Craig,
You are right. The better view is that the modification (of a noun) is
adjective-like. I was going off the traditional use of "adverbial" for all
notions of time and place, etc. Hence, "the place where I sat" would be
adverbial in that terminology, after all, "where" is an adverb.
Here is how I would (over-)analyze one of your examples. (It depends on my
"quack" theory of principled paraphrasis)
"two miles further"
two = adverbial noun of number (non-count) [tells how many miles]
(many) = quantifying limiting adjective (omitted)
miles = adverbial noun of distance (plural count) [tells how much farther]
(much) = quantifying limiting adjective (omitted)
-er = adverbial suffix of comparison (attached to far [suppletive "farth" or
"furth"])
far = adverb of distance (I think the use of further for farther is becoming
entrenched in some dialects)
Indeed, I take the "about" to be an approximative adverb in the phrase "about
eleven miles." Such adverbs as "almost" and "nearly" are of this same class.
I
think that we can expand the phrase again with another (kind of) adverb "just
about eleven miles."
Bruce
>>> [log in to unmask] 2/4/2005 7:37:39 AM >>>
Bruce, Michael,
I'm surprised no one wrote in on this, but isn't "about eleven miles away"
adjectival rather than adverbial? It seems to me to modify Laodicea, with the
commas present to accomodate its nonrestrictive nature. (The Which is test
distorts the picture, as it would for many postnominal modifiers. The box on
the
table. The box which is on the table.)
I'm not sure how to describe the internal structure, though it's not the
only example I can imagine: two miles further, three days past, and so on. At
a
place three miles away, we will stop for lunch. A restaurant two miles back
had
been an ideal place for lunch. If I had to choose, I would pick away as the
head; it seems to be acting almost like a preposition in a postposition (away
about eleven miles). "About" qualifies eleven. "about eleven miles" tells us
the extent of the awayness. Don't you think?
I tried some quick research, but couldn't find a treatment of it. Has
someone come up with a name for it?
Craig
Bruce D. Despain wrote:
Michael,In my grammar I take it as a non-restrictive adverbial (of
place)modification to Laodicea. Without ellipsis the noun phrase would
read:"Laodicea, (which is) about eleven miles (far) away (from it)." This
makes_from_ (relation) the head, with the adverb (direction) _away_ modifying
it,which in turn has the adverb (distance) _far_ modifying it, which in
turnhas
the adverbial noun (extent) _miles_ modifying it, and then the adverbialnoun
(number) _eleven_ modifying _miles_ (many varieties of adverbs!).However, the
idiom _away from_ seems to be moving in the direction of aprepositional phrase
modifying _away_. If you can't live with ellipsis,then perhaps you will have
to
have some of these basic syntactic functionstaken over by the parts that do
appear. Maybe _miles_ would then take overas the head with _away_ modifying
it,
or prossibly better vice versa. Theyare both adverbial with very similar
meaning, one being simply more specificthan the other.I hope this
helps.Bruce----- Original Message -----From: "R. Michael Medley (GLS)"
<[log in to unmask]>To: <[log in to unmask]>Sent: Wednesday, February 02,
2005
7:52 PMSubject: what kind of phrase In the sentence:"Colosse has never been
either rebuilt or excavated, unlike its neighborLaodicea, about eleven miles
away."What kind of phrase is "about eleven miles away"? I realize it
isperforming an adverbial function, but what is the head word of the
phrase?Thanks in advance for your advice.R. Michael Medley, DirectorIntensive
English ProgramEastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA
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