ADVERBIAL COMPLEMENTS

DEFINITION

Adverbial complements are adverbs or other adverbial elements in a clause
that are required to complete the meaning of the verb.
Like adverbial adjuncts, adverbial complements modify the meaning of the
verb by providing additional information. However, unlike adjuncts, which can
be removed without losing meaning, adverbial complements must be included
because removing them would cause the sentence to be incomplete or
fundamentally altered in its meaning.
For example:
• “Please keep still .”
• “I love living in New York.”
If the adverb still in the first sentence were removed, it would read “Please
keep” and no longer make any sense. If the adverbial prepositional phrase in
New York were removed from the second sentence, it would read “I love
living”—this would still make logical sense, but the original meaning would
be completely lost.