+301.+ These phrases may be used in the place of single adverbs also.
You remember an adverb is a word that modifies a verb or an adjective or
another adverb. Let us see if we can not use a phrase or a group of
words in the place of a single adverb. For example:
The man works rapidly, or, The man works with rapidity.
The man works now, or, The man works at this time.
The man works here, or, The man works at this place.
In these sentences _rapidly_, _now_ and _here_ are single adverbs
modifying the verb _work_. The phrases, _with rapidity_, _at this time_,
and _at this place_, express practically the same ideas, conveyed by the
single adverbs, _rapidly_, _now_ and _here_. These phrases modify the
verb in exactly the same manner as the single adverbs. Therefore we call
these groups of words used as single adverbs, _adverb phrases_.
We also use adverbs to modify adjectives. Let us see if we can use
adverb phrases in the same way:
Rockefeller is _excessively_ rich; or, Rockefeller is rich _to
excess_.
He is _bodily_ perfect, but _mentally_ weak; or, He is perfect _in
body_ but weak _in mind_.
In the sentences above, the adverb _excessively_ modifies the adjective
_rich_; the same meaning is expressed in the adverb phrase, _to excess_.
In the sentence, _He is bodily perfect, but mentally weak_, the adverb
_bodily_ modifies the adjective _perfect_ and the adverb _mentally_
modifies the adjective _weak_. In the last sentence, the same meaning is
expressed by the adverb phrases, _in body_ and _in mind_. These phrases
modify the adjectives _perfect_ and _weak_, just as do the single
adverbs _bodily_ and _mentally_.
+302.+ We can use a phrase in the place of almost any adverb or
adjective. It very often happens, however, that there is no adjective or
adverb which we can use to exactly express our meaning and we are forced
to use a phrase. For example:
He bought the large house _by the river_.
The man _on the train_ is going _to the city_.
He came _from the country_.
It is impossible to find single words that express the meaning of these
phrases, _by the river_, _on the train_, _to the city_, and _from the
country_. You could not say the _river house_; that is not what you
mean. You mean the large house _by the river_, yet the phrase _by the
river_ modifies and describes the house quite as much as the adjective
_large_. It is an adjective phrase used to modify the noun _house_, yet
it would be impossible to express its meaning in a single word.