Clauses of adverbial position

 

An adverbial clause is a subordinate clause that performs the function of an adverbial modifier. An adverbial clause may qualify the whole main clause, the verbal predicate or parts expressed by an adjectiveoradverb. Their main difference from nominal and attributive clauses in that they are introduced by conjunctions with more distinctive meaning.

Commas are often used after adverbial clauses when they precede the main clause. When they come after the main clause, it is more usual not to have a comma.

According to their semantics and the type of the relation they bear to the main clause, there distinguished adverbial clauses of time, place, manner, comparison, condition, concession, purpose, cause, result [7].

1. An adverbial clause of time characterizes the action expressed in the main clause from the temporal point of view. The action may be expressed by a finite or non-finite form of the verb.

There are several main meanings with the temporal relation — priority, simultaneity, succession of actions, the beginning or the end of the action, repetition, gradual development of a process, etc.

An adverbial clause of time may be introduced by conjunctions: as, as soon as, as long as, when, whenever, while, now that, till, until, after, before, since: The kid was playing games till the cell-phone battery died.

2. An adverbial clause of place shows the place or the direction of the action expressed in the principal clause. They are introduced by the conjunctions where, whence, wherever, everywhere and conjunctive adverbs with prepositions: Jimmy was watching the whole show from the top row.

3. Adverbial clauses of manner characterize the way of performing the action expressed in the principal clause. They are usually introduced by the conjunction as and the way.

Adverbial clauses of manner may have different reference:

I.Adverbial clauses of manner may modify the predicate of the main clause by attributing some quality to it: He does it exactly the way you told him to.

II. They may refer to attributes or predicatives characterizing a state or quality of a person or non-person: Feeling deeply sorry, as one should be after eating all candy preserved for the celebration, the child tried to hide his actions.

III.They may refer to an adverbial modifier, giving additional information or explanation concerning it: He've handled the matter most efficiently, as any mastermind would do.

4. Adverbial clauses of comparison denote an action with which the action of the principal clause is compared. They are introduced by the conjunctions as, as... as, not so... as, as if, as though. Another use of as is in expressions like as you know, as we agreed, as you suggested.

In a formal written style, as is sometimes followed by inversion.He was as crazy, as were most of his friends. In informal American English, like is very often used as a conjunction instead of as. Nobody knows you like I do.

5. Adverbial clauses of condition state the condition which is necessary for the realization of the action expressed in the principal clause. They are introduced by the conjunctions if, unless, suppose, in case, on condition that, provided etc.

Conditional clauses introduced by if imply uncertainty. Therefore they often contain non-assertive forms of pronouns and pronominal adverbs, such as any, anybody, anything, anywhere.

The condition may be real or unreal: If they arrive on time, we'll go shopping. (real); If only I knew you were coming I would clean the apartment (unreal).

6. An adverbial clause of result denotes some consequences or result of the action expressed in the main clause. It may be introduced by the conjunctions so that or that. Result clauses always come after the main clause.

Adverbial clauses of result with an additional meaning of degree are introduced by the conjunction that; in these cases we find the adverb so or the demonstrative pronoun such in the principal clause.

It was so dark night that we couldn't see a thing.

7. An adverbial clause of cause (reason) shows the cause of the action expressed in the principal clause. Adverbial clauses of cause are introduced by the conjunctions as, because, since, for fear (that); in official style they may also be introduced by the conjunctions on the ground that, for the reason that and some others.

She had a lot of haters because everybody envied this girl for her success.

Children felt particularly cheerful as it was Christmas time.

8. Adverbial clause of purpose descripes the aim of an action signified by the principal clause. This type of clause may be introduced by the following conjunctions: that, so that, lest, so as, so, in order that, for fear that.

In an informal style, so that is more common than in order that. These expressions are usually followed by modal auxiliary verbs such as will, can or may.

She wants to go abroad so that she could become fluent English speaker.

9. An adverbial clause of concession denotes the presence of some obstacle which nevertheless does not hinder the action expressed in the principal clause.

Adverbial clauses of concession are introduced:

1) by conjunctions: although, though, if: Although I knew what was coming I tested my luck anyway.

2) conjunctive pronouns or adverbs: whoever, whatever, whichever, whenever, wherever, as: However much I care about you, I can't do it.

In official style they may also be introduced by the conjunctions notwithstanding that, in spite of the fact that.

3) composite conjunctions: no matter how, no matter what, for all that, despite that, in spite of the fact, despite the fact, except that, much as, even if, even though: In spite of the fact that the clock chimed 2 AM we stayed up and played poker.

10) Some linguists distinguish an adverbial clause of proportion [26].The most important subordinating conjunctions in this category are as and the... the:

As I listened to him speak, I slowly came to like him. The following is one of the possible paraphrases: At first I didn’t like him, but my opinion of him improved in proportion to the time I spent listening to him speak.

The same effect is possible with the the... the: The more I got to know her, the less I liked her; The fatter I get, the more I want to eat. In these examples a comparative adjective appears in both clauses of each sentence.

However, many linguists argue that it is not entirely justified to classify sentences formed with the... the as complex because there is not really any reason for describing one clause as dependent and the other as independent. Still, since sentences formed in this way are obviously not either simple or compound, it seems best to regard the...the as an idiosyncratic subordinating conjunction.

There are three other conjunctions, inasmuch as, insofar as, and to the extent that that, although quite formal, are worth mentioning. They are used in sentences such as Insofar as any human being is a monster, Stalin was one.

Conclusion

In the first chapter we have presented a comprehensive overview of the main theoretical aspects regarding syntactic features of the complex sentence structures.

To promote the basic understanding of the place that complex sentences take in the grammatical system of modern English we've dedicated the subparagraph 1.1.1 to the main sentence types that function in the language. An extensive overview of structural and communicative classifications of sentences was provided along with the brief account of other typologies.

In the subparagraph 1.1.2 there was analysed the nature of the syntactical phenomena of subordination and the way it manifests itself. In this regard we've considered several features that define subordinate clause's syntactic status within the complex sentence.

In the subsection 1.1.3 there were outlined the main syndetic and asyndetic means of connecting clauses. We've introduced the two groups of linking words that function within polypredicative sentences, namely, pure conjunctions and conjunctive substitutes and expanded on some of their subtypes.

The entire second paragraph of the first chapter is dedicated to the analysis of complex sentence classification based on the type of subordinate clauses.

The subparagraph 1.2.1 contains the basic information on the subordinate clauses of primary nominal position (which include subject, predicative and object clauses) and provides a number of examples to sustain theoretical claims expressed. The subsection 1.2.2. provides an overview of subordinate clauses of secondary nominal position and their main types. Each of the types (relative and appositive clauses) is given a proper attention and exampified. Finally, in the subparagraph 1.2.3 the clauses of adverbial position were discussed. They are grouped on the basis of their semantical characteristics into 10 types.

Each of the subsections of the second paragraph contains the description of possible clause introduces for each given type of clause. Some other aspects, like stylistic features of different sentence types and the way of connection employed, are also discussed in the chapter.

CHAPTER 2. Syntactic characteristics of complex sentences in the short story "The Gift of the Magi" by O.Henry