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
From:
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
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