cause VS purpose

Question

Dear teachers,Would you please tell me what's the difference between an adverbial of purpose and an adverbial of cause?Many thanks,Hela

Paco2004 · Accepted Answer

Hello Hela

An adverbial of cause/reason is a phrase or clause we offer to explain why the fact stated is/was so.
As I'm married, I cannot marry her.
Because I am too old, I cannot marry her.
I cannot marry her, for I am too poor.
He didn’t come in time due to the traffic jam.
Too many people died because of the hurricane Katrina.

An adverbial of purpose is a phrase or clause we offer to explain why the action stated takes/took place.
He got up early to/(in order)/(so as to) catch the first train.
He got up early tomorrow so that he might/could catch the first train.
paco

Rishonly · Answer

He got up early tomorrow so that he might/could catch the first train.

Is this sentence grammatically correct, Paco2004.

Paco2004 · Answer

Oops! Please leave out "tomorrow".

Hela · Answer

Thanks Paco,

Now what does everybody think of the following adverbials; what do they describe?

1. We (Subject) nearly (adverbial of degree / approximation ?) missed (transitive verb?) our train (DO) this morning (adverbial of time).

2. Europe (subj) gradually (adverbial of manner / degree?) became (copular verb) an economic community (subject complement) during the second part of the XXth century (adverbial of time).

3. A group of teenagers (subj) sold (ditransitive verb) the tourists (IO) some tickets (DO) for the tennis final (adverbial of purpose) on the black market (??) in the street outside the stadium (adverbial of location).

4. In what order adverbials other should appear in a sentence? I know that manner comes first, place second and time third. But what about the others?

5. Do complex-transitive verbs appear only in the S V DO Co pattern ?
If we have an S V DO Ao pattern is the verb simply monotransitive ?

Thank you for your help.
Hela

Goldmund · Answer

Dear Hela,

Here is my opinion:-

1. adverbial of degree, adverbial of time

2. adverbial of degree, adverbial of time

3. adverbial of purpose, adverbial of manner, adverbial of location

I am sorry. I do not know the answers to your other questions.

Kind regards,

Goldmund

Paco2004 · Answer

Hello Hela

I mostly agree to your parsing. But as to "for the ticket", I feel it is not an adverbial phrase but an adjectival to modify "some ticket". As to "on the black market", we can treat it as a place adverbial at least in syntactic analysis. As for your question #5, the term "complex transitive verb" is new to me but I take it a verb used in an SVOC-construct. Some verbs are used sometimes in SVOC and sometimes in SVO. (EX) We call him John [SVOC]. I called her yesterday [SVOA]. For the last question, I cannot answer it, because I don’t know what you mean by "Ao". Could you give us some example sentences?
paco

Hela · Answer

This is what I mean by Cs (subject-related complement), Co (object-related complement), As (subject-related adverbial) and Ao (object-related adverbial).

cause VS purpose

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions