Adverbial Clause
An adverbial clause is a group of words that functions as an adverb in a sentence. It provides information about time, place, manner, condition, purpose, or reason. Adverbial clauses often begin with subordinating conjunctions such as "when," "where," "how," "if," "because," and "although." These clauses can modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs in a sentence.
7 Key excerpts on "Adverbial Clause"
eBook - ePubIntroduction to Typology
The Unity and Diversity of Language
- Lindsay J. Whaley(Author)
- 1996(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...Within this broad characterization, there is room for adverbials with many different types of meaning. In this section, I simply list some of the more common uses of Adverbial Clauses, interjecting typologically based comments when appropriate. Before doing so, it should be noted that many languages do not use Adverbial Clauses at all or use them infrequently. This is particularly true in languages that have complex tense and aspect systems or sets of verbal affixes that carry out the same function as adverbial phrases and clauses in languages such as English. ■ 2.1. Time Adverbial structures can function to provide information about the relative temporal ordering of two events (9). The Bare (Equatorial-Tucanoan: Columbia) Adverbial Clause is marked in two ways: by the sequence of subordinating conjunctions, ate abeuka (“as soon as”), and the sequential suffix -ka on the verb of the subordinate clause. Note further that the tense of the adverbial construction is only determinable by its relation to the main clause. It carries no independent marking for tense. This kind of tense and aspect dependency is common with Adverbial Clauses. Even in English, which does have tense and aspect marked on the finite verbs of Adverbial Clauses, the choice of tense is constrained by the tense of the main clause. For example, one can say “we’ll leave when Sonny gets here” but not “we’ll leave when Sonny got/will get here.” Although English and many other languages are replete with subordinators expressing time, this is by no means typical in the languages of the world. Some languages, such as Otomi (Oto-Manguean: Mexico), tend to let the tense and aspect markers of the verbs determine the relative temporality of the main and subordinate clauses (10). ■ 2.2...
eBook - ePubGrammar and Meaning
A Semantic Approach to English Grammar
- Howard Jackson(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...so Comment I believe, think; you know, see Sentence relative which, in which case Similarity just as, exactly as Comparison as if, as though [ Exercise 1 ] Adverbial Clauses Included circumstantial propositions have their grammatical expression in embedded Adverbial Clauses. Adverbial Clauses function mostly as optional Adjuncts in sentences. Occasionally the Adjunct may be obligatory, e.g. the Place clauses in [18] and [19]; or an Adverbial Clause may function as a Disjunct, e.g. the comment clauses in [56] to [63]. In the odd instance, just as Temporal and Locative phrases may sometimes take on participant functions as Subject, Object, etc., so too an Adverbial Clause may function similarly, e.g. [74] It seemed as if she was being called upon to make a quick decision and was finding the process difficult [P21: 70] Here there has been obligatory extraposition with the verb seem: it is a dummy holding the place of the Subject, which is the extraposed as if -clause. Adverbial Clauses may be finite or non-finite, though they most frequently have a finite form. As finite clauses, they are introduced by a subordinating conjunction which, together with the context, indicates the ‘meaning’ of the Adverbial Clause; e.g. because indicates ‘reason’, although indicates ‘concession’, and so on. Some subordinators, however, are used with more than one type of adverbial meaning: since may indicate ‘time (after)’ or ‘reason’; so that may indicate ‘purpose’ or ‘result’; and so on. Besides context and the subordinator, a contribution to the meaning of an Adverbial Clause may also be made by the tense or modality of the clause. We noted how a change in tense/modality could change a so that -clause from a ‘result’ meaning to a ‘purpose’ meaning in [54]...
eBook - ePubAmerican English Grammar
An Introduction
- Seth R. Katz(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...in a compound noun); A PPOSITIVE NP:M OD OF N; N OMINATIVE A BSOLUTE :M OD OF C LAUSE (e.g. The wind knocked down our tent, an event that ruined our camping plans). 11.3 Adverbials An adverbial is a constituent (phrase or clause) that provides adverb-like information and that is functioning in a role or slot that could be filled by an A DV P. We defined adverb-like information or adverb meaning back in the discussion of adverbs and A DV P S : an A DV P generally tells when, where, why, how, how much, how often, how long, and other versions of those sorts of information. Adverbials may take several forms, including A DV P, PP, A DV C L, NP (especially NP S that name times or places), and P RO A DV in dependent clauses and questions, as well as P ART P and I NF P (see Chapter 12). Adverbials have a number of functions: they can modify verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and clauses, and they can complement a verb as an SC, LC, MC, TC, or OC. We have so far avoided two problems with adverbials: first, there are times when it is not clear whether an adverbial following a verb functions as a modifier or a complement of that verb. Second, we have used the term “sentence modifier” or “clause modifier” loosely to identify any adverbial that falls outside the subject-predicate structure of the clause and that can be moved to the beginning or end of the clause or to the slot between subject and verb; but there are, as we shall see, a variety of clause-modifying adverbials with distinctly different characteristics. To more adequately organize and identify the adverbials we have so far studied, we need to develop some new concepts and some new terminology. These new ideas should complement and enrich our understanding of adverbials and augment our ability to identify them. 11.3.1 Scope 1 Until now, we have described adverbials as either complements of verbs or as modifying verbs, adjectives, other adverbs and clauses...
eBook - ePub- Frank Edgar Farley(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Perlego(Publisher)
...CHAPTER XI THE MEANINGS OF SUBORDINATE CLAUSES 393. Subordinate clauses may be classified not only according to their use as parts of speech, but also, in quite a different way, in accordance with their various meanings. These distinctions in idea are of capital importance for the accurate and forcible expression of thought. 394. The variety of meanings which subordinate clauses may express is great, but most of these meanings come under the following heads:—(1) place or time, (2) cause, (3) concession, (4) purpose, (5) result, (6) condition, (7) comparison, 43 (8) indirect discourse, (9) indirect question. The general meaning of the clause is usually indicated by the word which introduces it. I. CLAUSES OF PLACE AND TIME 395. An adjective or an Adverbial Clause may express place or time. I. Adjective Clauses The house where the robbery occurred is No. 14. The bridge over which we rode is in ruins. There is a point beyond which you cannot go. The day when (or on which) I was to sail arrived at last. The day before you came was rainy. His terror while it thundered was pitiable. II. Adverbial Clauses Remain where I can see you. That belongs where you found it. Whithersoever I go, fear dogs my steps. Whenever the bell rings, you must take down the receiver. Esmond heard the chimes as he sat in his own chamber. I have lived in Cairo since my father died. 396. Adjective clauses of place and time may be introduced by relative pronouns (see examples above). Adjective and Adverbial Clauses of place and time may be introduced by relative adverbs...
eBook - ePubTowards a Contextual Grammar of English
The Clause and its Place in the Definition of Sentence
- Eugene Winter(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...This meant looking backwards. Taking the preceding clause(s) and looking ahead of them in the text, we looked for cues in those clauses which predict the nature of the next (independent) clause(s). As with Adverbial Clause, our main analysis employed questions which had to be based on (a) what was ‘given’ or ‘known’ and (b) on what was presupposed by the preceding clause(s). Unlike the sources for Adverbial Clause, a presupposition does not exist until it is lexically realised in the main clause. Whatever descriptive inadequacies there are in the present study, there is no doubt that the primary contextual function of the Adverbial Clause is to provide the ‘known’ for which its main clause is the ‘new’, and that the immediately preceding clause(s) provide the ‘given’ or ‘known’ for this Adverbial Clause. We are going to need this notion for our definition of ‘sentence.’ (iv) Non-finite Clause As any superficial reading of English texts will show, these non-finite clauses are both ubiquitous and numerous. The non-finite clause has been treated separately from a parsing point of view: instead of depending on subordinators as signals, we depend on the meaning of the verb morphology, together with its syntactic position in the main clause. The important point to emerge here is that the non-finite clause group contained a fourth kind of subordinate clause by function: not relative, not noun clause and not Adverbial Clause, but the second (non-finite) verb of a basic two-clause clause structure, like that recalled in (145) below: (145) This amendment would enable many children to attend these schools (Scheurweghs, 1959, p...
eBook - ePubDialects of English
Studies in Grammatical Variation
- Peter Trudgill, J. K. Chambers(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Part five Adverbials Chapter 19 Adverbials in English dialects J. K. Chambers and Peter Trudgill Most of the chapters in this book have been centrally concerned with dialectal variation in the verb system. In turning now to adverbials, we are not, in fact, leaving the verb system entirely. Although adverbials fill several semantic and syntactic roles in English, most of them involve modification of the verb, and the relation to the verb system is close. One of their best-known roles is to further specify the type of action expressed by the verb, as in In many languages, such specifications might be realized by affixes on the verb itself, expressing habitual, iterative and inchoative aspects. Another role is to signal the speaker's attitude towards the propositional content of the sentence, as in This function is very similar to that of the modal auxiliaries of the verbal system; the meanings indicated by the adverbs can be paraphrased with modals: The similarity between some adverbs and the modals becomes clear in Brown's discussion of double modals in Chapter 8. Speakers whose grammar does not include double modals are usually puzzled, even mystified, when they first hear such sentences as He might could do it. He should can do it. Their puzzlement usually disappears when they realize that these sentences can be paraphrased in the standard grammar by substituting an adverb for one of the modals. He could maybe do it./He could perhaps do it. He can likely do it./He can probably do it. Because they have so many diverse functions in English grammar, adverbials form the most heterogeneous category among the major lexical classes. They are usually dealt with by grammarians in subclasses determined by semantic and/or syntactic criteria, as manner adverbs, temporals, locatives, intensifiers and so on. (For a useful syntactic classification, see Jackendoff 1972: Ch. 3; for a comprehensive outline, see Quirk et al. 1985: Ch...
eBook - ePub- Edward Dr. Woods, Rudy Coppieters(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Adverbials – Introduction Sections 449–452 Adverbials give extra information about an action, happening or state as described by the rest of the sentence. Adverbials have a number of different forms: • adverbs, adverb phrases, noun phrases, prepositional phrases • finite clauses, non-finite clauses (infinitives, - ing and - ed participles), verbless clauses. Most adverbials are mobile, so that they can occur in different places in the sentence: • front-position (FP): before the subject • mid-position (MP): before the main verb occurring on its own, after an unstressed operator, before a stressed operator • end-position (EP): after the verb (and its object and/or complement, if present). Long adverbials normally occur in end-position, while short ones usually occur in mid-position. Front-position gives contrast or provides the background or setting for what follows. Task one ** Underline the adverbials in the following text. In the last 50 years mining and forest industries have taken a larger place in Newfoundland economics. Although the fishing industries are still the largest employers, the province no longer depends upon them exclusively for its livelihood. In recent years gas and oil reserves to rival those in the North Sea have been discovered off the coast of the island and off Labrador. The federal government has given the go-ahead to a $5.2 billion project known as the Hibernia Oil Fields just off the east coast of St John’s. If plans are realized, oil could flow by the millennium. (from Insight Guide: Canada, p. 232) Task two ** (a) Arrange the above adverbials in groups on the basis of form categories, while adding FP, MP or EP in brackets to designate their position in the sentence. (b) How does length affect these positions? Task three ** Insert the adverbials (presented in alphabetical order) in the most appropriate position...
