Spatial adverbs

Spatial adverbs never modify an adjective or an adverb. A spatial adverb occurs in sentential function, generally in position F. Some may be placed in position I and are then generally used deictically (with topicalization and stress), with a verb in present tense form: for example, Here John comes and Down the hill Mary runs. Interestingly, in this construction, subject and following intransitive verb may swap positions—Here comes John and Down the hill runs Mary. (This is not possible with a transitive verb.) Only in exceptional circumstances does a spatial adverb occur in a non-peripheral position.

All spatial adverbs may be clefted. For example, It was here/upstairs/in the bedroom/where he saw the bull that John lost his wallet.

As mentioned, spatial adverbials fulfil two rather different roles, depending on the semantics of the verb they occur with. For verbs from the REST and MOTION types and from the LOOK subtype of ATTENTION, a spatial adverb may be an intrinsic part of the description of the activity—He stood on the pavement, She brought John to the house, I gazed into her eyes. A handful of verbs actually require such an ‘inner adverbial’—put, set and live. One can say I live in Melbourne but scarcely just I live (except with a quite different sense of the verb). We also have ‘outer adverbials’, which can be used with any verb, there being no intrinsic semantic link between verb and adverbial; for example, He yawned in the garden.

Inner adverbials are almost confined to position F, although they may be fronted, for emphasis, as in On the ground he put it and on the ground it stays. An inner adverbial is always placed closer to the verb than an outer adverbial; for example, He put it [on the ground]INNER [early in the morning]OUTER. (Note that although inner adverbials are predominantly spatial, there are a number which are required by a time verb; for example, The concert lasted (for) two hours.)

Spatial adverbs divide into four types:

1. Clauses introduced by a wh- form, as in You’ll find it where you left it.

2. Phrases introduced by any of the several score prepositions in English. In an appropriate context, the NP following a preposition may be omitted, leaving just the preposition, which effectively functions as an adverb all by itself; for example, He ran down (the hill), She came behind (her father).

3. A number of single-word adverbs which are either (i) derived from a preposition or a noun—for example, upwards, heavenwards; or (ii) a reduced form of an NP—for example, upstairs, downhill, overboard.

4. The demonstratives here and there, and related forms such as hereabouts, therein.

As with time adverbs, a clause can include a number of spatial adverbs, which may be distributed between I and F or else all appear in the one position. Also like time items, the reference of one spatial adverb may be included in the reference of the spatial adverb which follows in sequence, as in:

(56) John married Mary [on the lawn]1 [in the garden]2 [behind Jane’s house]3

It is possible to get other orders (3 1 2 or 2 3 1 or 3 2 1), but comma intonation is required when an adverb occurs out of numerical order (for example, John married Mary behind Jane’s house, on the lawn in the garden). And, once more like time adverbs, one can place one or two higher-numbered adverbs in position I (for example, In the garden behind Jane’s house, John married Mary on the lawn) but one cannot have 1 or 1 2 in position I and 2 3 or 3 in position F (that is, not *On the lawn, John married Mary in the garden behind Jane’s house). Exactly as with time adverbs, an item at position I can include in its reference one at position F but not vice versa.

Spatial adverbs may modify an NP and then follow the head noun, as in [That picture there] appeals to me, and I like [houses in the country]. However, in this function a spatial adverb consisting of preposition plus NP cannot be reduced to just the preposition. One can say He put the cake in the oven or He put the cake in but only He took a look at [the cake in the oven], not *He took a look at [the cake in].

In written English, there may arise confusion between a spatial adverb within an O NP, and the same adverb with sentential function in F position, as in:

(57) I saw the man from across the street

However, in speech the two interpretations are accorded different stress. When across the street is a constituent of the NP, stress will go onto the head noun, as in:

(57a) I saw [the ’man from across the street] (the man lives across the street from me, but I may have seen him somewhere else)

When across the street is a direct constituent of the clause, stress is likely to go on the preposition:

(57b) I saw [the man] [’from across the street] (I looked across the street and saw the man you had been talking about)

A clause may include a spatial adverb and a time adverb; these may occur in either order (although there appears to be a tendency for a spatial adverb to come first). Or it may include several of each variety of adverb; the only constraint is that the two varieties of adverb should not be intermingled. Example (55) has three time adverbs and (56) has three spatial adverbs; these can be combined with either all the spatial adverbs coming first or all the time adverbs coming first. Or the time adverbs may all be in position I and the spatial items in position F; or vice versa. Just one or two of one kind of adverb can be in position I and the other(s) in F (for example, On Saturday last week John married Mary at ten o’clock on the lawn in the garden behind Jane’s house). However it would be scarcely felicitous to divide both time and spatial adverbs between positions I and F.

As discussed, a manner adverb in position O may precede or follow time and/or spatial adverbs; it has scope over all that precedes. Only relatively rarely would one encounter a non-time non-spatial sentential adverb with a time or spatial adverb, all in position F. When this does happen, it appears that there are no preferences for relative ordering (and no significant meaning differences between different orderings). For example, one can say either John sat alone in the garden or John sat in the garden alone, and He spilt ink deliberately on the carpet or He spilt ink on the carpet deliberately.