/ instituut voor de Nederlandse taal / Taalportaal
bibliography glossary about
  • Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
    Classification of adverbials
    quickinfo

    The term adverbial is used to describe various types of lexical items or phrases that are employed to modify anything from other clausal constituents to speech acts. Adverbials are syntactically optional constituents of a clause, with the possible exception of the complements of a small set of verbs.

    As far as their scope over other clausal constituents are concerned, adverbials may on the one hand be restricted to the modification of a single constituent, such as the adjective interessant interesting in the phrase heel interessant quite interesting, to having scope over an entire clause, as dalk perhaps in the case of Maria sing dalk môre Maria is perhaps singing tomorrow..

    An important distinction is the one between adverbials having scope over an entire clause and adverbials having scope over the verb phrase (VP) only. A number of tests are indicative of whether a given adverbial is a clause or VP adverbial. For instance, Maria sing môre Maria sings tomorrow may be paraphrased as Maria sing en sy doen dit môre Maria is singing and she does it (will do it) tomorrow, as indication that môretomorrow has the status of VP adverbial in this clause.

    Clausal adverbials typically precede VP adverbials in a clause, as in example (1a), where the clearly clausal adverbial miskien perhaps precedes the VP adverbial in haar tuisdorp in her home town. Some adverbials may function either as VP or as clause adverbial, as shown by the contrast between (1b) and (1c). If in haar tuisdorp is a clausal adverbial, it precedes miskien, which is a typical clause adverbial, as opposed to its VP adverbial use in (1b) where it follows the clausal adverbial.

    1
    a. Maria het miskien in haar tuisdorp gesing.
    Maria have.AUX perhaps in her home.town sing.PST.PTCP
    Maria perhaps sang in her home town.
    b. Maria het miskien in haar tuisdorp gesing.
    Maria have.AUX perhaps in her home.town sing.PST.PTCP
    Maria perhaps sang in her home town.
    c. Maria het in haar tuisdorp miskien gesing.
    Maria have.AUX in her home.town perhaps sing.PST.PTCP
    In her home town Maria perhaps sang.

    Note, in passing, that there is no strict ordering between adverbials and arguments, cf.

    2
    Fred hardloop <die myl> waarskynlik <die myl> vinniger <?die myl> op dié baan.
    Fred run <the mile> probably <the mile> faster <the mile> on this track
    Fred probably ran the mile faster on this track.
    readmore
    [+]Types of modification

    Adverbials differ according to whether they modify (3a) another clausal constituent, (3b) a verb phrase, (3c) a clause, (3d) a combinations of clauses, and (3e) a speech acts, e.g.

    3
    a. Chantal kook byna volmaak.
    Chantal cook almost perfect
    Chantal cooks almost perfectly.
    b. Sy kook voortreflik.
    she cook excellent
    She cooks excellently.
    c. Sy tree hopelik binnekort op.
    she step hopefully soon up
    She is hopefully appearing soon.
    d. Sy maak die gereg en dan sit sy dit voor.
    she make the dish and then put she it forward
    She make the dish and then dishes it up.
    e. Dit is om die waarheid te sê iets om te aanskou.
    it is for.COMP the truth PTCL.INF say.INF something for.COMP PTCL.INF behold.INF
    To tell the truth, it is something to behold.
    [+]Tests

    A number of tests can be applied to determine whether a given adverbial is a VP or a clause adverbial. The first two tests make a VP adverbial interpretation likely. In the first, a do paraphrase singles out an adverbial such as vinnig fast in (4a) which is a typical VP adverbial, cf. (4b). On the other hand, waarskynlik probably, which is a typical clausal adverbial, clearly fails the test, as in (4c).

    4
    a. Fred hardloop waarskynlik/vinnig op dié baan.
    Fred run probably/fast on this track
    Fred probably runs / runs fast on this track.
    b. Fred hardloop op dié baan en hy doen dit vinnig.
    Fred run on this track and he do it fast
    Fred runs on this track and he does it fast.
    c. *Fred hardloop op dié baan en hy doen dit waarskynlik.
    Fred run on this track and he do it probably
    To mean: Fred runs on this track and he probably does it.

    The second test, which is based on entailment, indicates that the truth value of the clause remains unaltered when a VP adverbial is removed, as in (5a), but not when a clause adverbial is removed, as in (5b).

    5
    a. Fred hardloop vinnig op dié baan > Fred hardloop op dié baan.
    Fred run fast on this track > Fred runs on this track.
    Fred tuns fast on this track > Fred runs on this track.
    b. Fred hardloop waarskynlik op dié baan ||> Fred hardloop op dié baan.
    Fred run probably on this track ||> Fred run on this track
    Fred probably runs on this track; Fred runs on this track.

    In contrast, a clause adverbial is recognisable when transferred to a preceding main clause, cf.

    6
    a. Dit is waarskynlik (so) dat Fred op dié baan hardloop.
    it is probably so that.COMP Fred on this track run
    It is probably so that Fred runs on this track.
    b. *Dit is vinnig (so) dat Fred op dié baan hardloop.
    it is fast so that.COMP Fred on this track run
    To mean: It is fast so that Fred runs on this track.

    In general, the adverbial having the larger scope, or whose scope includes that of another, precedes the other, so that a clause adverbial appears before a VP adverbial, as in example (7a). Example (7b) is infelicitous because the VP adverbial with narrower scope precedes the clausal adverbial with wider scope.

    7
    a. Fred hardloop waarskynlik vinnig op dié baan.
    Fred run probably fast on this track.
    Fred probably runs fast on this track.
    b. *Fred hardloop vinnig waarskynlik op dié baan.
    Fred run fast probably on this track
    To mean: Fred probably runs fast on this track.
    [+]VP adverbial vs clausal adverbial

    A distinction that plays an important part in the further discussion is that between VP adverbials and clausal adverbials, on the other. VP adverbials function as semantic modifiers only of the predicate of the verb phrase, but by contrast, clause or sentence adverbials take scope over an entire proposition. Thus vinnig fast and op die baan on the track in (8a) refer to how and where the running is taking place, while waarskynlik probably in (8b) refers to the likelihood of Fred's running.

    8
    a. Fred hardloop vinnig op die baan.
    Fred run fast on the track
    Fred runs fast on the track.
    b. Fred gaan waarskynlik hardloop.
    Fred go.AUX.MOD probably run.INF
    Fred is probably going to run.
    [+]Both VP adverbial and clause adverbial

    Some adverbials, such as the locative in die wedstrydreeks in the match series, may function as a VP adverbial when occurring after a clause adverbial such as waarskynlik probably (cf. (9a)), or as a clause adverbial when occurring before a clause adverbial (cf. (9b)), as the tests indicate.

    9
    a. Fred speel waarskynlik in die wedstrydreeks.
    Fred play probably in the match.series
    Fred is probably playing in the match series.
    a.' Fred speel waarskynlik en hy doen dit in die wedstrydreeks.
    Fred play probably and he do it in the match.series
    Fred is probably playing and he is doing it in the match series.
    b. Fred speel in die wedstrydreeks waarskynlik môre.
    Fred play in the match.series probably tomorrow
    In the match series Fred is probably playing tomorrow.
    b.' Dit is in die wedstrydreeks so dat Fred waarskynlik môre speel.
    it is in the match.series so that.COMP Fred probably tomorrow play.PRS
    It is so in the match series that Fred is probably playing tomorrow.
    [+]Adverbials and optionality

    The term adverbial is used to describe various types of lexical items or phrases which are employed to modify anything from other clausal constituents to entire speech acts. Adverbials are usually optional in the sense that a complete proposition can still be formed if they are removed. However, a number of verbs, such as woon to live, duur to last, kos to cost and weeg to weigh have obligatory complements which seem adverbial-like, if only for pragmatic reasons, e.g.

    10
    a. Estelle woon in Melville.
    Estelle live in Melville
    Estelle lives in Melville.
    a.' *Estelle woon.
    Estelle live
    To mean: Estelle lives.
    b. Die pakkie weeg 10 kilo.
    the parcel weigh 10 kilo
    The parcel weighs 10 kilos.
    b.' *Die pakkie weeg.
    the parcel weigh
    To mean: The parcel weighs.
    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Jac Conradie
      Category: Afrikaans Syntax
      Keywords: adverbialclauseconstituententailmentmodificationpragmaticspeech act
      Version: 1.0, May 2020
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Jac Conradie May 2020
      This is a beta version.
      printreport errorcite
      Jump to:
      X