adverbial

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

Borrowed from Latin adverbiālis. By surface analysis, adverb + -ial.

This is very common when the Adverbial Adjunct is placed in an emphatic position at the beginning of the sentence: "On this very spot our guide declared that Claverhouse had fallen." — How to Write Clearly: Rules and Exercises on English Composition, Edwin Abbott Abbott
Thus the adoption of this affix really (though at first it appears a matter of no importance) marks a stage in the language when the distinction between the sing. and pl. form of adjectives was not very strictly observed, and was, moreover, a step towards our modern -ly, which is adjectival as well as adverbial. — The Story of Genesis and Exodus: An Early English Song, about 1250 A.D., Unknown

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