I read Phrases from the grammar article for about 5 mins and made this post in 18 mins.
Phrases
A noun (or verb, adjective or adverb) phrase functions as a noun (or verb, adjective or adverb) and can be used anywhere a noun (or verb, adjective or adverb) would be used.
I see we’re treating the noun phrase as one thing or as one whole noun. It works to treat phrases as their own thing, as their own whatever is the main word.
The sentence’s verb is a verb phrase, “very quickly ate”. The phrase’s main word is the verb “ate”, and it has one modifier, “very quickly”.
I see how "ate"s modifier “very quickly” counts as one modifier not two. “Very” is modifying “quickly” not “ate”.
Detail: It’s ambiguous whether “during the day” modifies the verb “ate”, the whole verb phrase “very quickly ate”, or the whole clause (“cats ate kibble” plus modifiers).
Yeah, I think I see how ambiguous it could get like what is a modifier modifying.
This ambiguity is typical of adverbs at the ends of clauses.
Ok, the ambiguity happens a lot when adverbs are at the end of clauses.
However, it doesn’t matter. The sentence means the same thing regardless.
Ok, I think I see cuz if “during the day” modified only “ate” it tells us when the eating happened. “very quickly” still modifies “ate” to tell us how the eating was done.
If “during the day” modified “very quickly ate” then it would still be true. The “very quickly” part still happens in the day time.