Traditional grammars define adverbs as “words that describe verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and clauses.” An adverb phrase is a phrase that consists of an adverb plus any modifiers.
In grammar, an adverb phrase head is the word that functions as the head of the adverb phrase. Only adverbs can function as adverb phrase heads. Examples of adverbs as adverb phrase heads include the following:
- additionally
- then
- fast
- eventually
- meanwhile
- however
- rather quickly
- very stubbornly
- incredibly zestfully
- much too emotionally
Adverb as Adverb Phrase Head
References
Brinton, Laurel J. & Donna M. Brinton. 2010. The linguistic structure of Modern English, 2nd edn. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Hopper, Paul J. 1999. A short course in grammar. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Huddleston, Rodney. 1984. Introduction to the grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
