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Paco2004 Posted 21 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Adverbial objectives

0 Many English nouns and noun phrases can be used as adverbs. They are called "adverbial objectives". From the standpoint of word order, an adverbial objective is put as if it were an objective of a verb, but actually it works as an adverbial modifier of the verb. This sort of constructs comes from an Old English grammar rule that allowed ti use accusative cases of nouns as adverbs. For example, let's take an Old English sentence "He eode ham"[=He went home]. From the view of current English the word "ham" [home] would be treated as an adverb but it was the accusative of the noun "ham" in Old English. In current English this sort of noun phrase uses is prominent especially in the case the noun phrases means "time/duration", "space/direction/distance", "measure/degree", "manner" and others. 02br
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00Time/Duration 02br
00[1.] Did you see him 01i00this morning02i00? 02br
00[2.] 01i00What time02i00 shall we go? 02br
00[3.] She is 01i00thirty years02i00 old. 02br
00[4.] I'd like to start 01i00Wednesday02i00, the first jury day. ["the first jury day" is appositive to "Wednesday"] 02br
00[5.] Please tell me 01i00what day02i00 you are free. 02br
00[6.] The parcel arrived 01i00last week02i00. 02br
00[7.] They prayed 01i00all night02i00 in the cathedral. 02br
00[8.] They walked 01i00two hours02i00. 02br
00Some other examples of noun phrases of this use: 02br
01i00every day02i00, 01i00next week02i00, 01i00next Monday02i00, 01i00the day after tomorrow02i00, 01i00one of these days02i00, 01i00one day02i00, 01i00any day in this week02i00, etc. 02br
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00Space/Direction/Distance 02br
00[1.] Today I came 01i00a different way02i00. ["Today" is a TIME ad. ob.] 02br
00[2.] Elms stood either 01i00side02i00 of the street. 02br
00[3.] Let's go 01i00some place02i00. 02br
00[4.] He lives 01i00next door02i00. 02br
00[5.] She'll come 01i00home02i00 soon. 02br
00[6.] Come 01i00this way02i00, please! 02br
00[7.] We wandered 01i00north and north02i00. 02br
00[8.] We walked ten miles. 02br
02br
00Measure 02br
00[1.] She was 01i00thirty years02i00 old. 02br
00[2.] The bottles was about 01i00three quarters02i00 full. 02br
00[3.] They stood up together 01i00***02i00 high in the sea. 02br
00[4.] He stands 01i00head and shoulders02i00 above his fellow. 02br
00[5.] Her skin was 01i00snow02i00 white. 02br
00[6.] It was 01i00pitch02i00 dark inside the room. 02br
00[7.] Stars are 01i00diamond02i00 bright and there is no dew. 02br
00[8.] The sea went 01i00mountains02i00 high. 02br
02br
00Degree 02br
00[1.] I should not mind 01i00a bit02i00. 02br
00[2.] She blamed herself 01i00no end02i00. 02br
00[3.] She used to laugh 01i00a good/great deal02i00. 02br
02br
00Manner 02br
00[1.] Don't look at me 01i00that way02i00. 02br
00[2.] He speaks 01i00good English02i02br
00[3.] He came 01i00full speed02i00. 02br
00[4.] He stood there 01i00sailor-fashon02i00. 02br
00[5.] She run upstairs 01i00two steps02i00 at a time. 02br
00[6.] They walked 01i00barefoot02i00. 02br
00[7.] Our ship sailed 01i00first thing02i00 in the morning. 02br
02br
00Noun Couplets 02br
00[1.] Bind him 01i00hand and foot02i00. 02br
00[2.] He smote them 01i00hip and thigh02i00. 02br
00[3.] We all got to go sometime 01i00reason or no reason02i00. 02br
00[4.] Let's fight 01i00tooth and nail.02i02br
00[5.] They discussed the matter 01i00heart to heart02i00. 02br
00Some other examples of couplets: 01i00day after day02i00, 01i00year after year02i00, 01i00face to face02i00. 02br
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00The Superlative and the Comparative 02br
00[1.] My father liked this hat 01i00the best02i00. 02br
00[2.] He runs 01i00the faster02i00. 02br
00[3.] She couldn't know which she liked 01i00the better02i00. 02br
00[4.] I don't know whose eyes would be 01i00the widest02i00 open. 02br
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00Distribution 02br
00[1.] She visited the States twice 01i00a year02i00. 02br
00[2.] He paid $ 20 01i00a pair02i00 for my shoes. 02br
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00To my guess, these collocations are so common that most of native speakers could acquire them even without knowing the concept of "adverbial objectives". And (therefore?) many of grammar books currently available don't mention this, and dictionaries give a definition to a noun used as an adverbial adverb as an adverb separately from the definition as a noun. As for the complex adverbial objectives, they are explained as simple idiomatic phrases without giving any grammatical explanation. Accordingly, in teaching English as a second language too, the concept of "adverbial objectives" is rarely taught at the beginner's stages in school at least in Japan. So many of English learners in Japan (including me) learned theses expressions one by one without knowing the mechanism why native speakers use nouns as adverbs. I sometimes feel it might be better to let students know the concept of "adverbial objectives" at an earlier stage of English learning and it could be helpful for them to learn this kind of noun usage more efficiently. But I'm not sure. I would like to hear opinions from English teachers (especially those who teach English to ESL students) about this. 02br
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00paco 0-
  

Top answer

0 Hello paco. I have a little question before I go into your question. How about a 00 verb?

  • 0 Hello paco.
  • I have a little question before I go into your question.
  • How about a 00 verb?
  • 02br 02br 00# That camera cost $400.
  • Is this 01 00 an adverbial objective in your definition?
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16 Answers
0
0 Hello paco. I have a little question before I go into your question. How about a 00 verb? 02br
02br
00# That camera cost $400. Is this 01<$400>00 an adverbial objective in your definition? 02br
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00Just I remember reading an interesting paper, in which discussed some historical changes of these construction, including the sentence 00
0
*71*0 01p

00Hello Roro 02br
02br
00The verb "cost" was a word borrowed from Old French, while the construct of is of Teutonic origin. So I think it would be better to take "cost" in "It costs $200" as a transitive verb and therefore "$200" as the normal object. But "a great deal" in "It costs a great deal" could be an adverbial objective. 02br
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0
0 Hello paco. 02br
01blockquote
00 The construct of 1210 is of Teutonic origin.12blockquote
12br
00I didn't know that. Thank you. 02br
02br
00But I'd incline to take both "$200" and "a great deal" as ambiguous expressions between accusative object and adverbial objective ... if we take a diachronic perspective. B
0
0 Hello Roro 02br
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00OED says about the etymology of "cost" as follows. 02br
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00a. OF. coster, couster (mod. coûter) = Pr. and Sp. costar, Pg. custar, It. costare:—L. constôre to stand together, stand firm, abide, be settled or fixed, stand at a price, cost, f. con- together + stôre to stand. 02br
00The con
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0 Hello, you are welcome and thank you for your information, paco. 0-
0
0 ... oh, I'm sorry, I should have said "Never mind" or "That's all right". 0-
0
0 Hello Roro 02br
02br
00I guess you are an English teacher or an English teacher-to-be. So I would like to hear from you about how you think about my proposal that the concept of "adverbial objectives" should be taught to students at earlier stages, to say, at the 2nd year of the junior high school. I feel so because in Japanese English education the sentence patterns like S
0
0 Hello paco 02br
00Umm ... I don't know. I'd take an opposite position from you. As E. Sapir says, every grammar leaks. 02br
00As to the sentence 00 what's the matter...? 0-
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0 01blockquote
00As to the sentence 10 what's the matter...?12br
12br
10If you say "what's the matter", it wouldn't matter to you. It matters to me. 12br
12br
10paco 12br
12blockquote
1-
0
0 Yes, you're right, I'd better wind up by this. 0-

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