adverbiality

Adverbiality is a term used in linguistics to describe the property of expressions that function as adverbials in sentences. An adverbial provides circumstantial information about an event or state, typically relating to time, place, manner, degree, frequency, cause, or purpose. Adverbiality encompasses the various forms adverbials can take: adverbial words (quickly, yesterday); adverbial phrases such as prepositional phrases (in the morning, at the station); and adverbial clauses (when I arrived, because of the rain).

Adverbials are usually non-core elements within a clause and can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or the entire proposition. They are often flexible in position, appearing before, after, or initially in a sentence, with ordering often affecting emphasis or focus rather than grammaticality in many languages.

Common adverbial functions include time, place, manner, degree, frequency, cause, and purpose. Examples: She spoke softly (manner). We will meet tomorrow (time). They arrived at the station (place). He almost finished (degree). The road was closed because of the storm (cause).

Typologically, adverbiality is realized differently across languages: some rely on word order, others mark adverbials with case or postpositions, particles, or dedicated inflections. Some languages use fronting to foreground adverbials. The term also covers processes such as adverbialization, the turning of a word or clause into an adverbial, and the use of adverbs that serve adverbial functions.

In summary, adverbiality describes how elements function as adverbials, encompassing their forms, positions, and cross-linguistic realizations.