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Adverbials

He agreed cheerfully
Martha hit George with her fist

One of the traditional English parts of speech is the adverb, and English uses a number of additional structures to fill positions normally filled by adverbs. These can be called adverbials, like the predicate adverbials we just dealt with. Unfortunately, the category of "adverb" is something of a catch-all. There is not much in common between the intensifying adverbs (degree words) we encountered early on and the place and time adverbs and adverbials one finds as subject complements and as postmodifiers in noun phrases. And in neither case were we of dealing with the most traditional of adverb functions, modifying verbs.

Intensifiers as Adverbs. In the traditional list of parts of speech, for example, intensifiers (degree words) are also as intensifying adverbs, though they also appear as specifiers at the beginning of adverb phrases (AdvP)--e.g., very soon. As the sentences below suggest, degree words (intensifying adverbs) can serve in some other odd positions, modifying indefinite pronouns (1), predeterminers (2), cardinal numbers (3), indefinite NPs (4), and ordinals (5) and superlatives (6) with the definite article:

(1) Nearly everybody agrees.
(2) About half the staff agrees.
(3) Over two hundred dentists agree.
(4) Over a week passed.
(5) This was nearly the largest crowd in history.
(6) About the first ten were good.

Disjuncts as Adverbs. Another group of "adverbs" are the so-called sentence adverbials. Sentence adverbials characteristically modify an entire sentence or comment on its probability, desirability or style. They are often set off with commas at the beginning and end of a clause:

(7) Surprisingly, George passed.
(8) Fortunately, I wore my raincoat.
(9) Frankly, I'd rather be in Philadelphia.
Just as some grammarians prefer to treat intensifiers as a separate group of words called degree words, some prefer to treat sentence adverbials as a separate class called disjuncts, separating them from those adverbs which modify verbs and verb phrases.

Adjuncts. Adverbs and other adverbials which are lodged inside verb phrases and modify verbs are called adjuncts in the more advanced grammars, though you might or might not find the term in a handbook. Like adjective phrases as premodifiers inside noun phrases, adjunct adverbs are generally optional modifying elements within the verb phrase. When not off modifying nouns, place and time adverbials are adjuncts. The adverbs of frequency which serve as specifiers for verb phrases are also adjuncts.

Of the other adjuncts, manner adverbs are particular common. If we have any mental image of an adverb at all, it is probably a manner adverb. These are, for example, the adverbs which can be made by appending -ly to an adjective, though those are not the only manner adverbs:

(10) He agreed cheerfully.
(11) He played hard.
(12) He ran well.

Prepositional Phrases. Adjunct adverb functions are frequently served by prepositional phrases (PP). Prepositional phrases are not limited to adverb functions--we have the of- genitive, and the use of to and for to mark recipients or benefiaries of ditransitive words--but they are probably adverbials more often than not. Some adverbial categories, like instrumentals are almost always conveyed by PPs in English:

(13) Martha hit George with her fist.
(14) I sent the message by email.
(15) They captured him by means of a trick.

Conjunctive Adverbs. Along with adjuncts and disjuncts, we also have conjuncts. The adverbs and adverbial among them are a particular nuisance, since conjunctive adverbs like therefore or however are easily confused with true conjunctions but are supposed to be punctuated differently. These "adverbs" are really another separate category, a closed list of words, some of which serve no other function. Conjunctive adverbs link two items together in meaning, but they are not considered strong enough to join two independent clauses together with only a comma, as true coordinating conjunctions do.. There must be a period or semi-colon between the two clauses, as in:

(16) The vice president missed the deer; however, he did manage to wound Homer.

The conjunctive adverb itself needs to be set off with at least commas. Sentence (16) uses a semi-colon. A period will also suffice as half of the enclosure when the adverb is at the beginning or end of the next sentence::

(17) The vice president missed the deer. However, he did manage to wound Homer.
(18) The vice president missed the deer. He did manage to wound Homer, however.

When the conjunctive adverb is in the middle of a clause, however, it needs commas both before and after, as in (1). If the two clauses involved are independent clauses, they must still be separated by a period or semi-colon. Sentences (20) and (21) are errors, as the astericks indicate.

(19) The vice president missed the deer; he did, however, manage to wound Homer
(20) *The vice president missed the deer; he did however, manage to wound Homer.
(21) *The vice president missed the deer, he did, however, manage to wound Homer.
When one of the clauses joined is a subordinate clause, the conjunctive adverb must still be set off, but the clauses themselves can be joined by a comma:
(22) When the conjunctive adverb is in the middle of a clause, however, it needs commas both before and after.
(23) When the vice president missed the deer, he did, however, manage to wound Homer.
The ability to move around inside a clause is one of the characteristics that conjuctive adverbs share with other adverbs, and it is our best way of distinguishing them from regular conjunctions, so that we can punctuate accordingly. This is just as well, since conjunctive adverbs are a rather arbitrary class, and there seems to be little difference between the uses of, say, however and a coordinating conjunction like but:
(24) The vice president missed the deer, but he did manage to wound Homer.
The punctuation rule presented here is, therefore, difficult to grasp, and it seems likely to be abandoned soon. In the meantime, it wouldn't hurt to observe it. Use the movement test or engage in another feat of memorization, calling on the same inner resources which enable you to remember all the words to, say, "Wasting Away in Margaritaville" when barely aware of your surroundings. However and therefore are two of the most common conjunctive adverbs. Some others are: accordingly, anyway, besides, consequently, furthermore, incidentally, indeed, instead, likewise, meanwhile, moreover, namely, nevertheless, nonetheless, now, otherwise, similarly, still, thus.

How Much of This Will be on the Test?
We have now encountered a good range of adverbials--intensifiers, adverbs of frequency, place (locative) adverbials, time adverbials, disjuncts (sentence adverbials), manner adverbials, instrumentals, and conjunctive adverbs. The last of these is particularly hard for many students to remember; we'll work more on them when we get to conjunctions.