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Concept
Adverbial phrase
Summary
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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