Limits of the Compound Verbal Predicate

Now we come to the second question, about the limits of the compound verbal predicate. It arises from the fact that a rather considerable number of verbs can be followed by an infinitive, some of them with, others without the particle to. Among such verbs are: shall, will, should, would, can, may, must (without to); ought,

The relation between these phrases and parts of the sentence is of course not the same in all cases. We can at once eliminate the phrases "shall, should, will, would + infinitive", which constitute tense or mood forms of the verb. Thus, the phrase shall write is a form of the verb write (as it does not differ from the forms write, writes, wrote in its lexical meaning) and, consequently, it is a simple verbal predicate. The phrases with the verbs can, may, must, ought (in the latter case with to) constitute a compound verbal predicate.

There is no difference in part of sentence structure -between began to work and began his work.

Therefore, approaching phenomena from a grammatical viewpoint, which is the essential one here, we start from the assumption that in the phrase began his work the group his work is a separate (secondary) part of the sentence (an object).¹ This shows that the verb begin can be followed by a noun functioning as an object (the same of course applies to a number of other verbs). Since the verb begin can take an object there appears to be no reason to deny that an infinitive following this verb is an object as well. We might give here a table based on what is called transformation:

began to work — began his work

continued to work — continued his work

liked to sing —liked songs

On the other hand, no table of this kind is possible with such verbs as can, may, must, ought: they cannot under any circumstances be followed by a noun, and this is an important difference on which syntactic analysis should be based.

Another question of a similar kind arises with reference to sentences containing idioms of the pattern "verb + noun", e.g. make a mistake, make one's appearance, have a look, have a smoke, take a glance, etc. Here two different approaches are possible, and the approach chosen will predetermine all conclusions to be arrived at in considering concrete examples.

One approach would be to say that if a phrase is a phraseological unit, that is, if its meaning is not equal to the sum of the meanings of its components, it cannot be divided into two parts of the sentence, and has to be taken as one part, namely, the predicate.

The other approach would be to say that such phraseological phenomena belong to the sphere of lexicology alone and are irrelevant for grammar, that is, for sentence analysis.

One of the arguments in favour of the view that phraseological units should be treated as one part of the sentence, is this. If the phrase "verb + noun" is not a phraseological unit, a separate question can be put to the noun, that is, a question to which the noun supplies an answer. For instance, if we take the sentence He makes toys the question would be, What does he make? and the answer would be supplied by the word toys, which, accordingly, is a separate part of the sentence, namely, an object. If, on the other hand, we take the sentence, He makes mistakes, it would not be possible to ask the question, What does he make? and to give mistakes as an answer to it. Consequently, according to this view, we cannot say that mistakes is a separate part of the sentence, and we must conclude that the phrase makes mistakes as a whole is the predicate.

Before we go further in this matter, let us consider another case also belonging here, namely phrases of the type come in, bring up, put down, etc., Should these phrases be taken as the predicate, or should the predicate be limited to the verb alone (come, bring, put, etc.)? This again is a matter of opinion. The phrase come in, for instance, can equally well be analysed as the predicate of the sentence, and as a combination of the predicate and a secondary part. On the other hand, the phrase bring up (as in the sentence, They brought up three children) would be taken to be the predicate, rather than a combination of the predicate with a secondary part, and this of course is due to the meaning of the phrase, which certainly is not equal to the sum of meanings of the verb bring and the adverb up. This semantic consideration is in favour of taking the whole phrase to be one part of the sentence (its predicate).

The Compound Nominal Predicate

The compound nominal predicate always consists of a link verb (also called copula) and a predicative, which may be expressed by various parts of speech, usually a noun, an adjective, also a stative, or an adverb (as in the sentence The lesson is over). Often enough the predicative is represented by a phrase, most usually of the pattern "preposition + noun", which may or may not be a phraseological unit.

The true function of a link verb is not a connecting function. It expresses the tense and the mood in the predicate. The link verb be, which expresses these categories, and also those of number and person, is rightly considered to be the most abstract of all link verbs, that is, the one most devoid of any meaning of its own. Other link verbs have each some lexical meaning.

Besides the verb be there are a number of other link verbs with different meanings, for instance become, get, continue, grow, turn, e. g. Then he grew thirsty and went indoors ; But presently the sea turned rough , etc. It will be readily seen that some of them do not always perform this function but may also be a predicate in themselves, for instance the verb grow in the sentences The child has grown, or, We grow potatoes. Of course it is only the meaning of the noun following the verb that shows whether the noun is a predicative or an object: compare the two sentences They have grown fine young men and They grow potatoes. So if we say that a verb is a link verb this need not necessarily mean that it is always a link verb and cannot perform any other function.

A notional verb followed by a predicative it is, to some extent at least, a link verb. It contains some information about the subject which may be taken separately, but at the same time the verb is followed by a predicative (a noun or an adjective) and is in so far a link verb. This is found in sentences like the following: He came home tired, She married young, He died a bachelor, etc. The finite verb in such sentences conveys a meaning of its own (he came, she married, he died), but the main point of the sentence lies in the information conveyed by the predicative noun or adjective. We might retell the meaning of these sentences in another way, namely: He was tired when he came home, She was young when she married, He was a bachelor when he died, etc. The finite verb, besides being a predicate in itself, also performs the function of a link verb.

Since such sentences have both a simple verbal predicate and a compound nominal predicate, they form a special or mixed type: predicates of this kind may be termed double predicates. Here are some examples: Sunlight seeped thick and golden through the high windows. Compare also the following sentence: Catherine's blood ran cold with the horrid suggestions which naturally sprang from these words. The lexical meaning of the verb run is irrelevant for the meaning of the predicative. The essence of the predication is of course contained in the predicative adjective cold.

The same is found in the following examples: You've come home such a beautiful lady. I sat down hungry, I was hungry while I ate, and I got up from the table hungry.

It should also be noted that the verb preceding the predicative and therefore performing (at least partly) the function of a link verb, may be in the passive voice. This is especially true of the verbs find, think, report, as in the sentences, He was found guilty, He was reported dead, etc.

From such sentences there is an easy transition to sentences in which the finite verb is followed by an infinitive, as in He was known to have arrived, etc. Nominative with the infinitive construction can be used as Complex Subject with the passive forms of the verbs say, state, report, announce, believe, consider, expect, and others and the active forms of the verbs seem, appear, prove, happen: The steamer was known to have left the port on Monday. The water seems to be boiling.

As far as meaning is concerned, there seems to be no difference between the sentences He was reported dead, and He was reported to be dead, or between the sentences He seemed clever and He seemed to be clever. As far as structure is concerned, the second variant in each case is somewhat more complicated, in that the finite verb is first followed by an infinitive, which apparently is bound to be a predicative (since it comes after the link verb), but which is itself the infinitive of a link verb and therefore followed by another predicative.

Glossary of linguistic terms:

1. simple verbal predicate – простое глагольное сказуемое

2. compound nominal predicate – составное именное сказуемое

3. predicative – именная часть сказуемого

Additional reading:

1. стр. 198-210

2. стр. 192-196

3. –

4. –

5. стр. 319-320

Practical tasks:

19. Define the type of subject and the predicate of the following sentences:

Model: One might make a story out of it. – The subject of the sentence is impersonal, the predicate is compound verbal.

There is Miss Sands here.

Why aren’t you greeting her?

Agatha Christie was educated at home.
XXXXI. THE SECONDARY PARTS OF THE SENTENCE

OBJECT

The object is a secondary part of the sentence, referring to a part of the sentence expressed by a verb, a noun, a substantival pronoun, an adjective, a numeral, or an adverb, and denoting a thing to which the action passes on, which is a result of the action, in reference to which an action is committed or a property is manifested, or denoting an action as object or doer of another action.

If we take a closer look at this definition, we shall find that it is based on two principles, namely (1) the relation of the object to a certain part of speech, (2) the meaning of the object, that is, the relation between the thing denoted and the action or property with which it is connected.

The first of these principles is syntactical, based on morphology (morphologico-syntactical), the second is semantic.

The first item of the definition practically means that an object can refer to any part of speech capable of being a part of the sentence. The second item enumerates certain semantic points in the relation between the thing denoted by the object and the action (or the property) with which it is connected.

— "a thing (or person) connected with a process or a property".

Definition of the Attribute

The usual kind of definition of the attribute is this: It is a secondary part of the sentence modifying a part of the sentence expressed by a noun, a substantival pronoun, a cardinal numeral, and any substantivised word, and characterising the thing named by these words as to its quality or property. ¹

If we now compare the definition of the attribute with that of the object we shall see at once that there are two main differences between them: (1) the attribute, as distinct from the object, cannot modify a verb, an adjective, or an adverb, and (2) the attribute expresses a property while the object expresses a thing.

They also have something in common: they both can modify a noun, a pronoun, and a numeral.

Now let us consider the definition of an adverbial modifier. It may sound like this: It is a secondary part of the sentence modifying a part of the sentence expressed by a verb, a verbal noun, an adjective, or an adverb, and serving to characterise an action or a property as to its quality or intensity, or to indicate the way an action is done, the time, place, cause, purpose, or condition, with which the action or the manifestation of the quality is connected. ^All the meanings enumerated in the definition amount to one, viz. the characteristic feature of an action or property.

As to the first item of the definition, it has some peculiarities worth notice: not every kind of noun can have an adverbial modifier, but only a verbal noun, that is, a noun expressing an action presented as a thing.

Let us now proceed to compare the parts of speech enumerated in the definition of an adverbial modifier with those enumerated in the definitions of the other secondary parts of a sentence, and let us first take the list given in the definition of the object. There all the parts of speech capable of being parts of the sentence were given. So the parts of speech which the two lists have in common are, a verb, a verbal noun, an adjective, and an adverb.

If we now compare the list given for the adverbial modifier with that given for the attribute, we shall find that the only point which they have in common is the verbal noun: for the attribute it says "noun", which of course includes verbal nouns, and for the adverbial modifier it expressly says "verbal noun". Thus the sphere of overlapping between attributes and adverbial modifiers is very limited.

Summing up these comparisons we find that the first item of the definitions leaves room for ambiguity in the following cases: (1) if the part of the sentence which is modified is expressed by a noun, its modifier may be either an object or an attribute; (2) if it is expressed by a verbal noun, the modifier may be either an object, or an attribute, or an adverbial modifier; (3) if it is expressed by an adjective, the modifier may be either an object or an adverbial modifier; (4) if it is expressed by a cardinal numeral, the modifier may be either an object or an attribute; (5) if it is expressed by a verb,- the modifier may be either an object or an adverbial modifier; (6) if it is expressed by an adverb the modifier may be either an object or an adverbial modifier, too.

Since in these cases the first item of the definition does not lead to unambiguous results, we shall have to apply its second item, namely, the meaning of the modifier: a property, a thing, or whatever it may happen to be. For instance, if there is in the sentence a secondary part modifying the subject which is expressed by a noun, this secondary part may be either an object or an attribute. (It cannot be an adverbial modifier, which cannot modify a part of the sentence expressed by a non-verbal noun.) Now, to find out whether the secondary part in question is an object or an attribute we shall have to apply the second test and see whether it expresses a thing or a property.

Take, for instance, the following sentence: The dim gloom of drawn blinds and winter twilight closed about her. Here the phrase of drawn blinds and winter twilight modifies the noun gloom, which is the subject of the sentence. Since it modifies a noun it may be either an object or an attribute, and the choice between the two has to be made by deciding whether it denotes a thing (of whatever kind) or a property. How are we to decide that? On the one hand, it may be argued that it denotes a thing and its relation to the other thing, called gloom, is indicated. Then the phrase is an object. On the other hand, however, it is also possible to regard the matter differently, and to assert that the phrase expresses a property of the gloom and is therefore an attribute. We shall consider, say, every prepositional phrase modifying a noun to be an attribute.

We might even say that in such circumstances the distinction between object and attribute is neutralised.

A similar situation is also possible with the object and the adverbial modifier. This is the case, for instance, in a sentence like this: In her face were too sharply blended the delicate features of her mother, a coast aristocrat of French descent, and the heavy ones of her florid Irish father. The question is, what part of the sentence is in her face. As it modifies a verb it can be either an object or an adverbial modifier. To decide between these, we apply the second item of the definitions, and find out whether the secondary part expresses a thing or characterises the action. Now, obviously it is possible to take it in two ways; we might say that the secondary part of the sentence expresses an object affected by the action, or that it expresses a characteristic of the action itself. The right way out of this is to say that in these positions the distinction between object and adverbial modifier is neutralised.

In a few cases a similar doubt may be possible when we try to decide whether a phrase is an object without a preposition or an adverbial modifier, as in the sentence, He walks the streets of London.

There are several types of objects. Objects differ from one another, on the one hand, by their morphological composition, that is, by the parts of speech or phrases which perform the function of object, and on the other hand, in some cases objects modifying a part of the sentence expressed by a verb form (and that is most usually the predicate) differ by the type of their relation to the action expressed by the verb.

Classification into direct and indirect objects is both a morphological and semantic factor. Sentences in which the predicate is expressed by the verbs send, show, lend, give, and the like usually take two different kinds of objects simultaneously: (1) an object expressing the thing which is sent, shown, lent, given, etc., and (2) the person or persons to whom the thing is sent, shown, lent, given, etc. The difference between the two relations is clear enough: the direct object denotes the thing immediately affected by the action denoted by the predicate verb, whereas the indirect object expresses the person towards whom the thing is moved. This is familiar in sentences like We sent them a present, You showed my friend your pictures, etc.

There is another consideration here which rather tends toward the same conclusion. In studying different kinds of objects it is also essential to take into account the possibility of the corresponding passive construction. It is well known that in English there is a greater variety of possible passive constructions than in many other languages. For instance, the sentence We gave him a present can have two passive equivalents: A present was given to him (here the subject corresponds to the direct object in the active construction), and He was given a present (here the subject corresponds to the indirect object of the active construction). However, the second passive variant is only possible if the direct object is there, too. The sentence He was given in this sense (without the direct object) would not be possible. Now, with the verbs tell and teach things are different. It is quite possible to say The story has been told many times and I have been told about it (in this case the subject corresponds to the indirect object of the active construction, and there is no direct object in the sentence). In a similar way, it is possible to say Geography is taught by a new teacher and also Children are taught by a new teacher (without any direct object and indeed without any object corresponding to "geography"). From this point of view the sentences with the verbs tell and teach are different from those with the verbs send, show, give, etc.

Direct object can be expressed by 1/ a noun: We all hated the uniform.

2/ a pronoun (of different types): We had to wear it.

3/ infinitive: I’d prefer you to treat me as a groun up.

4/ gerund: I heard him talking. In some few special cases an object may be expressed by an adverb (as in the sentence We will leave here next week).

From the point of view of morphological composition we must draw a distinction between non-prepositional and prepositional indirect objects. Under the latter heading we will include every object of the type "preposition + noun or pronoun", no matter what preposition makes part of it, whether it be a preposition with a very concrete meaning, such as between, or a most abstract one, such as of or to. Some prepositional objects are synonimous with prepositional: tell him – say to him.

Both non-prepositoinal and prepositional objects (more especially the latter) may sometimes be hard to distinguish from adverbial modifiers. Usually, if the usage of the preposition depends on the verb-predicate, this prepositional construction is an object – interested in books, belong to the party, laugh at a joke. And if the preposition depends on the noun or on the situation, it is an adverbial modifier: find in books, come to the party, laugh at night.

Objects can also be classified according to their semantic role, the deep case: the object of object (patient), can be both prepositional and non-prepositional, it is dependant on a verb, an adjective or a stative and nominating object of action or of a feature. He saw the building. – He looked at the building. Ask for something – beg something, think of something – consider something. This object is complementary, as it appears with the transitive verbs with strong valency. They are not used without objects.

The object of addressee (beneficiary) nominates a person or an object to which an action coming from the subject is addressed. The teacher explained the theory to the students.

The object of subject (agent) is dependant on a verb in passive voice nominating the doer of the action, used with the preposition by.

The instrumental object is used with the preposition with with the meaning of the means of the action.

The locative object is used with the prepositions of place and movement and is difficult to tell from adverbial

THE ATTRIBUTE

As we have already discussed the cases where the distinction between object and attribute is neutralised, so that a secondary part can equally be termed the one or the other.

An attribute can either precede or follow the noun it modifies. Accordingly we use the terms "prepositive" and "postpositive" attribute. The position of an attribute with respect to its head word depends partly on the morphological peculiarities of the attribute itself, and partly on stylistic factors.

The pospositional attribute is usually used with prepositions of/from.

The prepositional attributes to one word are placed in accordance with their qualitative and relative polarity: qualitative attributes to the left side and relative attributes to the right side: An ordinary little wooden house.

The size of a prepositive attributive phrase can be large in Modern English. This is mainly due to the fact that whatever is included between the article (definite or indefinite) and the noun, is apprehended as an attribute to the noun. Examples of attributes reaching considerable length are met with in usual literary (though not in colloquial) style. This is what we can see in the following sentence: The younger, Leander, was above all young, with only a slightly greater than usual grace. The phrase slightly greater than usual is characterised as an attribute by its position between the indefinite article and the noun grace.

He was relieved when I motioned to him and started to wrap the by now almost insensible figure of Melissa in the soft Bokhara rug.

Such attributes can acquire enormous proportions in humorous writings, so that whole sentences with subordinate clauses are squeezed into them, as in the following example (from an article containing criticism of the most common types of British crime films): Here are two possibilities only, and the threadbare variations are endlessly woven around them: the "I-ain't-askin'-no-questions-just-tell-me-what-to-do" kind and the "My-God,-Henry,-you-must-believe-me" kind (which can also be described as the "Why-the-devil-can't-you-leave-my-wife-alone-Can't-you-see-she's-distraught" kind). The hyphens connecting the various elements do not of course mean that the whole has coalesced into one monstrous word: they merely serve to show the unity of the syntactical formation functioning as an attribute. It goes without saying that such possibilities are due to the absence of inflections for number, gender, and case in the part of speech which most usually performs the function of an attribute, namely, the adjective.

This consideration brings us to what is the most difficult question in the study of the attribute, its position in the general system of parts of the sentence. The question is briefly this: is the attribute a secondary part of the sentence standing on a footing of equality with the object and the adverbial modifier, or is it a unit of a lower rank? Approached from another angle, the question would be this: is the attribute a constituent of the sentence, or does it belong to the level of phrases? This is of course a problem of general linguistics, and it has been discussed with reference to different languages. Here we will treat it taking into account the specific conditions of Modern English.

The problem can best be approached in the following way. If we take the sentence: History only emerged in the eighteenth century as a literary art. and if we want to state the parts of the sentence, we shall stop at the phrase in the eighteenth century. We shall have to choose between two views: (1) in the century is an adverbial modifier of time; eighteenth is an attribute; the two secondary parts of the sentence stand on the same syntactical level; (2) in the eighteenth century is an adverbial modifier of time and is (as a whole) a secondary member of the sentence, modifying the predicate verb emerged; eighteenth is part of that adverbial modifier, which is expressed by a phrase, and it is part of the phrase, not of the sentence: it stands on a lower level than the sentence with its parts, i. e. it stands on the phrase level, being an attribute to the noun century.

The same reasoning and the same choice would of course apply to the phrase as a literary art. The two possible views of its syntactic function would be these: (1) as a(n) art is a part of the sentence, namely a predicative; literary is another part, namely an attribute, standing syntactically on the same level with it; (2) as a literary art as a whole is a part of the sentence, namely, a predicative; literary is part of the predicative, and thus not a separate part of the sentence: it is part of the phrase, namely an attribute to the noun art, and stands on a lower level than the sentence and its parts: it stands on the phrase level.

The meaning of the attributes denoted by the genitive case of nouns is classified in accordance with the semantic classification of the genitive case.

THE ADVERBIAL MODIFIER

Adverbial modifier is a secondary part of the sentence characterised by free distribution. It is not determined by the semantics of the predicate or other parts of the sentence. It is a supplementary part.

There are several ways of classifying adverbial modifiers: (1) according to their meaning, (2) according to their morphological peculiarities, (3) according to the type of their head word.

Of these, the classification according to meaning is not in itself a grammatical classification. For instance, the difference between an adverbial modifier of place and one of time is basically semantic and depends on the lexical meaning of the words functioning as adverbial modifiers. However, this classification may acquire some grammatical significance, especially when we analyse word order in a sentence and one semantic type of adverbial modifier proves to differ in this respect from another. Therefore the classification of adverbial modifiers according to their meaning cannot be ignored by syntactic theory.

Classification according to morphological peculiarities, i. e. according to the parts of speech and to phrase patterns, is essential: it has also something to do with word order, and stands in a certain relation to the classification according to meaning: place, time, condition, manner of an action, degree of a property, etc.

Classification according to the element modified is the syntactic classification proper. It is of course connected in some ways with the classification according to meaning; for instance, an adverbial modifier can modify a part of the sentence expressed by a verb only if the type of meaning of the word (or phrase) acting as modifier is compatible with the meaning of a verb, etc.

The most usual morphological type seems to be the adverb.

Another very frequent morphological type of adverbial modifier is the phrase pattern "preposition + noun" (also the type "preposition + adjective + noun" and other variations of this kind). This type of adverbial modifier is one of those which are sometimes indistinguishable from objects, or rather where the distinction between object and adverbial modifier is neutralised.

A noun without a preposition can also in certain circumstances be an adverbial modifier. To distinguish it from an object, we take into account the meanings of the words, namely the meaning of the verb functioning as predicate, and that of the noun in question. It must be admitted, though, that even this criterion will not yield quite definite results, and this means that the decision will be arbitrary, that is, the distinction between the two secondary parts is neutralised here, too. Let us consider, for instance, the function of the noun hour in a sentence like They appointed an hour and in a sentence like They waited an hour. Since the noun is the same in both cases, the distinction, if any, can only be due to the meaning of the verb in its relation to that of the noun. In the first sentence we will take the noun hour as an object — on the analogy of many other nouns, which can also follow this particular verb (e. g. appoint a director), and which can all be made the subject of this verb in a passive construction (e. g. A director has been appointed). In the second sentence, things are different, as the verb wait can only be followed by a very few nouns without a preposition (e. g. Wait a minute), and a passive construction is impossible. This appears to constitute an essential difference between the two.

There are cases when a noun following the predicate verb is doubtless an object, and yet a corresponding passive construction does not exist. 1In the second place, a passive construction proves to be possible in some cases when we should rather call the noun in the active construction an adverbial modifier. Something similar is found in the familiar example The bed had not been slept in, which corresponds to a sentence with the verb in the active voice, Nobody had slept in the bed. If we had been given only the latter sentence for analysis, we should probably have said that in the bed was an adverbial modifier of place; the possibility of the corresponding passive construction rather shows that it is an object. But the absence of a corresponding passive construction is hardly final proof of the secondary part being an adverbial modifier. Perhaps we will do best to say that the opposition between object and adverbial modifier tends to be neutralised here, too.

A very frequent morphological type of adverbial modifier is the infinitive or an infinitive phrase. This is especially true of the adverbial modifier of purpose, which may be expressed by the infinitive preceded by the particle to or the phrase in order to. However, we cannot say that every infinitive or infinitive phrase acting as a secondary part of the sentence must necessarily be an adverbial modifier of purpose, or indeed an adverbial modifier of any kind.

Let us compare the following two sentences: I wanted to read the advertisement, and I stopped to read the advertisement. From a purely structural point of view there would seem to be no difference between the two sentences. It is the meanings of the verbs want and stop which lie at the bottom of the difference. Grammatically speaking, a transformation test is possible which will bring out the difference in function between the two infinitives. In the sentence I stopped to read the advertisement we can insert in order before the particle to, or, in other words, replace the particle to by the phrase in order to: in doing so, we get the sentence I stopped in order to read the advertisement, which is good English and does not differ in meaning from the original sentence. With the sentence I wanted to read the advertisement such a change would not be possible.

There are also cases when the infinitive is an adverbial modifier, but not one of purpose. This is the case, on the one hand, in such sentences as I was glad to see him, where the meaning of the adjective glad shows the semantic relations, and, on the other hand, in such sentences as the following: Denis woke up the next morning to find the sun shining, the sky serene. It is clear from the lexical meanings of the words woke up and find that the infinitive as adverbial modifier does not indicate the purpose of the action but the circumstances that followed it (Denis woke up and found the sun shining). The infinitive to find is indeed typical of such adverbial modifiers.

So the lexical meanings of words are of first-rate importance for the status of the infinitive: the form of the infinitive does not in itself determine anything beyond that the phrase in question is a secondary part of the sentence. The following sentence is also a clear example of this kind of infinitive modifier: A young man of twenty-two or so, wearing overalls and carrying an empty buckel, pushed open the wide, green door to be greeted by whistles, trills, chirps and murmurings from the double row of cages that lined two walls of the long, low building. The infinitive in question is here passive, but the grammatical category of voice does not in itself give sufficient material to judge of the type of modifier we have here: a passive action might after all be the purpose of an action. It is rather the lexical meanings of the words and "common sense" that make everything clear: it could not be the man's purpose to be greeted by whistles, etc., of birds. Thus the modifier is clearly one of subsequent events.

A different kind of relation between an adverbial modifier and its head word is found when the head word is an adjective or adverb preceded by the adverb too: But Magnus's spirit was too robust to admit of difficulties for long. At first he had been too surprised to feel any definite emotion.

The actual meaning resulting from the pattern "too + adjective (adverb) + to + infinitive" of course is, that the action denoted by the infinitive does not take place.

Adverbial modifier expressed by the participle – He stood on the deck counting the cases.

Gerund with preposition – He locked the door before leaving the office.

Roughly speaking, in summing up the relations between the semantic and the morphological types of adverbial modifiers, we may say that some general statements on their relations can be made: for example, an adverbial modifier of place can never be expressed by an infinitive; an infinitive can express either an adverbial modifier of purpose, or one of subsequent events, result etc.

1. Time – She will come soon.

2. Place – I found him in the garden.

3. Manner – He spoke slowly.

4. Reason – For not knowing the truth he believed every gossip.

5. Purpose – He stopped to read the advertisement.

6. Degree of property – He has changed greatly.

7. Condition – I’ll help you in case of danger.

8. Accompanying circumstances – He sat at the table reading a newspaper.

9. Subsequent events.

As to the parts of the sentence which an adverbial modifier may modify, it follows from this definition that an adverbial modifier cannot modify a part of the sentence expressed by a non-verbal noun; in other words, a secondary part modifying a part expressed by a noun cannot be an adverbial modifier.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 928