Adverbial phrase

In linguistics, an adverbial phrase ("AdvP") is a multi-word expression operating adverbially: its syntactic function is to modify other expressions, including verbs, adjectives, adverbs, adverbials, and sentences. Adverbial phrases can be divided into two types: complement adverbs and modifier adverbs. For example, in the sentence She sang very well, the expression very well is an adverbial phrase, as it modifies the verb to sing. More specifically, the adverbial phrase very well contains two adverbs, very and well: while well modifies the verb to convey information about the manner of singing (for example, She sang well versus She sang badly), very is a degree modifier that conveys information about the degree to which the action of singing well was accomplished (for example, Not only did she sing well, she sang very well). The following examples illustrate some of the most common types of adverbial phrases. All adverbial phrases appear in bold; when relevant, the head of each adverbial phrase appears in square brackets. The heads of each of the following adverbial phrases are degree adverbials (written "Deg" in syntactic trees). Degree adverbials modify adjacent adverbs (that is, an adverb that is lower in the syntactic tree than the degree adverbial). Degree adverbials are commonly used in English to convey the intensity, degree, or focusing of an adjacent adverb. In most cases, a degree adverbial is used to modify an adverb in an adverbial phrase: for example, in (1) the degree adverbial very modifies the adverb quickly; in (2) the degree adverbial extremely modifies the adverb hard; in (3) the degree adverbial really modifies the adverb well; and in (4), the degree adverbial so modifies the adverb soon. (1) They repaired my car [very] quickly. (2) He worked [extremely] hard in the game. (3) She did [really] well in her race. (4) Why are you leaving [so] soon? Modifier adverbial phrases combine with a sentence, and the removal of the adverbial phrase yields a well-formed sentence.

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English phrasal verbs

In the traditional grammar of Modern English, a phrasal verb typically constitutes a single semantic unit composed of a verb followed by a particle (examples: turn down, run into or sit up), sometimes combined with a preposition (examples: get together with, run out of or feed off of). Alternative terms include verb-adverb combination, verb-particle construction, two-part word/verb or three-part word/verb (depending on the number of particles) and multi-word verb.

Grammatical modifier

In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which modifies the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", providing extra details about which particular ball is being referred to. Similarly, the adverb "quickly" acts as a modifier in the verb phrase "run quickly". Modification can be considered a high-level domain of the functions of language, on par with predication and reference.

Syntactic category

A syntactic category is a syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume. Word classes, largely corresponding to traditional parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb, preposition, etc.), are syntactic categories. In phrase structure grammars, the phrasal categories (e.g. noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, etc.) are also syntactic categories. Dependency grammars, however, do not acknowledge phrasal categories (at least not in the traditional sense).