The Adverbial Modifier.

The term ‘adverbial modifier’ cannot be said to be a very lucky one, as it is apt to convey erroneous (wrong, incorrect) ideas about the essence of this secondary part. They have nothing to do with adverbs and they modify not only verbs.

There are several ways of classifying adverbial modifiers:

1. According to their meaning – not a grammatical classification. However it may acquire some grammatical significance.

2. According to their morphological peculiarities – according to the parts of speech and to the phrase patterns. It has also something to do with word order, and stands in a certain relation to the classification according to meaning.adverb,preposition + noun,a noun without a preposition,infinitive or an infinitive phrase

3. According to the type of their head-word – is the syntactic classification proper. The meaning of the word (phrase) acting as modifier should be compatible with the meaning of the head-word.

Adverbial modifier of:

• Time and frequency,

• Place and direction,

• Manner and attendant

• circumstances,

• Cause,

• Purpose,

• Result,

• Condition,

• Concession,

• Degree

 

The attribute

The problem of the attribute.The attribute is a secondary part of the sentence modifying a part of the sentence expressed by a noun, a substantivized pronoun, a cardinal numeral, and any substantivized word, and characterizing the thing named by these words as to its quality or property.

The attribute can either precede or follow the noun it modifies. Accordingly we use 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 size of the prepositive attributive phrase can be large in ME. Whatever is included between the article and the noun, is apprehended as an attribute.

 

 

A complement is called a complement because it completes the predicate in a sentence. There are two kinds of complements: object complements and subject complements.

Object Complements

An object complement follows the direct object and modifies or refers to the direct object. An object complement can be an adjective, a noun, a word, or a group of words which acts as an adjective or noun:

·         If you elect me president, I'll keep the unions satisfied. ("President" is an object complement referring to the direct object "me." "Satisfied" is an object complement modifying the direct object "unions.")

·         The students elected Mary president. ("President" is an object complement referring to the direct object "Mary.")

·         Wool socks will keep your feet very warm. ("Very warm" is an object complement modifying the direct object "your feet.") 

Subject Complements

A subject complement follows a linking verb and modifies or refers to the subject. A subject complement can be an adjective, a noun, a pronoun, a word, or a group of words which acts as an adjective or noun:

·         I am a teacher, but I am not yet experienced. ("Teacher" and "experienced" are both subject complements that modify the subject "I.")

Subject complements have two subgroups: predicate adjectives and predicate nouns.