"concomitant adverbial" or "adverbial of purpose"

I have two sentences to make a comparison:
1. She stood at the bus station, waiting for his mother. (waiting for his mother here functions as a concomitant adverbial.)
2. She stood at the bus station, to wait for his mother. (to wait for his mother here works as a adverbial of purpose.)
Am I right? In 2, is the comma needed?
Thanks a lot to you.

I have never heard of a "concomitant adverbial".

bhaisahab said:

I have never heard of a "concomitant adverbial".

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I'm glad I'm not the only one!

bhaisahab said:

I have never heard of a "concomitant adverbial".

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I would like replace the "concomitant adverbial" with "time adverbial". If I do so, could you please tell me whether my sentences and analyses correct?

I think 'waiting for his mother' is a participle phrase acting as an adjective modifying 'She', but I am not a teacher.

May I add my two cents here?

Please look at the two sentences below.

1. He stood at the bus station, waiting for his mother.
2. He stood at the bus station impatiently.

The participle clause/phrase "waiting for his mother" in #1 functions like "impatiently" in #2.
In other words, it functions adverbially.



(Edit) ... or if it were "He stood waiting for his mother at the bus station", the present participle in bold might probably be interpreted as a subject complement.

1. He stood at the bus station, waiting for his mother.
2. He stood at the bus station wearing a coat.

I think 'waiting for his mother' modifies 'He' as 'wearing a coat' does, so they function as an adjective, but I am not a teacher.

xxwzs said:

1. She stood at the bus station, waiting for his mother. (waiting for his mother here functions as a concomitant adverbial.)

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***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Of course, I cannot answer the OP's question.

I have, however, found some information that has helped me to understand the matter a little bit, and I am delighted to share it.

1. "Concomitant" = occurring concurrently; accompanying. (THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, 1969.)

2. "As an adverb, a participal is sometimes used to limit a verb (by denoting concomitant acts)." [my emphases] (Rand McNally English Grammar, 1898, accessed through Google.)

a. "The mighty rocks come bounding down."
b. "Now the bright star, day's harbinger / Comes dancing from the East." (Milton)

3. Above all, another source helped me to advance a bit in understanding the term "concomitant adverbial."

a. "The phrase which mentions Elisha's seeing is a circumstantial clause, which in this form (where the verb is participial) is used in Hebrew to depict concomitant rather than sequential action; hence my preferred rendering 'While Elisha ....' " [my emphases] (PROPHECY AND DISCERNMENT by R.W.L. Moberly (2006), a Google result.

4. I may be totally wrong (as usual), but I have a sneaking suspicion that "concomitant adverbial" might be a more elegant term for what some textbooks call an adverbial element indicating accompanying circumstances.

a. "He rambled on foot through France, playing a flute for a supper and a bed."
b. ""Then he went to Leyden, still pretending to study medicine.

[my emphases] (Walter Kay Smart, ENGLISH REVIEW GRAMMAR, copyright 1940 - 1968.)

Matthew Wai said:

1. He stood at the bus station, waiting for his mother.
2. He stood at the bus station wearing a coat.

I think 'waiting for his mother' modifies 'He' as 'wearing a coat' does, so they function as an adjective, but I am not a teacher.

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I think you should put a comma before wearing.
Your sentence sounds to me as if the station were wearing a coat.
"With a/his coat on" (instead of wearing a coat, of course,) might be more natural.

I think tzfujimino might change his opinions in post#10 after reading the following thread, but I am not a teacher.
https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/220459-woman-came-into-my-store(-)-wearing-a-hat

Thank you for the link, Matthew.:-D

Well, no. I won't change mine.

I understand native speakers feel it's optional to put a comma there. Your sentence might be correct.
But I believe putting a comma there is correct, too. Opinions from native speakers are precious indeed, but they don't necessarily change mine.

In many cases, comma usage is a matter of personal preference and style.

xxwzs said:

I would like replace the "concomitant adverbial" with "time adverbial". If I do so, could you please tell me whether my sentences and analyses correct?

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https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/adverbials/adverbials-time
If 'time adverbial' refers to the above, I don't think the adjectival phrase 'waiting for his mother' has to do with time, but I am not a teacher.

xxwzs said:

In 2, is the comma needed?

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I would omit the comma.

tzfujimino said:

But I believe putting a comma there is correct, too.

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I believe the revised sentence in the quote box below is yet another example where a comma is not needed before a present participle phrase used at the end of a sentence.
https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/231345-sacrifice?p=1189077&viewfull=1#post1189077

Matthew Wai said:

I believe the revised sentence in the quote box below is yet another example where a comma is not needed before a present participle phrase used at the end of a sentence.
https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/231345-sacrifice?p=1189077&viewfull=1#post1189077

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I tried to make a sentence using "sacrifice".

If you say the part in bold is adjectival, I'll be happy to accept it.

I think participial phrases can be adverbs and adjectives.

Adjectives or adverbs.

xxwzs said:

I have two sentences to make a comparison:
1. She stood at the bus station, waiting for his mother. (waiting for his mother here functions as a concomitant adverbial.)
2. She stood at the bus station, to wait for his mother. (to wait for his mother here works as a adverbial of purpose.)
Am I right? In 2, is the comma needed?
Thanks a lot to you.

Click to expand...

In my opinion, the "waiting for his mother" is a non-finite clause in the first sentence which functions as an adverbial (or an adjunct) as it is an optional element in the sentence and can be omitted or rearranged. I'd call it an adverbial describing a circumstance, here a reason.

In the second sentence, the non-finite clause "to wait for his mother" functions as an adverbial expressing a purpose.

In my opinion, 1 contains a participial phrase and 2 contains an infinitive phrase.

tkacka15 said:

In my opinion, the "waiting for his mother" is a non-finite clause

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I don't think a clause can be without a subject and a finite verb, but I am not a teacher.

I completely agree, Matthew.