 Hello and welcome to the first of two e-lectures about present-day English adverbials. As you know, the adverbial differs considerably from the other elements of claw structure, most notably in terms of its formal realisation and by means of its position. Both aspects will be discussed in this e-lecture. In a follow-up e-lecture, we will look at functional aspects to define different types of adverbials and we will also look at some of the semantic roles adverbials can take over. Adverbials are the most peripheral among the elements of claw structure. They can usually be omitted and are most mobile. Let's illustrate that. Here is a very simple sentence, my mother enjoys parties where my mother is the subject, enjoys the verb and parties the object. Now let's insert the adverbial usually, which is of course an adverb and thus the head of a simple adverb phrase without any modifier. We have three options to insert this adverbial into the sentence. We can insert it here at the beginning of the sentence. Usually, my mother enjoys parties. We can insert it between the subject and the verb. My mother usually enjoys parties. Well, if we add a comma here and insert an international break, we can also put it at the end and have a sentence such as my mother enjoys parties usually. Most adverbials are like usually both optional and mobile. However, there are also obligatory adverbials to which these criteria do not apply. Let's illustrate this and take a simple sentence. Linda put the book on the table. Now if we remove the adverbial on the table, which is of course a prepositional phrase, the sentence becomes ungrammatical. So let's put on the table back into its original position again. This obligatoriness of the adverbial is guaranteed by what in some syntactic approaches is referred to as a subcategorization frame. Here is the subcategorization frame for put, that is a structure that defines the obligatory local context of a given category. The subcategorization frame for put can be read as follows. Put is a verb and it requires a noun phrase and a prepositional phrase as its local complements. And if any of these is missing, a sentence with put becomes ungrammatical. Let's compare that with a sentence that contains the verb see. Linda saw the book on the table and again we have the adverbial on the table. So let's remove it again. The result, however, is a grammatical sentence. Linda saw the book. Well, and if we check the subcategorization frame that is associated with the verb see, we notice that see of course is a verb, but this time it only requires a noun phrase as its local complementation structure and that's it. So despite the fact that put and see have the same phrase structure, the status of the adverbials within the respective sentences is different. Obligatory for put and optional for see. Let's now look at the syntactic realization of the syntactic function adverbial. The first group of elements I would like to look at are phrasal categories. Here is a sentence fragment she worked. Let's now insert phrasal categories into this slot into the empty slot. Phrasal categories, as you know, consist of an obligatory head and an optional modifier. For example, adverb phrases that consist of an adverb here and green recently then and there. By the way, recently is an open class adverb, whereas there and then are close class adverbs. Well, and adverb phrases can be inserted here. They have optional modifiers here. The intensifiers vary just or right. So adverb phrases can realize the syntactic function adverbial. Well, and then we have noun phrases such as this year and last night. Noun phrases have a nominal head and can be pre-modified by determiners or post-modified by structures ranging from adjectives to complex relative clauses. The third phrasal element that can realize a syntactic function adverbial is the prepositional phrase such as in the evening right across the road or at night. Prepositional phrases consist of a prepositional head such as in, across or at. And they can be modified by elements such as right, just, etc., as in right across the road. And of course, they require a noun phrase complement, the evening, the road or night. Apart from these phrasal categories, adverbials can be realized by causal elements ranging from finite to verbless. Here are some examples and again we're taking our sentence fragment. This time, however, we want to insert causal structures into the empty slot. And here is the first, the finite subordinate clause such as she worked after she had seen me, she worked although she was ill. Finite subordinate clauses are introduced by a conjunction that signals the type of semantic relationship denoted by the adverbial. For example, temporal, the conjunction after is an example here, or concessive, although she was ill. Further semantic relations are causal, hypothetical, manner, purpose and so on. And then we have non-finite subordinate clauses. Non-finite clauses such as she worked hoping for a good result, thinking about her future. Non-finite clauses exhibit an untensed verb, normally in the infinitive or in the participle form. And depending on the verb or more or less complex complementation structure. Well, and the last example I would like to mention are verbless clauses. She worked though obviously ill when fully pregnant or her voice full of joy. Now verbless clauses normally exhibit a conjunction that signals the semantic relationship. Here concessive in though obviously ill or temporal in when fully pregnant. The verb itself, however, is absent. Sometimes even the conjunction can be dropped as in our last example her voice full of joy. And this gives us of course several options for semantic interpretation. Temporal, when her voice was full of joy, causal, because her voice was full of joy and so on and so forth. Let us now finally return to the aspect of mobility and look at some sequencing patterns of adverbials. As we already said adverbials are mobile. However, there are numerous restrictions on the sequencing of adverbials. For example, if several adverbials are clustered in the initial or in the final position of a sentence, they require specific ordering patterns. Here is an example. Julia went jogging. Of course some sort of temporal implication. Well let's associate some adverbials with this sentence. She went jogging for an hour more than once last week. Now this is a proper sequence. Julia went jogging for an hour more than once last week. Now if we have this sort of sequence, Julia went jogging for an hour last week more than once. The sentence doesn't become ungrammatical, but less acceptable than in this pattern, in this sequence, where the duration type of adverbial precedes the frequency and the position. So we have this sort of sequence duration before frequency, before position. Or take our second example. Mrs. Wade lives and now we want to express a sort of local relationship. She lives a few hundred yards further downhill in Park Road. Well let's use this, put it over here. Now if we exchange the positions and make it Mrs. Wade lives in Park Road further downhill a few hundred yards, the sentence becomes less acceptable, maybe even ungrammatical. So here we have the sequence distance before direction, before position. Such sequencing principles occur in many more examples. Take this example, Mike was hit with a stone, where with a stone is of course the instrument. Now if we want to add a manner adverbial such as violently, let's do it, let's write down violently here. We can again ask the question, where do we put it? Well, most likely it precedes the instrumental adverbial, Mike was hit violently with a stone, rather than follows Mike was hit with a stone violently. Well, you see we have sequencing patterns of adverbials in present day English. So despite their high degree of mobility, adverbials are positionally fixed somehow, especially when they are clustered. So much for the formal aspects of adverbials. In this short e-lecture, we should have learned that adverbials syntactically constitute a complex class and that they are as far as their position within sentences is concerned by a large mobile and optional. However, we also saw that there are also obligatory adverbials and that positional restrictions can be set up if we incorporate the semantic roles denoted by adverbials. The integration of these roles and the function of adverbials within sentences will be the focus of a second e-lecture on present day English adverbials. So I hope I'll see you there until then. Have a nice time. Oh, by the way, many of you have asked where they can get the materials that are produced during the recording of these e-lectures. Well, they can be accessed relatively easily. The first thing is become a member of the Virtue Linguistics Compass for free. Create your account and that's it. Then log in with your personal password and once you've logged in, you will see the e-lecture library in your personal VLC setup. The rest is self-explanatory. So once more, thanks for your attention.