Adjectival and adverbial phrases

Adjectival and adverbial phrases Adjectival phrases have an adjective as their head. e.g. good at ..., very tall Adverbial phrases have an adverb as their head. e.g. very quickly Adjectival phrases Adjectival phrases either expand noun phrases or complete the verb (act as the complement) For example: They are really enthusiastic. The adjective enthusiastic is modified by the adverb really to form the adjectival phrase. It is the complement of the verb are. They are keen on football. The adjective keen combines with the prepositional phrase, on football. The head of the phrase is keen, and the phrase describes the keen-ness, so it’s an adjectival phrase. the unusually tall boy The adjective tall is modified by the adverb unusually to form the adjectival phrase. It expands the noun phrase the boy. At KS3 one main area of development with adjective phrases is likely to concern the use of prepositions and linking words (e.g. different from, conscious of, accustomed to, sufficiently big to). Adverbial phrases Like single adverbs, they modify verbs, adjectives or adverbs. For example: He opened it extremely easily. extremely easily modifies opened I'll do it quite soon. quite soon modifies do I ran so fast. so fast modifies ran He was quite unexpectedly kind. quite unexpectedly modifies kind He came very surprisingly quickly. very surprisingly modifies quickly Prepositional phrases Prepositional phrases have a preposition as their head: at lunchtime behind the fridge for an interview from eating too much in the drawer Heads and objects in prepositional phrases The preposition is usually followed by a noun or noun phrase - lunchtime, the fridge, etc. This is called its object, because the preposition + object combination is rather like a verb + object (e.g. forgot lunchtime, opened the fridge). Why don't we treat the preposition as a modifier of the object? Because the preposition doesn't modify the object's meaning - for example, behind doesn't turn the fridge into a particular kind of fridge. In fact, the preposition sets up the meaning for the whole phrase, and the object makes it more precise. For example, behind picks out some place, and defines it in relation to something else - the fridge, Mary, the Houses of Parliament, depending on what the object may be. This is why we treat the preposition as the phrase's head. Adjectival and adverbial uses of prepostional phrases Think about the functions of the two preposition phrases in this sentence: The boy from the shop is waiting at the corner from the shop :The head of this prepositional phrase is the preposition from. The function of the phrase is adjectival - it does the work of an adjective by describing the noun boy. It modifies the noun, answering the question: which boy? at the corner :The head of this prepositional phrase is the preposition at. The function of the phrase is adverbial - it does the work of an adverb by modifying the verb waiting. It answers the question: where is he waiting? Adverbial prepositional phrases, like adverbs, modify verbs, adjectives, adverbs or prepositions, and answer the same range of questions as adverbs: How? in a hurry, with enthusiasm When? after the party, at midnight Where? at the station, near London Why? for my sake, because of the cold Adjectival prepositional phrases, like adjectives, modify nouns: for example, they tell you which boy: The boy in a hurry is waiting over there. The boy at the station told me. The boy from London lives here. The boy with red hair is called Ginger. The boy behind the shed is smoking. As some of these examples show, the same phrase can be adjectival or adverbial, depending on its function in the sentence.