121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs

Adverbs that link with a whole sentence are of different kinds and are usually able to link with part of a sentence too

THE NATURE OF SENTENCE ADVERBS

One of the adverb characteristics highlighted in the post before this (120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs) is that some can give information about a complete sentence rather than any particular part of one, their position in such cases usually being at the start. The difference between these so-called sentence adverbs and other adverb types is clearly illustrated in sentences like the following:

(a) Children will happily eat some healthy foods.

(b) Happily, children will eat some healthy foods.

The sentence adverb here is happily in (b). It shows happiness felt by the speaker about the entire sentence message. In (a), on the other hand, happily is an ordinary manner adverb, giving information about the verb will eat, and expressing the feeling of the subject of the verb, children.

Sentence position is a major differentiator of these two adverb uses, but not a complete one. This is because sentence adverbs can occupy other positions than the start, including even that shown in (a). The punctuation can then be the main clue, since many sentence adverbs need to be inside bracket-like commas (see 294. Parentheses, #1). However, even special punctuation is not always present.

In this post I wish to further explore the characteristics of sentence adverbs, to indicate their importance in academic writing, and to illustrate a wide range of them.

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TYPES OF SENTENCE ADVERB

Sentence adverbs can be classified into various types according to the kind of meaning they express.

1. Connectors

Connectors are words or phrases that show how two neighbouring sentences are related to each other. They are a major topic elsewhere within this blog (see especially 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors and 259. Multi-Word Connectors), and are mentioned here only because it has been traditional to see one-word connectors as a type of adverb. They may be illustrated with consequently in the following example:

(c) People are living longer. Consequently, more doctors are needed.

The connector here shows the information in the second sentence to be a result of that in the first.

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2. Communication-Describing Adverbs

Sentence adverbs in this quite small group indicate the way the speaker is communicating. For example, honestly indicates communication of an honest kind. Other common examples are bluntly, briefly, frankly, generally, personally, practically, realistically, seriously and technically.

These adverbs resemble comments made with a to or -ing verb between parenthetical commas, such as to be brief or speaking personally (see 183. Statements between Commas). Indeed, they can be “proved” to be communication-describing by the possibility of adding speaking in front. Some, such as impartially, roughly, scientifically and strictly, may actually be more common with an -ing verb than without one.

Another type of communication-describing adverb indicates a new topic that the communication is about. It is usually made by adding the suffix -wise to a noun (see 106. Word-Like Suffixes). Examples are costwise, workwise and weatherwise. They cannot be used with speaking.

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3. Judgement Adverbs

Sentence (b) above illustrates this very large category of sentence adverbs. They allow the speaker to express a judgement about what is being said. Thus, in (b) happily expresses the speaker’s positive judgement of children’s willingness to eat some healthy foods.

Three major subdivisions of judgement adverbs seem to exist. Happily is of a kind that might be labelled “speaker-focussed”, since it says something about the speaker of the sentence (that s/he is “happy”). It corresponds to I am happy that… . Many of the adverbs in this category are similarly emotive, expressing emotions like anger, surprise, interest and sympathy. Examples are alas, amazingly, annoyingly, confusingly, disappointingly, hopefully, intriguingly, mercifully, regrettably, sadly, shockingly, (un)surprisingly and understandably.

The second main subdivision of judgement adverbs focuses less on the speaker and more on the message, and may hence be labelled “message-focussed”. Most suggest the message is either a fact or an opinion (for the difference, see 107. The Language of Opinions). A few suggest some other perspective. Fact-suggesting message adverbs tend also to indicate some characteristic of the fact, for example that it is obvious:

(d) Obviously, the villagers had been very helpful.

Other adverbs of this type include actually, admittedly, clearly, evidently, manifestly, naturally, of course, plainly, undeniably and unfortunately. Care is needed with the underlined ones because they can be combined with a following but (or synonym) to undermine the importance of the fact being expressed (see 51. Making Concessions with “May”). For more on of course, see 156. Mentioning what the Reader Knows Already, #4.

A few other fact-suggesting message adverbs indicate the existence of exceptions, which helps to ensure the accuracy of a generalization (see 95. Making Statements More Uncertain 1). Common examples are generally, mostly, normally, often, on the whole, ordinarily, typically and usually. An example is:

(e) Typically, younger children are looked after by their siblings.

Message-focussed judgement adverbs that suggest an opinion rather than fact mostly indicates different opinion strengths. Common examples in ascending order are conceivably, feasibly, perhaps, possibly, probably, certainly, definitely, undoubtedly and unquestionably. The less certain ones are useful for making controversial statements (see 96. Making Statements More Uncertain 2); the strong ones emphasise their user’s belief in the truth of what they are saying (see 224. Asserting the Truth of what you Say).

Slightly different is arguably: besides indicating that an opinion is being given, it clearly associates the opinion with the writer (see 22. Multiple Speakers in a Text).

Of the message-focussed judgement adverbs that are not fact-suggesting or opinion-suggesting, some are concerned with the importance or otherwise of the message, regardless of whether it is a fact or opinion. Common examples are basically, critically, crucially, essentially, famously, importantly, remarkably and significantly. Another group – apparently, misleadingly, nominally, plausibly, seemingly – suggest an appearance that does not match the truth (see 132. Tricky Word Contrasts 4, #7, on apparently). Also notable are curiously, improbably, incredibly and strangely.

The third main subdivision of judgement adverbs might be called “subject-focussed”, since they express a judgement about the subject of the sentence, as in this example:

(f) Foolishly, the coach relied on talent without tactics.

This means the coach was foolish to do what s/he did. Other adverbs that can be used like this include blindly, characteristically, (un)luckily, notoriously, rightly, stupidly, typically, unusually, wrongly and wisely. They may be especially common in history writing, inspired by the writer’s knowledge of what happened afterwards (see 282. Features of History Writing, #11).

Typically is included here because it can be used in a different way from that shown in sentence (e), where it merely says that the described behaviour is common. If it is placed in sentence (d) instead of obviously, it takes on the meaning of “characteristically”: the villagers had acted as they normally do.

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4. Time and Place Adverbs

Most time and place adverbs have a sentence-spanning use. The three main categories of time adverbs (indicating when, how often or how long: see 227. Time Adverbs) are all usable in this way.

Sentence-spanning “when” adverbs include historically, before, then, now, afterwards, meanwhile, soon, today and tomorrow; “how often” ones include daily, annually, sometimes and regularly; and “how long” ones include briefly, quickly, slowly, temporarily and throughout. Exceptions tend to be in this last category: a sentence-spanning use seems unlikely or rare, for example, with permanently and perpetually.

Some “when” adverbs relate the time of an event or situation to one described in a previous sentence, and hence fit additionally into the category of connectors (see #1 above). Common ones are afterwards, meanwhile, next and then (see 210. Process Descriptions, #2 and 282. Features of History Writing, #5).

Place adverbs indicate either position or movement. Those that can be sentence-spanning tend to be the former. Many are spelled the same as a preposition (above, below, beyond, inside, nearby), though not all adverbs spelt like a preposition can be sentence-spanning (cf. in, on, off, by, near). Common sentence-spanning place adverbs not spelled like a preposition include everywhere, here, there, hence and thence.

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RECOGNISING WHICH ADVERBS MUST OR CAN OR CANNOT BE SENTENCE ADVERBS

A major question posed by the existence of sentence adverbs is how one can learn and remember them. In particular, can any adverb be used as a sentence adverb, or only some, and how many sentence adverbs cannot be used in other adverb ways? Unfortunately, I am not able to give a definite answer to these questions – but perhaps I can make some useful observations.

Most sentence adverbs can, it seems, also be ordinary adverbs. This is even true of connectors, though not all of them. “Pure” connectors perhaps include therefore, consequently, alternatively and moreover. Those with an alternative use include anyway (non-connector meaning = “regardless”), equally, hence (= “from here), however (= “in whatever way”: see 272. Uses of “Ever”, #6), otherwise (= “differently”), similarly and thus (= “in this way”: see 289. Exotic Grammar Structures 8, #1).

Here is otherwise used in the two different ways:

(g) (ORDINARY ADVERB) Scoring at least 60% is required. Those who perform otherwise will be rejected.

(h) (SENTENCE ADVERB) Scoring at least 60% is required. Otherwise, candidates will be rejected.

If a word of this kind starts a sentence in a non-connector role, it can cause grammar-checking software to see error where there is none (see 275. How Computers Get Grammar Wrong 3, #1).

Like connectors, communication-describing adverbs seem generally able to become ordinary adverbs. Exceptions seem mainly to be those with the -wise ending. Emotive sentence adverbs like happily seem very flexible too.

Ordinary adverbs, on the other hand, are not as likely to be usable as sentence adverbs. They generally need to be able to express one of the four meanings listed above. Moreover, although many emotion-expressing adjectives like happy can be made into emotive sentence adverbs by the addition of -ly, some cannot. For example, angrily, jealously, joyfully and speechlessly are only adverbs of manner, not sentence adverbs.

In addition, most adverbs with the same spelling as an adjective cannot be sentence adverbs, e.g. enough, far, fast, hard, just, late, much, right and well (interestingly, though, early can be a sentence adverb, but only in phrases like early on). Adverbs showing the strength of an accompanying adjective or other adverb – such as enough, fairly, quite, rather, so, too and very – similarly tend not to be used as sentence adverbs (rather, it is true, can be a sentence adverb – a connector – but only with the radically different meaning of “instead”).

120. Six Things to Know About Adverbs

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Adverbs have typical meanings, sentence partners and sentence positions

THE STUDY OF ADVERBS

A general post on adverbs seems desirable given the positive response of this blog’s readers to a similar post on prepositions (see 84. Seven Things to Know About Prepositions). The aim is similarly to present some key facts about a troublesome class of words in the hope of assisting error avoidance. Posts featuring specific adverbs can be found by clicking on “adverbs” in the CATEGORIES menu on the right.

In traditional grammar, the class of adverbs was very varied, with numerous subclasses. Some of these are nowadays classified separately, but here I include most of them in the belief that that is what readers might expect.

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GENERAL ADVERB CHARACTERISTICS

1. Communication of Particular Meanings

Traditional grammar mostly defined word classes (“parts of speech”) in terms of their fundamental meanings. Although this often caused confusion, it can still be a useful starting point.

A meaning-based description of adverbs that first helped me was that they “answer questions”. I later learned they do not answer all question types (for example, “who” and “what” are indicated by nouns and pronouns, while what something “is like” is mostly shown by adjectives). However, information about how, when, where, how much, how often, how likely and how long is usually given by adverbs, respective examples being carefully, already, everywhere, upwards, quite, often, perhaps and forever. As these show, the familiar adverb suffix -ly is not very typical.

Many newer grammar descriptions refer to these categories as adverbs of manner, point in time, direction, location, degree, frequency, probability and duration. They also recognize “sentence” adverbs, which have such sub-categories as “connectors” and “judgement” adverbs (see 121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs). Manner adverbs are probably the most common. They act in two main ways. Consider this:

(a) Michelangelo finished the sculpture energetically.

Here, energetically is clearly about the verb action finished: we understand that the finishing – and by extension the subject of the verb Michelangelo – was energetic. Manner adverbs like persuasively and unconvincingly are often used in this way to show agreement or disagreement (see 152. Agreeing and Disagreeing in Formal Contexts). In contrast, if (a) has the adverb beautifully, the focus shifts to the object of the verb, the sculpture: it is this rather than the finishing that was beautiful.

It is probably not the adverbs themselves that determine what they link with, but logic. We link energetically in (a) with finished and not sculpture because finishing is by nature energetic and sculptures are not; whereas beautifully more naturally pairs with sculptures than finishing.

For more on particular adverb meanings, see 107. The Language of Opinions (probability);  151. Ways of Using Compass Words (position and direction);  194. Adverbs that Say How Much (degree); 227. Time Adverbs and 295. Options in Saying Where.

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2. Partnership with Particular Other Sentence Parts

Adverbs add detail to other meanings in their sentence, just as adjectives do. Whereas adjectives generally add to the meaning of a noun or pronoun (see 283. Lesser-Known Features of Adjectives, #1), adverbs mostly link with verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, prepositions or whole statements (though a few can link with a noun instead: see 313. Adverbs Linked Closely to a Noun).

Not all adverbs have all these uses, though. Many manner adverbs, such as hard, link only with verbs (work hard). Some degree adverbs, such as very, quite and too (= “excessively”), link mostly with adjectives or adverbs (see 194. Adverbs that Say How Much). Others, like right (= completely) and way, link mainly with prepositions (see 262. Adverbs that Describe a Preposition). Connectors only link with sentences.

An adverb with multiple possibilities is clearly:

(b) (+ STATEMENT) Clearly, people trafficking is a problem.

(c) (+ VERB) Write your name clearly in the box.

(d) (+ ADJECTIVE) Driving fast near schools is a clearly dangerous behaviour.

Multiple possibilities often have a potential for double meanings (see 301. Structures with a Double Meaning 5, #1).

Adverbs linked with a statement or verb, as in (b) and (c), are also describable as “adverbials” – independent sentence components like subjects, objects and complements. However, not all adverbials are adverbs. Some, like on the whole, are preposition phrases (see 164. Fixed Preposition Phrases). Some, like lo and behold and time and again, may be noun-like or verb-like (see 209. Fixed Phrases with “and”, #3).

Most sentence adverbs excepting connectors are usable in at least one other way. Those that quite commonly combine with adjectives or other adverbs include apparently, incredibly, obviously, rather, seriously, surprisingly, truly and undoubtedly. Sentence adverbs that can also describe a verb include certainly, frankly, happily, hopefully, importantly, personally, sadly, seriously and unfortunately.

Many adverbs that easily go with adjectives or other adverbs can also describe a verb. Examples are a little, appreciably, completely, considerably, enough, fairly, moderately, noticeably, slightly, surprisingly, truly and visibly.

Knowing about adverb partners can help adverbs to be recognised. Consider this:

(e) The bus company operates daily excursions.

The word daily is sometimes an adverb, sometimes an adjective. Which is it here? Its sentence position, between a verb and its object, is one reason why it is not an adverb (see next section). However, the fact that the next word (excursions) is a noun also helps to show an adjective use. Only if excursions was absent would daily be an adverb describing the verb operates.

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3. Occupation of Various Sentence Positions

Adverbs occupy a greater variety of sentence positions than other word types, especially the start, before the verb, after the verb, or the end. However, some kinds of adverb occupy only some of these positions. One position that is nearly always incorrect is between a verb and its following object. Placing an adverb there is a common error in English, probably because it is acceptable in many other languages.

In sentence (c) above, clearly could easily occupy the beginning or the end. However, it could not directly follow the verb write because there is a following object your name. In (b), where clearly gives information about the whole of the sentence, a position next to the verb is possible but less common than the start. In (d), clearly can only go before the adjective it is describing, dangerous. It can aaccompany the adjective in other adjective positions, but moving without it changes the meaning.

One further adverb position is the usual one of not, inside multi-word verbs. Other possible occupants there are adverbs of frequency (always, sometimes, rarely etc.) and manner (e.g. easily):

(f) English adverbs are rarely found between a verb and its object.

Rarely here is between the verb found and its auxiliary are.

Adverbs of time and place, like yesterday and there, can stand alone after prepositions (e.g. from here) and link verbs like BE (see 220. Features of Complements, #3).

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4. Relatedness to Preposition Phrases

Various other Guinlist posts show how adverb roles can also be performed by a preposition and its noun (see, for example, 56. Comparing with “Like” and “Unlike” and 72. Causal Prepositions). The correspondence is indicated by the possibility of substitution. Consider this:

(g) Powders can be sterilized effectively.

The grammar here remains correct and similar (though with different meaning) if the adverb effectively is replaced by the preposition phrase with dry heat. Grammarians highlight the correspondence between such phrases and adverbs by calling them both “adverbials”.

Some preposition phrases even mean practically the same as a particular adverb, e.g. in general = generally (see 85. Preposition Phrases & Corresponding Adverbs).

One potential source of confusion is that many preposition phrases have adjective as well as adverb uses (see 124. Structures with a Double Meaning 1, #2). Another is that some adverb phrases, such as last week, lack a preposition (see 311. Exotic Grammar Structures 9, #6).

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5. Shared Spelling with Some Prepositions

Some spellings have both adverb and preposition uses. Consider this:

(h) Dictionaries have much useful information inside.

Inside – commonly considered a preposition – is here an adverb because it has no partner noun. Numerous preposition spellings allow this use, but some, like of, with and by, rarely do.

Many preposition-like adverbs can also work closely with a verb to express a special, often idiomatic meaning, as in TAKE AWAY, PICK UP, SWITCH ON and MAKE OUT (see 139. Phrasal Verbs). Some adverbs very commonly act like this: up, down, in, out, on, off, through, along and over. The same adverbs also occur alone directly after BE (see 154. Lone Prepositions after BE).

The main indication that phrasal verbs contain an adverb rather than preposition (as in “prepositional” verbs like DEPEND ON) is the positioning of their object:

(i) Young children pick grammar up completely.

Here, grammar, the object of pick, precedes up – a position typical of objects relative to an adverb. Prepositional verb objects, by contrast, cannot similarly precede the preposition: if the verb above was depend, on would need to precede grammar. Phrasal verbs can actually have their adverb before their object too: it is the existence of the alternative that distinguishes them.

Another distinguishing feature of phrasal verbs is the existence of some, like GO AWAY and SET OUT, that lack an object – an impossibility with prepositional verbs (see 44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs).

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6. Shared Spelling with Some Adjectives

Adverbs that share their spelling with adjectives seem to be at least as numerous as those that do with prepositions, and not usually the same (a notable exception being round: see 256. Unusual Meanings of Familiar Words, #10).

The -ly adverb spelling cannot normally become an adjective instead, like the above-mentioned daily, but there are some common exceptions, including only (see 251. The Grammar of “Only”), weekly, monthly, yearly, early and poorly. These should not be confused with the larger group of -ly words that are only adjectives, such as comely, curly, deathly, earthly, elderly, heavenly, hilly, holy, jolly, lively, lovely, lowly, (gentle)manly, silly, slovenly, sprightly, stately, surly, timely, ugly and womanly. Using any of these in an adverb position necessitates saying in a … way/fashion. For more about ambiguous endings, see 172. Multi-Use Suffixes.

In less-formal contexts, some common -ly adverbs drop their ending and look the same as their related adjectives, e.g. go slow. The adverb use is recognisable from the kind of partner word present: a verb, like go in the above example, indicates an adverb, while a noun (as in slow progress) indicates an adjective. Other adjective-like adverbs made by dropping -ly include bad, easy, proper, quick, true and wrong. Good is the informal equivalent of well.

Of the many adverbs that never have a special adverb spelling, a fair number again share their spelling with an adjective. Hard, for example, is an adverb in works hard but an adjective in does hard work. Common other examples are clockwise, deep, enough, far, fast, high, just, late, low, much, right and well.

Finally, the -est (superlative) spelling of an -ly adverb often matches the spelling of an -est adjective. For example, clearest could be the superlative of either clearly or clear (see 305. Wording next to Superlatives).