Subject-oriented adverbials characterize the subject referent with respect to the action or state denoted by the verb, or put in another way, they describe the subject referent’s physical or mental state visible to the speaker when the subject undertakes the action named by the verb. They relate to the subject referent as well as to the action or state. Subject-oriented adverbials consist of two groups: the general group—most of its items are manner adverbials; and the volitional group. Examples of manner adverbials functioning as subject-oriented adverbials are: 忧伤地‘yōushāng de’ (sadly), 高兴地‘gāoxìng de’ (happily), 坦率地‘tǎnshuài de’ (frankly), 骄傲地‘jiāo'ào de’ (proudly), 兴奋地‘xīngfèn de’ (excitedly), 激动地‘jīdòng de’ (excitedly), adverbials formed with subject-predicate construction: 满头大汗地‘mǎntóu dàhàn de’ (full head of sweat), 气喘吁吁地‘qìchuǎn xūxū de’ (breathlessly), etc. Their relationship to the subject is shown by the paraphrases in which their corresponding adjectives function as the predicates of the subjects, as shown by the paraphrases within the brackets.
[1] Loar, J. K. (2011). Chinese syntactic grammar: functional and conceptual principles. New York: Peter Lang.
