Geoff & Dick,
May I respond?
1) When I said "licensed by the verb" in my post, I was referring to just such verbs as "arrive" that require the temporal adverbial, expressed or understood. It seems that with this understood it is possible to state it as a precondition on your movement of the temporal adverbial to the fore: that complements be provided after it. (These are all quite distinct from the adverbial adjunct.)
2) I think that the nouns tomorrow, and today are often adverbial in nature (as in you examples), and that the adverb now is sometimes used as a noun (as in "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party."
Bruce
>>> Geoffrey Layton <[log in to unmask]> 02/21/08 12:43 PM >>>
Craig -
I'd like to put this question into the context of an issue that we seem to continually (although sometimes it seems continuously) confront - the impact of grammar instruction on writing. From my perspective, teaching students whether (and how) these phrases function adverbially would fall under the "grammar instruction has no effect and perhaps even a negative effect on writing" dictum. Of more interest to me is the rhetorical effect of starting or ending the sentence with adverbials, particularly those that communicate WHEN information. For example, ending the sentence with a WHEN adverbial ("He arrives a week from Thursday.") effectively ends the sentence, whereas starting the sentence with an adverbial almost forces the writer to continue writing. For example, a sentence that starts with WHEN information ("A week from Thursday he arrives") sounds very unfinished and awkward, but it has the benefit of forcing the writer to expand the sentence with WHERE and WHY information: "A week from Thursday, he arrives from San Francisco to perform as the piano soloist with the Chicago Symphony." This is how I like to use grammar.
Geoff
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:49:59 -0500
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Adverb?
To: [log in to unmask]
Craig,
Would all of these be noun phrases functioning adverbially? (This is a genuine question, not a challenge.)
He arrives a week from Thursday.
He arrives Thursday.
He arrives this afternoon.
He arrives tomorrow.
He arrives today.
He arrives now.
The first three seem to be noun phrases, but what about the last three?
Dick Veit
________________________________
Richard Veit
Department of English
University of North Carolina Wilmington
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Hancock
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 12:42 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Adverb?
Bruce,
I wonder about the confusion that might be caused by 3b) below: "A noun phrase referring to a time period may be called an "adverbial phrase."" My own tendency would be to say that it is a noun phrase functioning adverbially within this context. It is also possible for the same phrase (though it refers to a time period) to act in a different role. "Last summer was hot." (Last summer as subject). "I hated last summer." (Last summer as direct object complement of "hated".) I don't think a noun like "summer" is an adverbial noun outside of context.
He left home. He went home. The first is transitive, the second intransitive. The verb has an influence on the functional role.
We also have adverb phrases, like "so quickly" or "too often." I would call them "adverb phrases" because an adverb functions as head.
To me, a "phrase" would refer to the internal structure of the word group. Function (like adverbial) would be somewhat independent of that.
Craig
Bruce Despain wrote:
Janet,
I think that explaining "last summer" in your sentence needs to point out a number of relationships.
1) It is a phrase, in that it consists of more than a single word.
1a) The (operational) limiting adjective "last" modifies the noun "summer" designating a seasonal part of a year.
1b) "Summer" is one of those nouns that refers to a time period.
2) The phrase functions in the predicate as temporal modification.
2a) Temporal modification may be carried out by single words, which are then called "adverbs."
2b) Temporal modification carried out by phrases are called "adverbial phrases."
3) A noun that refers to a time period may often be used in the predicate by itself as temporal modification.
3a) Such nouns are often called adverbial nouns.
3b) A noun phrase referring to a time period may be called an "adverbial phrase."
The adverbial phrase in this case "last summer" is modifying the whole subject-predicate combination "Reports of flying saucers were frequent." Such phrases have been called "adverbial adjuncts" in the sense that they are not licensed by the verb phrase, as many adverbial phrases are. Such phrases are more freely attached to the sentence, much like sentence adverbs (never, sometimes, always, immediately, etc.) regularly are.
Bruce
>>> "Castilleja, Janet" <[log in to unmask]> 02/20/08 4:27 PM >>>
How do you guys handle this kind of a sentence:
Reports of flying saucers were frequent last summer.
Do you call ‘last summer’ a noun phrase functioning as an adverb or do you just call it an adverb phrase?
Janet Castilleja
Heritage University
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
Climb to the top of the charts! Play the word scramble challenge with star power. Play now! To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
|
