adverb

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
21

Alan/Beeesneees,
It is surprising to see you to be silent on this thread discussion.
I want to hear your valuable comment.
Please come forward and give to an end to this discussion.
Thanks.

22

In the light of the enlightening exemplification of James (quoting Prof Quirk etal), I need to revisit this realm and and accept the possibility of an adverb focusing on a noun. The use of adverbs ‘only’ and ‘even’ does reasonably suggest it. Torsten should also be right then. A very fruitful discussion, indeed. Thanks.

23

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Anglophile:

I am VERY excited because I have been able to find an online explanation that completely explains FOCUSING ADVERBS.

For example, it gives these two examples:

  1. My cell phone is mainly / mostly / truly / especially / particularly/ above all FOR MAKING CALLS. (It is clear that the adverb focuses on “for making calls.”)

  2. Mike has been using mostly / only / even THE NEW FEATURES.
    (The explanation says very confidently that the adverb MODIFIES – it even uses this word! – the object noun, which is “the new features.”)

You can read the whole article by going to Google and typing in:

Focusing adverbs: Drawing attention to information.

James

24

AF wrote: “My friends are mostly(adv) non-smokers(n).”

JM wrote: "1. According to what I have read, “mostly” is an “adverb” that does, indeed, “modify” the noun “non-smokers.”

Hi JM.

I agree to disagree. My test for the adverb mostly in the AF’s sentence is like that: remove the “mostly” from the sentence and you get “My friends are non-smokers.”. If you put it back you’ve got quite a different sentence, changed by the adverb “mostly”. Here, mostly functions as an adverbial, i.e. as an element which influences the whole sentence.

25

Thanks, James; I have visited the site and read it.

26

Hi, Tkacka: Thanks for your disagreeing so agreeably. I hope that you read that online article and let me know what you think.

Hi, Anglophile. I hope that you enjoyed that article as much as I did. I think that every English teacher should teach that lesson to their [excuse me, but I dare not say “his”] students.

Thank you, both, again. Have a great weekend!

27

Hi JM.

You wrote: “Even Bob was there. (I guess that we can all agree that “even” focuses on – or modifies, as we ordinary people would say – the noun “Bob.”)”

I’m with you on that. It is because the adverb “even” is movable within the sentence in such a way that every time you move the adverb you put emphasis on different part of the sentence; compere: Even Bob was there (emphasis on the subject, i.e. Bob) vs Bob was even there (emphasis on the adverb of place, there).

On the other hand in My friends are mostly non-smokers there is no room for displacing mostly which influences the whole sentence.

28

I think the following are possible although slightly different in meaning from the one quoted.

Mostly, my friends are non-smokers.
My friends are non-smokers, mostly.

29

Hi Anglophile.

Indeed, putting “mostly” (separated by commas from the rest of the sentence) at the beginning or the end of the sentence changes the meaning. In this case there is no doubt that “mostly” followed or preceded by a comma modifies the whole sentence. In the My friends are mostly non-smokers the following-the-copula phrase mostly non-smokers is a subject complement and refers back to the subject My friends thus influencing it.

Anyway, I think that, whatever we can say about that, it is , in a sense, a question of perception. Though I disagree with JM (who with the slight irony distances himself from the foggy grammar terminology, which I dislike even more) I understand that from his point of view “mostly” modifies "non-smokers.

30

James says it is a focusing adverb. Let’s not call it a modifier of the noun, but understand that it is a noun-oriented adverb. (‘Mostly’ here means ‘most of them’ to me. If so, it is related to ‘them’, i.e. non-smokers, a noun).

31

That’s where I’m sceptical. You can multiply the definitions of an adverb, here another one, i.e. a focusing adverb, which results in terminology confusion, a sort of terminology fog. I understand that there are three major types of the adverb: circumstance adverbs (adverbs of place, time, etc.), degree adverbs and sentence adverbs.

32

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Tkacka and Anglophile:

Thank you for your thought-provoking comments.

I am continuing to google like mad in order to find out all that I can about the role of “mostly” in that kind of sentence.

I even asked this question at another helpline. Some comments were:

  1. “Mostly” in that sentence modifies the verb “are.”
  2. “Mostly” in that sentence modifies the whole sentence.
  3. One “expert” sugggested that I go to a website for learners, for he said that native speakers do not use the term “focusing adverbs.” Or maybe he meant that HE had never heard of it.
  4. Some of the “experts” repeated the same old thing: adverbs cannot modify nouns.

Of course, most people could not care less what it modifies. But I do. And I WANT to know. So far, I am sticking with that online article: it modifies or (more accurately) focuses on the noun. BUT, as some scholars admit : Those noun-oriented adverbs “are also to some degree ABOUT THE EVENT AS A WHOLE.”

James

P.S. If I discover something exciting, I will let you know.

33

****NOT A TEACHER *****

OK. I have exciting news. Hold on to your seats!

Someone at that other helpline answered my question. Boy, did she! She must have spent hours composing her lengthy reply.

I have to print it out and spend a couple of hours studying it.

The bottom line (according to her): She refuses to accept the focusing adverb theory, but she says that “mostly” modifies the predicate “are non-smokers.”

In other words, the verb + the complement.

That idea certainly sounds good to me. (Although I am still loath to renounce the focusing adverb theory!)

Just google these words:

adverbs - What does “mostly” modify?

James

P.S. I almost feel ashamed by the tremendous effort that she put into answering me. Obviously, she must know university-level linguistics.

34

Hello everyone!

Like James M, I also asked this question at EnglishClub ESL Forums - Index page and I received

the following answer from the moderator of the ‘Grammar Help’ section - excellent

grammarian Alan Bunyan:

       No, adverbs cannot modify nouns.

        'Mostly' here postmodifies 'are'.
35

Thanks, Foreigner, for the information.

36

Hi Foreigner.

The same sort of discussion is taking place in the university academia. Some would agree with A. Bunyan, some not. What I do not like about it is his categorical statement: “No, adverbs cannot modify nouns.”

His thesis begs the question: where is the evidence that adverbs cannot modify nouns or noun phrases? Without that his statement is one more opinion.

37

Hi Tkacka15!

Can you give a few (5-6) examples that adverbs really modify nouns apart from the ones you wrote in thread ¹ 2?

Thanks in advance
38

Hi Foreigner.

No. Not now. When I spot something which expands my previous examples I’ll be back.

39

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Foreigner:

Here are a few examples (I have used capital letters for the adverb).

  1. Is it ONLY poets, and men of leisure and cultivation, who live with nature?

  2. To the ALMOST terror of the persons present, Macaulay began with the senior wrangler of 1801 - 2 - 3 - 4, and so on.

  3. Nor was it ALTOGETHER nothing.

  4. He was INCIDENTALLY news dealer.

Those examples come from AN ENGLISH GRAMMAR by W.M. Baskervill and J.S. Sewell. You can read it by going to Google.

Oh, by the way, it was published in 1896. Yes, 1896!

Even then, some grammarians realized that adverbs DO occasionally modify nouns or pronouns.

Of course, they usually do not. So I guess that many teachers do not mention this fact. Most teachers, I am sure, are more than satisified if their students are able to remember that adverbs modify verbs [ad + verb], adverbs, and adjectives.

James

40

2 does not seem correct to me.
4 is missing an article before. news dealer’.