Differences: adverb, adverbial and adjunct

Today’s English
August 13th, 2017

Adverb is a word that adds something to the meaning of a verb but an adverbial can be not only a word (adverb) but also a phrase or clause:
1. He came 'yesterday.' (Adverb)
2. He came in the afternoon. (Adverbial phrase)
3. He came 'to collect money from me.' (Adverbial phrase)
4. He came 'because/as he needed some money.' (Adverbial clause)

An adverb or adverbial answers four questions: where?, when?, why? and how?
1. He danced 'on the stage.' (Where?)
2. He danced yesterday. (When?)
3. He danced like a rock star. (How?)
4. He danced to collect fund for the poor.(Why?)

Adverbial versus adjunct
An adverbial adds to the meaning of a verb and becomes an integral part of the sentence and without that the sentence won’t be meaningful.  But an adjunct adds additional, extra or optional meaning to a sentence without which the sentence is not affected.
1. I kept my key on the shelf. (Adverbial, you cannot just say “I kept my key”)
2. I kept my key near the book on the shelf.(near the book is adjunct and can be removed)

“Glenn used to say the reason you can't really imagine yourself being dead was that as soon as you say, 'I'll be dead,' you've said the word I, and so you're still alive inside the sentence. And that's how people got the idea of the immortality of the soul - it was a consequence of grammar.”
- Margaret Atwood, “The Year of the Flood”