Types of Adverbial Phrases Used in Three Position of Occurrences
duration of time, and frequency of time. The adjunct in the room refers to the old man’s room. The description of the room is explained in another sentence. It is
described that the room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness and the shutters were close fastened, through fear of robbers. This adjunct explains the
space position of the event. In this place, the narrator stalked and killed the old man. Next adjunct that shows the setting of the event is adjuncts of time. The
adjunct for seven long nights --every night just at midnight and that every night, just at twelve indicates the action was always done in midnight for seven days straight.
This description of time is the typical of horror story, where something bad or scary would happen. Rarely authors write the setting of a murder in the morning or noon.
Poe took this setting to make the readers feel the atmosphere of the murder setting. The second adjunct is adjunct of time every morning. This time frequency
is different from before and the action is also different. In every morning, the narrator tried to provoke the old man. The writer is certain the narrator cannot kill
the old man in the day because he was afraid of what he did was heard by neighbors. Then, on the midday, the narrator provoked him intentionally to resolve himself to
kill the old man. Adjunct of time with a semantic role of position can also describe the
setting of the action. In this story, we have to follow the time from the narrator’s perspective to understand the time.
And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror.
Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety
seized me --the sound would be heard by a neighbor The old mans hour had come With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the
room. He shrieked once --once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the
deed so far done. p.279
The adjunct now at the dead hour of the night clearly points out a certain time position. If we take a look at the meaning, dead hour means the time when the
most people die in their sleep in hospital, around 3 a.m. until 4 a.m. Relating to the story, this is the time when people are generally sleeping deepest, so things are
quietest. Therefore, the author used this adjunct to increase the tension of the narrator’s murder intent to the readers by creating the atmosphere of time that is
scary. The next adjunct is another adjunct of space that shows the setting where
the characters are. I smiled, --for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. The
shriek, I said, was my own in a dream. The old man, I mentioned, was absent in the country. I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them
search --search well. I led them, at length, to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed. In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I
brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed
my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim. p. 280
The adjuncts in this paragraph are used to describe the position of the characters. The narrator and the officers were in the old man’s house. The narrator
shows several places in the house. The most specific location in that paragraph is upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim. This adjunct
describes the exact location of the narrator and it makes the reader can imagine it more clearly.
From Table 6, the distribution of adjuncts of space and adjuncts of time mostly appear in Middle Position and Final Position. The adjuncts in Middle
P osition invite the reader’s attention to the modifier of the verb because of the
position of the adjuncts which near with the position of the verb. The percentage domination shows that Poe uses a lot of adverb in Middle Position to make the
reader aware with what situation described with the adjuncts around the verbs. While the adjuncts in Final Position have quite high number of appearance, because
Poe sometimes uses them as the main focus of the description of the text, as content word in the last position can be the most important Leech, 1981: 212.
Data above has proved that adjuncts of time and space are used to explain the settings are able to inform the reader about the environment and situation of the
story. Both adjunct of time or adjunct of space contribute for making the setting suitable to atmosphere of the story, that is murder story. Thus it can be concluded
that these adjuncts significantly affect the story.