or other adverbs. 

👉GRAMMATICALLY: There are four types called ADJUNCTS, SUBJUNCTS, CONJUNCTS and DISJUNCTS.

👉SEMANTICALLY: In this category we have a large group. Among the most familiar we can mention the semantic classification of adjuncts which is as follows:

SPACE, TIME, PROCESS, RESPECT, CONTINGENCY, MODALITY and DEGREE. 

If you want to enlarge your knowledge about adverbs, you can watch this presentation (and enjoy the music as you learn). 👇👇

I hope you find this lesson useful and clear.

Marce.