Positional and Semantic Peculiarities of Adverbs

One of the most interesting problems in connection with the study of the syntax of adverbs certainly is the problem of adverb placement.

One of the ways of looking at this problem is to take the semantic functions of adverbs as basic and regard various surface possibilities as derivable from them by rules of grammar. Movement possibilities of English adverbs are analysed in such traditional works as Kruisinga (1932), Poustma(1938), Jespersen(1949) and also in the works of Katz and Postal(1964), Jakendoff(1969).

According to Poustma(1) and Jespersen(2), adverbs may in Modern English have the following five positions, and various classes of adverbs can occupy different combinations of these five:

A. in front, i. e. before both subject and verb

B. between subject and verb

C. after subject and auxiliary, but before verb

D. between verb and object or prepositional object

E. at the end of the sentence

In position A and occasionally E, the adverb may be found in extraposition, in the latter case as a kind of afterthought , so that attention may be focused on position B, C and D.

One class of adverbs can occupy all five positions but changes meaning according to positions:

?Slowly, stiffly, Arthur Winner made himself turn, look through the open door?( James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.542).

(1) Poustma, H. A Grammar of Late Modern English. Groningen: P. Noordhoff.1938

(2) Jespersen, Otto. A Modern English Grammar.London: George Allen & Unwin. 1949

?She moved slowly across the room to the other big chair, by usage ?hers? ??.( James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.23).

The following sentences show that evaluative adverbs can also occur in position D.

?Muffling herself in her cloak, she rode boldly up to the main exit of the palace?.( Bertrice Small ? Love Wild and Fair? p.651).

?He looked sharply away and said: ?Here!?. (James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.529).

Since the question of whether an adverb is a sentence-modifier of a word- modifier is of considerable importance in fixing its place in a sentence, it is necessary to introduce the notions of adverbial scope, sentence adverb, and VP adverb. The scope of an adverb may be defined in terms of the notions of sentence adverb and VP adverb, as that part of a sentence which is interpreted as being modified by an adverb. Epistemic, attitudinal, evaluative and state-of-mind and most time and locative adverbs are sentence adverbs; manner and degree adverbs and some time and locative adverbs are VP adverbs. VP adverbs come from a deep adverb. Semantically, the distinction between sentence adverbs and VP adverbs is that the latter can become the focus of clause negation and interrogation, the former may not. For example:

?He did not do it intentionally?he didn?t manage to shake hands with Patrick?( Bertrice Small ? Love Wild and Fair? p.556).

The scope of negation is on intentionally, a manner adverb. For a number of adverbs which can occupy all five positions, there is no observable change in meaning, as Jackendoff(10) also noted. Such adverbs are the manner adverbs slowly and quickly, state-of- mind adverbs intentionally and willingly and some indefinite time adverbs frequently and immediately.

Degree adverbs can only occur in position C and some adverbs which are on the borderline of manner and degree may in addition occur in position E.

?He was anxious to tell Dinna something more that could be any use of her: he understood her completely?.( Bertrice Small ? Love Wild and Fair? p.298).

Jackendoff(1) also observed that the difficulties in placing the adverb increase when the same sentences contain two auxiliary elements. He recorded the following preference among his informants(p.103):this will probably be said(to: this probably will be said); examples may easily be found(to: may be easily found);the whole matter has been publicly discussed(to: has publicly been discussed) it must constantly borne in mind(to: he also constantly bore in mind); the whole matter has been frequently discussed or the whole matter has frequently discussed, and so forth.

Sentences containing the adverbs can be assigned syntactically-motivated and semantically-correct underlying structure, but here a question arises: what sort of derivational constraints for adverbial placement would be required?.

Three cases must be distinguished for the purpose for this discussion: (1) the first case concerns adverbs like quickly, immediately and intentionally for which change in position does not accompany change in meaning. (2) the second case has to do with adverbs like surprisingly and positively, for which change in scope is a function of a change in position. These adverbs are not ambiguous, however; (3) the third case involves all of the ambiguous adverbs like generally, accordingly, for which each lexical reading is typically associated with a certain more or less fixed position.

In the sentence- initial position, a certain pause is needed, in order to differentiate whether it is a sentence adverb, or, for example, an adverb of manner. Although sentence adverbs may occur in different positions in the sentence, their characteristic position is the sentence-initial one, as in:

(1)Jackendoff, R. Some Rules for English Semantic Interpretation, unpublished Ph. D. dissertation (M.I.T) (1969:201).

?Fortunately, under Noah?s almost as absolute control were other trusts, other funds?.(James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed?. p.549).

?Unfortunately, Mr. Davis particularly detested the odour of the fashionable pickle, and disgust added to his wrath? (?Louisa May Alcott ? Little Women? p. 55).

Another possible position in the sentence is between the noun and the verb, as in:

?He actually didn?t know just what Helen died seised of? (James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p. 538).

?By means of the signs, which fortunately she had showed the day before, Arthur found her? (James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.373).

Although sentence adverbs are seldom used in sentence-final position, this is also characteristic of sentence adverbs, as in:

?Arthur Winner said: ?They?ll conclude for themselves that the girl was as much to blame as you were: you admit you did wrong: you are sorry, frankly?.( James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.153).

We examined several classifications of adverbs (proposed by different authors) and discussed their position in different possible cases. Now we are going to show their meaning in sentences.

-When we say that we personally think or suppose, we imply that others do not agree with our opinion, as in:

?I personally do not say it?s too serious, but there are people who?d feel a lot easier about me?( James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed?p.301).

-Sometimes we express our opinion, which seems to disappoint a person. Using the following words as ?honestly? or ?frankly? we may stress the firmness of our statement rather politely, as in :

?In scores of meetings of the vestry during Doctor Ives?s incumbency, quite honestly, Arthur Winner could not remember the old rector ever introducing amid the proper business of expenses and receipts?( James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed?p.347).

?Judicial notice was taken that a parent is apt to cherish his child! And, frankly, a lot more apt to cherish the child than the child was to cherish the parent?. (James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed?p.317)

-Likely is considered to be an adjective in English but it is sometimes used as an adverb, with certain words as ?very? ?quite?. The meaning of ?likely? is analogous with the meaning of ?probably?.

?Only one situation could obligate her? very likely, or quite unlikely he would say someday? (James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed?p.499).

-Using actually in the sentence, we stress, that we believe something is right, that something really happened, especially when we think that it will astonish the interlocutor. We can also use ?actually? when we do not agree with someone?s statement.

?Actually, you have to remember that you have ten pounds of steel on your legs which will affect balancing?.(James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.558)

?Evils actually come to pass, evils that a timely worry could have prevented or eased, befell you as a rule without warning, not bargained for, as a sudden dirty surprise?. ( James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.498).

-?Definitely? and ?certainly? are widely used in everyday speech. Their use in sentences stresses the fairness of the statements. ?Definitely? has a stronger meaning than ?certainly?. It is not used in the sentence-initial position.(only in a short phrase like; ?Definetely not!?).

?I am afraid that what definitely weighted in the matter of scandal was bthe sort of person she was? (James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.59).

?The claim, by being so general, definitely denied itself?. (James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed?p.61)

?Of course, you mustn?t say anything about this to anyone; and certainly you mustn?t say that about it?( James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.13).

?Ralph, regarding himself as in a hopeless jam, perhaps in danger of death, certainly in danger of marriage, made his witless decision to ?disappear? ??.( James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed?p.523).

?I don?t know how in hell she managed: it?s certainly doing it the hard way? (James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.525).

- Adverbs like ?apparently?, and ?evidently? can be used to stress the veracity of the statement, as in:

?The proclamation was apparently ignored by one and all ?and he publicly asked for royal pardon? (Bertrice Small ? Love Wild and Fair? p.287).

?The queen, however, was enchanted, and evidently pleased by the success of her own efforts?( Bertrice Small ? Love Wild and Fair? p.186).

An English adverb ?hopefully?, which though created through derivation, expresses different ranges of meanings and functions. In many of its current uses, the meaning of this adverb does not directly correspond to the adjective ?hopeful?. This adverb deserves special attention. We are going to examine possible meanings of ?hopefully? in terms of its syntactic function in a sentence. ?Hopefully? can occur in the following syntactic roles:

(1)?Hopefully? as an adverb that modifies a verb or a verb phrase as in:

?I never knew her too well, but several times I remember she was hopefully looking for someone who would understand her the way she wanted?.

( James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.150).

In the above example, ?hopefully? modifies the verb in terms of how the action is carried out. In English adverbs of manner are usually placed next to the words they modify, so the position of ?hopefully? as an adverb of manner is typically after a verb.

(2) ?Hopefully? as an adverb that modifies a phrase (for example, a noun phrase), as in :

?The Union offered prepared emergency and hopefully a chance of saving the army??.( James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p. 203).

In the above example ?hopefully? modifies a noun phrase.

(3) ?Hopefully? as an adverb that modified a predicate as in:

?His eyes grew warm at the sight of her, but he said coldly ,?I am forgiving you, for we have hopefully been back together such a long time?.(Bertrice Small ? Love Wild and Fair? p.393).

Modifying a predicate, the adverb usually occurs before the finite verb, or between the auxiliary and the finite verb.

We may categorize the meanings of ?hopefully? into two groups: non-modal and modal usages. By non-modal usage hopefully gives additional information about the manner in which the action of the verb is carried out. The sentence in which this adverb is used is rendered as factual. ?Hopefully? can be used to express the desire for the proposition that had happened as in:

?Hopefully, he charged the aberration to urges irascible, not concupiscible?.( James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p. 196).

It is evident that the adverb no longer modifies a verb in terms of manner. In this case ?hopefully? is treated as a sentence adverb, expressing the speaker?s proposition towards the whole sentence.

-There are several words which can express surprise towards some event or situation which has happened. One of those words is ?surprisingly?, which is widely used in everyday speech. e.g.

?Surprisingly, the books and papers that covered in piles every flat surface were not piled at random?. (James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.540).

The adverb ?surprisingly? can modify a verb, thus showing some manner of the action, as in :

? A running engine of phantasmogenesis , surprisingly engaged again, pressed him to dream on; and little as life, Dunky angrily, excitedly, confronted him? (James Gould Cozzens ?By Love Possessed? p.503).

All the above examples show that adverbs in ?ly may express different rages of meanings. The peculiarity of occurring in different positions, in most cases, brings about changes in meaning.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 404