The English Language english language

Phrases

Exercise

1. For each of the following AdvPs identify its head adverb. If it has a
   modifier, identify that and determine its part of speech.
   a. quickly
   b. very quickly
   c. particularly extravagantly


2. Draw brackets around each adverb phrase in the sentences below.
   Then underline the head adverb.
   a. They surrendered peacefully.
   b. I go to the movies quite frequently.
   c. Esmeralda acted awfully strangely.
   d. Very slowly, we edged down the mountain.
   e. Somewhat reluctantly, she returned home a week early.


3. Draw a tree diagram like those in (6) above for each of the AdvPs you
   identified in the sentences in Exercise (1) above.

Before we move on, we want to broach the topic of how phrase structure
trees are created. They are said to be “generated” by phrase structure rules
(PSRs) such as:

(9) AdvP –—> (Int) Adv

This is to be read as: An adverb phrase (AdvP) consists of (——>) an op-
tional intensifier followed by an adverb.
As we know, however, adverbs may be modified by either an intensifier
or another adverb, for example, extremely quickly. We represent this choice
by placing the items to be selected from in curly brackets: {Int/Adv}. If all
these elements are optional, then the curly brackets are put in parentheses:
({ }). So, a more complete PSR for AdvPs would be:

(10) AdvP –—> ({Int/Adv}) Adv

We read this as: an AdvP consists of an optional intensifier or adverb and
an adverb.