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§ 8. Clauses of adverbial positions constitute a vast domain of syn-
tax which falls into many subdivisions each distinguishing its own 
field of specifications, complications, and difficulties of analysis. 
The structural peculiarities and idiosyncrasies characterising the 
numerous particular clause models making up the domain are 
treated at length in grammatical manuals of various practical pur-
poses; here our concern will be to discuss some principal issues of 
their functional semantics and classification. 
Speaking of the semantics of these clauses, it should be stressed 
that as far as the level of generalised clausal meanings is con-
cerned, semantics in question is of absolute syntactic relevance; 
accordingly, the traditional identification of major adverbial clause 
models based on "semantic considerations" is linguistically ra-
tional, practically helpful, and the many attempts to refute it in the 
light of the "newly advanced, objective, consistently scientific" cri-
teria have not resulted in creating a comprehensive system capable 
of competing with the traditional one in its application to textual 
materials. 
On the other hand, it would be a mistake to call in question the use-
fulness of the data obtained by the latest investigations. Indeed, if 
their original negative purpose has failed, the very positive contri-
bution of the said research efforts to theoretical linguistics is not to 
be overlooked: it consists in having studied the actual properties of 
the complicated clausal system of the sentence, above all the 
many-sided correlation between structural forms and functional 
meanings in the making of the systemic status of each clausal en-
tity that admits of a description as a separate unit subtype. 

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Proceeding from the said insights, the whole system of adverbial 
clauses is to be divided into four groups. 
The first group includes clauses of time and clauses of place. Their 
common semantic basis is to be defined as "localisation" — re-
spectively, temporal and spatial. Both types of clauses are subject 
to two major subdivisions, one concerning the local identification, 
the other concerning the range of functions. 
Local identification is essentially determined by subordinators. Ac-
cording to the choice of connector, clauses of time and place are 
divided into general and particularising. The general local identifi-
cation is expressed by the non-marking conjunctions when and 
where. Taken by themselves, they do not introduce any further 
specifications in the time or place correlations between the two lo-
cal clausal events (i.e. principal and subordinate). As for the par-
ticularising local identification, it specifies the time and place cor-
relations of the two events localising the subordinate one before the 
principal, parallel with the principal, after the principal, and possi-
bly expressing further subgradations of these correspondences. 
With subordinate clauses of time the particularising localisation is 
expressed by such conjunctions as while, as, since, before, after, 
until, as soon as, now that, no sooner than, etc. E.g.: 
We lived here in London when the war ended. While the war was 
going on we lived in London. We had lived in London all through 
the war until it ended. After the war ended our family moved to 
Glasgow. Etc. 
With clauses of place proper the particularising localisation is ex-
pressed but occasionally, mostly by the prepositional conjunctive 
combinations from where (bookish equivalent — whence) and to