Adverbials and Ing-Clauses: Usage and Patterns

Posted on Dec 7, 2024 in History

Post-Predicate Ing-Clauses: Grammatical Patterns

There are three major grammatical patterns for ing-complement clauses in this position:

  • Verb + ing-clause: He started paying his debts.
  • Verb + NP + ing-clause: When you hear Paul crying… This kind of construction focuses its attention on the person carrying out the action.
  • Verb + possessive determiner + ing-clause: Do you mind (me) giving your telephone number? In this kind of structure, the attention is focused on the action described in the ing-clause. There are verbs that do not allow this possessive determiner (keep, have, leave, find, and catch).
  • Prepositional verb + ing-clause: We were thinking about going…

Types of Adverbials

There are three major classes:

Circumstance Adverbials

These are the most common types. They add something about the action or state described in the clause and answer questions such as how?, when?, where?, how much/long?, and why? This kind of adverbial includes obligatory and optional ones. They can vary in scope (i.e., they can modify differing amounts of the clause).

Stance Adverbials

These add the speaker’s comments on what they are saying or how they are saying it. They fall into three categories:

  • Epistemic stance adverbials focus on the question, commenting on factors such as certainty, viewpoint, and restrictions of truth value, from my point of view…
  • Attitude stance adverbials express speakers’ valuation and position towards the content of a clause, e.g., luckily he wasn’t hurt…
  • Style stance adverbials give the speaker’s comment on the style or forms of the communication, e.g., generally speaking, the older you get…

Linking Adverbials

These serve to connect functions, rather than adding information to a clause (however, furthermore, yet, first, nevertheless…).

Syntactic Forms of Adverbials

  • Single adverbs and adverb phrases: She always arrives late.
  • Noun phrases (including single nouns): I’m going to the pictures Friday / Every year it is the same.
  • Prepositional phrases: In this house, it is impossible to sleep.
  • Finite clauses: I like eating sardines despite the smell.
  • Non-finite clauses, including four major types:
    • Ing-clauses: She put some more lemon, giving it…
    • Ed-clauses: Now, given the choice…
    • To-infinitive clauses: To try and change the bulb…
    • Verbless clauses: When in school, do as they tell you.

Frequency of the Syntactic Forms and Positions

There are four major positions, and it is possible for more than one adverbial to occupy each position.

  • Initial: The adverbial can come before the subject or any other obligatory element, e.g., When Susan has a shower…
  • Medial: Three specific positions can be identified:
    1. Adverbials occur between the subject and the beginning of the verb phrase, e.g., The washing never dries outside / They were really nice.
    2. When an operator is present, the adverbial is often placed after the operator but before the main verb: (…) is not of course restricted to the rich.
    3. Adverbials can also occur after the main verb but before other obligatory elements of the clause. This placement is normal with the copula be: It was never a home.
  • Final: They can appear in the final position in the clause, after obligatory elements: We will be married forever.
  • Other speaker’s clause: Speakers sometimes construct clauses together; one of them adds an adverbial to another speaker’s utterance. E.g., Smoking is not allowed here. I would never do it.
  • No clause: Stand-alone adverbials: It normally happens in conversation. In some cases, adverbials occur without a main verb in a clause: Have you seen my bag? On the chair.

Circumstance Adverbials: Semantic Categories

They are divided into different categories and subcategories:

Place

  • Distance adverbials: Normally answer the question How far? They comprise specific measurements and general descriptions of distance. E.g., I walked 6 km yesterday.
  • Direction adverbials: Answer the question to(wards) where? From where? Or in what direction? Some of them give a general description (upwards) while others describe the direction from a beginning point (e.g., from here) or towards a destination (e.g., to the store). E.g., I walked to the stables.
  • Position adverbials: Answer the question where? They indicate a point of location. They normally occur with stative verbs but can also occur with other verbs, such as the communication verb discuss. E.g., The stables are down there.

Time

  • Point in time adverbials: Tell when an event happens: The show will start tomorrow evening.
  • Duration adverbials: Tell how long an event lasts: It will be half an hour.
  • Frequency adverbials: How often an event occurs: Every single day.
  • Time relationships adverbials: Describe the relationship between two events, states, or times: I want to have a drink before we start the show.

Process

  • Manner adverbials: Answer the question How? Describe the manner in which something is done: He rode the horse bravely.
  • Means adverbials: Describe the resources by which an activity or state is accomplished. E.g., The transport will be done by train.
  • Instrument adverbials: Mention the items used for a task: The horse banged him with his head.
  • Agent adverbials: Tell us about the agent of an event. They are used in passive constructions: He was banged by the horse.

Contingency

This tells us the way one event or state is contingent (dependent) upon another.

  • Cause/reason adverbials: Answer the question why? E.g., He was injured because he had a car accident.
  • Purpose adverbials: They can be paraphrased as “in order to” or “for the purpose of”: I must make a bigger garage to put another car.
  • Concession adverbials: Convey an idea that contrasts with the main idea of the rest of the clause: Although my car is old, I’m not going to renew it.
  • Condition adverbials: Express a condition that rules the proposition of the main clause. E.g., I’ll need some money if I’ve got to repair the car.
  • Result adverbials: Tell the results of the events described in the rest of the clause or in the main clause. E.g., I’ve scratched the car, so now I will have to paint it.

Degree

These answer the questions how far/much/many? And to what extent? They sometimes indicate the amount, either in exact terms or in a general way.

  • Some adverbials intensify the message in the clause, called amplifiers or intensifiers: I completely agree with you.
  • Diminisher adverbials lower the strength of a claim made in the clause: I’m a little bit angry.

Addition and Restriction

These adverbials cannot easily be moved without affecting their scope. Their position is important to know what element of the clause is the focus of the addition or restriction. If they are moved, the meaning might change, e.g., You’ll have to behave especially well, tomorrow / You’ll have to behave well, especially tomorrow.

  • Addition: Show that an idea is being added to a previous one: I’m sad about it, too. These adverbials often have a secondary linking function (also, too, as well). In this respect, they are similar to linking adverbials (furthermore, moreover). They both help build cohesion in a text.
  • Restriction: Put emphasis on the idea of limiting the idea in the main clause in some way (in particular, especially). E.g., Only one of you can come in (paraphrase: one of you and no one else).

Recipient

These tell us towards whom an action is directed, e.g., Susan gave me a book for you. The recipient can be a person or a group of people, but also animals or inanimate objects: I’ve bought a plant for my living room. Recipient adverbials can often be replaced by an indirect object: I’ll take the book for you / I’ll take you the book.

Other Semantic Categories

Some adverbials mark perspective or respect, prepositional phrases beginning with as for, regarding, with reference to, or in respect of: He refused to give us any information regarding the problem.

Extremely Common Circumstance Adverbials

Just

This often plays multiple roles in conversations. Its primary sense is “only” or “no more than”, but it is also useful in centering on the part of the clause noted to be important, e.g., It is just a worm. It has other emotive functions that are especially useful in face-to-face interactions, in the imperative: Just be quiet! The adverb just implies the only thing you must do is to be quiet.

Another impression carried out by this adverb is to downplay the importance of what is said: Don’t be silly, she’s just joking.

When denoting time, it can be used to refer to the closeness of time: She’s just now gone.

Then

It has two primary functions in conversation:

  • Used as a deictic adverb approximately equivalent to “at that time”: A law enacted by the then French government.
  • To mark the next event in a sequence, more or less equivalent to “after that”: We’ll then go for a walk.

There

  • Deictic adverb: “At that place”: My car is there.
  • Can also refer back to places that have been referred to earlier in the conversation: Are you going to the shop? I’ve just now come back from there (from the shop).

Syntactic Forms of Adverbial Clauses

In all registers, finite clauses are more common than non-finite clauses since the first have numerous advantages over the other types of clauses:

  1. They normally have a subordinator, which allows them to cover a wide variety of semantic relationships. The meaning of non-finite clauses is more limited.
  2. The subordinators of finite clauses make clear the relationship between the adverbial and the main clause, which is an advantage in expository writing.
  3. Finite clauses contain an obvious fixed subject, which can be different from the main clause, e.g., When you’re young, everything seems… In contrast, in non-finite clauses, the subject is normally implied rather than overt, and it must normally be the same in the adverbial clause and in the main clause. E.g., I must buy some flowers to (I) bake a cake.
  4. Finite adverbial clauses can have a different tense, aspect, or modality from the main clause, which is often needed for many semantic relationships that include time and reason. E.g., I was cooking when they arrived home. (was cooking – past progressive / arrived – past simple). This difference in tense and modality is essential in hypothetical conditional clauses, where modals and tenses express the unreal nature of the proposition, e.g., If you were right, I would probably… On the other hand, non-finite adverbial clauses have the advantage of reducing the adverbial meaning into fewer words.