Adverbial

finite adverbial clause

  1. Descriptions
    • Adverbial clauses serve the role of adverbs of the main clause, generally describing additional circumstances (p. 194).
    • Similar to adverbials in general, they are optional; flexibility in their positioning within the sentence (either the beginning, middle, or end)
    • They are marked by a subordinator (e.g., because, although, if, etc., p. 85) that shows the relationship to the main clause.
  2. Tag
    • finitecls+advl is tagged on the main verb of the adverbial clause.
  3. Examples
    • She won’t narc on me, because she prides herself on being a gangster.
    • Well, if I stay here, I’ll have to leave early in the morning.
    • He couldn’t see the stage, although he stood on his tiptoes.
    • Since we had some time to spare, we decided to visit the museum.
    • While I appreciate classical music, I often listen to rock when I’m working out.
    • They kept playing, until it started to rain.
  4. Discussions
    • Comparative structures (e.g., being more unethical than if you indicate) don’t pass movement tests for adverbials, and no other subordinator fits. Comparatives should be ignored in annotation.
    • Check out the list of the multi-word subordinators here.

Finite (dependent) adverbial clauses

Finite adverbial clauses enrich sentences by providing detailed and complex information through various syntactic functions and complexity features. Following are some characteristics (pp. 826-828).

  • Finite adverbial clauses typically require a subordinator and articulate a broad spectrum of semantic relationships such as time, manner, reason/cause, result, concession, and condition.

  • Finite clauses have the advantage of an explicitly stated subject, allowing for different subjects in the adverbial and main clauses, enriching the information conveyed. In contrast, non-finite clauses often lack an explicit subject, usually assuming the subject of the main clause.

  • Finite clauses enable diverse tense or modality marking within the adverbial clause, distinct from the main clause, crucial for expressing various semantic relationships. The use of different tenses or modalities in the adverbial and main clauses illustrates time, purpose, concession, and reason. Hypothetical conditional clauses (e.g., if) utilize tense and modality differences to express hypothetical meanings.