THEME 15:

THE EXPRESSION OF MANNER, MEANS AND INSTRUMENT.

1. INTRODUCTION

2. ADVERB CHARACTERISTICS

a). Form
b). Function
c). Content

3. CLASSIFICATION OF ADVERBS

a). According to Form

b). According to Content
c). According to Their Position in the Sentence
d). Process Adverbials

4. POSITION OF ADVERBS

a). Adverbs in Front-Position

b). Adverbs in Mid-Position
c). Adverbs in End-Position

5. COMPARISON OF ADVERBS

6. ADVERBIAL CLAUSES
1. INTRODUCTION

Adverbs are words which describe or give us more information about a verb (they
say how, where or when an action is done), about an adjective, a prepositional
phrase, a sentence or about another adverb.

According to Quirk, the adverb is characterised by its heterogeneity and because

of that it is difficult to set a definition as precise as for other parts of speech.

2. ADVERB CHARACTERISTICS

a). Form:

I. Adverbs in -ly. Many adverbs of manner and degree are derived from
adjectives and participles by means of the adverbial suffix -ly:

beautiful beautifully
stupid stupidly

But in some cases the addition of -ly to an adjective forms both, an adverb and a
new adjective.

kind words (adjective) to speak kindly (adverb) kindly heart (adjective)

There are also some adjectives ending in -ly which cannot be used as adverbs.
Instead we have to use an adverb phrase.

silly in a silly way

friendly in a friendly way

Frequently the adjective form and the adjective + -ly form are used as adverbs
but they have different meanings:

close (near) close to the station

closely (exactly, carefully) watch him closely

free (without payment) all members are admitted free

freely (unchecked) the blood flowed freely

just (very recently) he has just arrived

justly (with justice) he was justly pardoned

hard (intensive adverb) it rained hard last night

hardly (barely) we hardly ever go there

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pretty (degree adverb) it is pretty early
prettily she is prettily dressed

When we add the suffix -ly to form an adverb, there may be some changes in the
spelling:

i). Adjectives ending in -y:

 Consonant + y. The y changes to i:

happy happily

 Vowel + y. The y is retained:

coy coyly

Note the exception:

day daily

ii). Adjectives ending in -e:

 Sometimes this is retained and sometimes it is not:

extreme extremely
true truly

iii). Adjectives ending in vowel + l:

 They double the l:

final finally

iv). Adjectives ending in -le:

 They change to -ly:

noble nobly
simple simply

v). Adjectives ending in -able, -ible:

 The final -e changes to -y:

sensible sensibly
capable capably

II. Adverbs which have the same form as the adjective and also the same
meaning such as far, little, much, straight, well, etc.:

the far horizon (adjective) she travelled far (adverb)

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a straight line (adjective) go straight in (adverb)

Words indicating time and ending in -ly, such as early, weekly, hourly:

an hourly service of trains (adjective)

the medicine should be taken hourly (adverb)

III. Adverbs formed with other suffixes:

 wards: used in adverbs of manner and direction:

to walk backwards

wise and ways: used with the meaning of ‘in the manner of’, ‘as far as… is
concerned’:
place the poles crosswise he looked sideways at her

IV. Adverbs formed from other parts of speech by the addition of the prefix -
a:

ashore abroad aloud

b). Function:

Quirk distinguishes four different functions in adverbs, according to the type of

word they can modify:

 Adverbs modifying sentences

 Adverbs which are sentences in themselves
 Adverbs as modifiers of other parts of speech
 Adverbs functioning as nouns

I. Adverbs modifying sentences:

They may be adjuncts or phrases integrated within the structure of the clause
that give extra information:

I quite forgot about it

I spoke to him outside
I did not see him beforehand, but I did see him afterwards

They may also be conjuncts and disjuncts. Disjuncts express the speaker’s or
writer’s attitude or approach to the statement he is making. They may be single
word adverbs (briefly), phrases (in a few words), non-finite clauses (speaking
frankly), and finite clauses (if I may say so). They can come at the end or the
beginning of the sentence or they can come after the subject:

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I believe him, personally
Frankly, I don’t trust him
I honestly do not remember

Conjuncts introduce a new sentence and link it logically with what has been said
before. They can also be placed at the end or at the beginning of a sentence or
they can come after the opening phrase:

altogether, we can present a very satisfactory report

our report is very satisfactory, therefore
we still, however, have a lot of work to do

II. Adverbs which are sentences in themselves:

yes no perhaps certainly

III. Adverbs as modifiers of other parts of speech:

 as modifiers of adjectives. In a pre-modifying or post-modifying position:

he is quite right his salary was not high enough

They may be, at the same time, intensifiers conveying emphasis (emphasizers) or
denoting a high degree (amplifiers):

so pretty terrible quite highly

 as modifiers of other adverbs:

he spoke extremely quickly

 as modifiers of verbs:

he ran quickly they all come here

 as modifiers of prepositions in prepositional complements:

the nail went right through the wall

his parents are dead against the trip

 as modifiers of determiners, especially indefinite pronouns and cardinal

numbers:

nearly everybody came over two hundred

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  when pre-modifying a noun:

the above sentence the then president

an away game

 when modifying a noun phrase:

it was rather a mess he was quite some player

IV. Adverbs functioning as nouns:

An adverb can function as a noun when it is the object of a verb or the

complement of a preposition:

we shall leave here as soon as we can

I do not want to know where but when

c). Content:

Regarding content, adverbs differ considerably among themselves, so it would be

difficult to find a common denominator for such different words. The only general
statement that can be made concerning adverbs is that they are used as modifiers
of other words or sentences.

3. CLASSIFICATION OF ADVERBS

a). According to Form:

 They can be simple and indivisible words such as:

much quite so as too

out then back still here

 They can be derivate adverbs formed from adjectives, nouns or adverbs by

the addition of a suffix:

certainly quietly simply daily

nearly backwards crosswise sideways

 Adverbs formed by two words. The compound has a new meaning which is
different from the meaning of the individual parts:

anywhere sometimes however

already almost always

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  A group of two or more words functioning as adverbs:

before then until then how far

at first at last at once
at present at all as a matter of fact

b). According to Content:

 Manner Adverbs:

They express how an action is done. Most adverbs ending in -ly belong to this
group. They usually modify verbs and sentences:

suddenly steadily slowly

 Time Adverbs:

They express when the action is done. They generally modify the whole sentence:

after already before late

once soon still

 Frequency and Repetition Adverbs:

They express how often and how many times an action is done. Many of them are
frequently modified by adverbs of other kinds:

always often frequently never

generally

 Place and Position Adverbs:

They express where or in what order an action is done:

here there above across

 Degree Adverbs:

They express to what extent or to what degree an action is done. They are not
generally used with verbs, but with adjectives or other adverbs:

completely absolutely deeply

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  Quantity Adverbs:

They are connected with degree adverbs:

much little a lot a great deal

 Affirmation, Negation and Probability Adverbs:

They are really abbreviated sentences and they modify whole sentences:

yes no perhaps never

 Interrogative Adverbs:

The adverbs where, when, how and why introduce direct questions and dependent
clauses:

Where have you been? I know when a man is in pain

c). According to Their Position in the Sentence:

Adverbs may occupy different positions in the sentence. They may be placed at
the beginning of the sentence if they have a pre-subject position:

yes no altogether

They may have a pre-verbal position:

always nearly ever hardly

Or they may have a post-verbal position:

well slowly badly hard

Other adverbs are placed before the adjective:

very rather too

d). Process Adverbials:

They answer the question how, specifying how the action denoted by the verb is
performed or how events take place. They can be classified in three categories:
Manner, Means and Instrument.

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Process adverbials are always used with dynamic verbs and never with stative
verbs:

He walks hurriedly He feels hurriedly*

They usually carry the information focus, therefore preferring a final position:

He speaks clearly

In the passive voice it is possible to place them immediately before the lexical
part of the verb:

Traffic was quickly diverted towards another bridge

There are different ways of expressing manner:

 By adverbs (usually ending in -ly) and Adverbial Phrases:

From now on we will proceed carefully

 Many adverbs can be easily formed using the suffixes - wise, -wards, -ways,
-style, -fashion:

They looked backwards

I enjoy Hamburgers cooked Texas-style

 By means of a prepositional phrase:

From now on we will proceed in a careful way, like this, this way

 By clauses like:

From now on we will proceed as we were told

 A manner phrase can convey other meanings simultaneously such as:

Comparison: She behaves like a queen

Time duration: He was moving very slowly

 To express means and instrument we use prepositional phrases introduced

by with, without or by:

I usually go to work by bus

He jumped without a parachute
He was killed with a knife

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4. POSITION OF ADVERBS

It is difficult to generalise about this subject. We will distinguish three positions

for adverbs in a sentence:

 Adverbs in Front-Position
 Adverbs in Mid-Position
 Adverbs in End-Position

a). Adverbs in Front-Position:

If the adverb comes at the beginning it is specially picked out from the sentence
to give us some information in advance.

Some adverbs can only go in this position, like interrogative adverbs, adverbs of
affirmation and negation and adverbs in exclamatory sentences:

No, that is not correct

Here he comes!

Some others are used at the beginning but are not confined to this position. There
are sentence modifiers, adverbs of time and negative and limiting adverbs:

Still, I do not think that is true

Yesterday it rained. (emphatic position)
Never have so many people studied English before (inversion)

When negative and limiting adverbs are placed at the beginning of a sentence, the
subject is placed after the (operator) verb. This is known as inversion and is used
for emphasis.

b). Adverbs in Mid-Position:

They illustrate some aspect of the verb and emphasis tends to fall on the verb.

In this group we include adverbs of probability, frequency and degree. They are
normally placed before the main verb, but after an auxiliary verb, and the verb to
be. When they modify a verb with two auxiliaries they are placed after the first
auxiliary:

I always go
She has probably hated music all her life
You are always doing that

They may be placed before the verb to be if we want to emphasise:

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She probably is at home

Brief adverbs of place and definite time like often, seldom, already or soon are
sometimes placed in mid-position. The same position is usual for the adverb also:

They also serve who only stand and wait

c). Adverbs in End-Position:

Here the emphasis is more on the adverb. Generally there is a difference in

meaning between end and mid-position, especially in adverbs of manner:

He angrily shut the door (he was angry and consequently shut the door)
He shut the door angrily (suggests something about the way he shut the door)

A general principle in the structure of a sentence is that the object cannot be

separated from its verb by having an adverb interposed. The adverb should be put
after the object:

Henry does his work well George studies English here

This is not the case in sentences which contain a phrasal verb, where the adverbial
particle may be placed between the verb and its object or after the object:

Turn off the gas Turn the gas off

If the object is a clause, the adverb may be placed before in order to avoid
ambiguity:

He told me yesterday what George said

He told me what George said yesterday

When a sentence contains more than one adverb or adverbial phrase, the most
frequent order is manner, place and time:

The car stopped suddenly outside

The plane landed safely yesterday

5. COMPARISON OF ADVERBS

We apply to adverbs the same rules that we use for adjectives, with use of the
endings -er/-est or more and most:

She works harder than her husband She got up earlier than usual

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With adverbs ending in -ly we use more and most:

More wisely said

Often and seldom are found with both types of comparison:

He must come oftener More often than not

There are adverbs which do not have degrees of comparison.

here there now then once already

6. ADVERBIAL CLAUSES

These work in the same way as adverbs and therefore they qualify the main clause
as a whole. They may occur in a final, initial or medial position within the main
clause.

They can be divided into various semantic categories according to the meaning
expressed. The main types are:

 Clauses of Time:

They indicate when an action is done. They may be introduced by the

subordinators like:

after as before once

since when while as long as

They waited until the ship sailed

As you go out, please close the door
I shall wait until you come back

 Clauses of Place:

They indicate where an action is done and are introduced by subordinators like:

where wherever whence

Remain where you are

 Clauses of Reason:

They indicate why an action is done and may be introduced by subordinators like:

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because as since seeing that now that

He sold the car because it was too small

 Clauses of Purpose:

They answer the question ‘what for’ and are usually introduced by so that, that::

They are climbing higher so that they may get a better view

 Clauses of Result:

They are introduced by so…that, such…that:

He was such a good student that he won a book

 Clauses of Condition:

They are introduced by subordinators like if, supposing, so long as…. Clauses of
negative condition may be introduced by if not or unless. Emphatic condition is
expressed by provided that, on condition that:

I shall go if she asks me

If I were you, I should have a haircut

 Concessive Clauses:

They imply a contrast between two circumstances. They are introduced by

although, though, even though, even if:

Though he tried hard he was not successful

I’m staying in, even if it stops raining

 Clauses of Manner:

They indicate how an action is done. They are introduced by as, as if, as though,
how:

I will do as you advise

You look as if you have seen a ghost

 Clauses of Comparison:

They are introduced by than after a comparative word in the main clause or by as
preceded by so, such, as in the main clause:

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This is not as easy as you think
This is easier than I thought

 Clauses of Restriction:

As far as I can see, he cannot be more than thirty

The man may be dead, for all we know

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