14 · Predict
When an adverbial is required
Some verb uses need a phrase that gives a location, direction, or other setting. She placed the box feels unfinished because this use of placed also needs a destination. The course calls that completing phrase a required adverbial. Other adverbials add information to a clause that is already complete.
With opened, the location is optional: She opened the box is already complete.
With placed, the same location is required: She placed the box is unfinished.
inside the phrase
A preposition takes a complement
In on the table, on is the preposition and the table is its noun-phrase complement. Together they form a prepositional phrase. The whole phrase is the required adverbial in the larger verb phrase.
Check whether this frame needs the adverbial
- Remove the whole adverbial, not just one word inside it.
- Keep the verb’s meaning and the ordinary, out-of-context reading fixed.
- If the intended clause is unfinished, the adverbial is required; if the frame survives, it is optional.
Less information does not mean an unfinished frame, and context can recover omitted material. She opened the box under the bench remains complete without the location; She placed the box under the bench does not in its ordinary placement sense. The course calls the latter a required adverbial; other grammars often call it a locative complement.
Ten sentences from this lesson, one decision at a time.