314. Words with Complicated Grammar 4

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Some words are usable in multiple (and often confusing) grammatical ways

THE PROBLEM OF COMPLICATED GRAMMAR

A major concern of this blog is the kind of grammar that is found not in “grammars”, but in dictionaries. Grammars focus on wide-ranging features like verb tense usage; dictionaries on word-specific requirements like the complexities of whole. Traditionally, these respective kinds of grammatical description tended to be called “grammar” and “usage”; my preferred terms are “broad grammar” and “narrow grammar” (see the rationale for my grammar practice book).

Narrow English grammar has various features that can make it difficult to learn. One is words that behave differently from what might be expected from the behaviour of words like them (see 10. Words with Unexpected Grammar 1 and 250. Synonym Pairs with Contrasting Grammar). Another is words whose grammatical possibilities are so diverse as to be easily confused.

It is this second source of difficulty that the present post is concerned with. As the title indicates, other parts of this blog deal with it too (for a list, see 201. Words with Complicated Grammar 1). The approach is the same: in-depth consideration of the grammatical properties of a small number of problem words. This is a different kind of analysis from that in various Guinlist posts entitled Tricky Word Contrasts, where the focus is on meaning rather than grammar.

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PROBLEM WORDS

1. FACE

The verb FACE is mostly transitive (object-requiring). As such, it can express various meanings, of which the main ones might be illustrated and explained as follows:

(a) The cinema faces the hotel.

The message here is that the front of the cinema is directly opposite the nearby front of the hotel with nothing in between. FACE with this meaning is very unlikely to have the passive form: as with MARRY (see 201. Words with Complicated Grammar 1, #4) and ACCOMPANY, there is no problem keeping the verb active if the subject and object change places.

The expression of a permanent location is fairly typical of this use, but temporary ones are possible too, especially with a living subject, as in …turned and faced the crowd or …stand facing their headquarters.

(b) The economy faces an uphill struggle.

In this use, the object (an uphill struggle) represents a difficult future (see 316. Future Verbs without “Will” or “Shall”, #1). Faces might be paraphrased as “is going to suffer”. Surprisingly, this meaning of FACE is often able to be expressed as well with the passive form as with the active. However, the passive must be followed by with, not by: …is faced with an uphill struggle above (see 21. Active Verbs with Non-Active Meanings, #4).

(c) Unpleasant truths must be faced eventually.

Again, the object of FACE (here expressed as the subject of its passive form) refers to something unwelcome. FACE means “no longer avoid”, thereby conveying recognition and confrontation.

(d) Speakers will face detailed questioning.

The meaning here is close to “endure”. Other typical objects are severe consequences, a crisis, difficulties, opposition, problems and threats. Note also face the music, where the music metaphorically represents angry censure for having behaved in a proscribed way (see 241. Some Common Figurative Phrases).

In addition to these transitive uses, FACE has one notable intransitive one, usually in combination with towards…:

(e) The house faces towards the sea.

Towards suggests a large separating distance. Indeed, the noun after it may represent something too far away to be seen. If this noun represents a compass point, like (the) west, towards may be dropped, e.g. …faces (the) west. In this situation, including the makes FACE transitive again, but without it FACE remains intransitive: west alone is not an object but a directional adverb (see 151. Ways of Using Compass Words).

Finally, there is the phrasal-prepositional verb FACE UP TO. Its meaning is close to that of FACE in (c), but perhaps implies greater determination.

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2. FAIL

This verb sometimes means “not do”, sometimes “do unsuccessfully”. It also suggests that the doing is desired, so should not be used just as an alternative to not. It may go directly before a noun (an object), or a to verb (an infinitive), or be alone with nothing after:

(f) Failing an exam is not always a disaster.

(g) Hard work may fail to gain a reward.

(h) When persuasion failed, force was necessary.

A familiar object type after FAIL is a test of one kind or another, like an exam in (f). In such cases, FAIL means “do unsuccessfully”. In a related use, an examiner can fail someone by giving them a “fail” grade. Outside of testing contexts, however, a person who is failing someone is themself the unsuccessful one, their failure being to act at an expected level.

In one other object-requiring use, FAIL has a personal quality or ability as its subject and a human object, and it indicates non-achievement of the former by the latter. For example, Words failed X means X could not find suitable words to use. This possibility is the only object-using one that cannot be passive.

FAIL before an infinitive – to gain in (g) – normally means “not do (despite trying)”. The infinitive looks like an object of FAIL, but is arguably not one because of the tendency of FAIL with noun objects to mean “do unsuccessfully” rather than “not do” (see 302. Verbs with a Partner Infinitive).

FAIL used alone, as in (h), often seems to imply either an object or an infinitive, both identifiable from the surrounding words or the speech situation. In (h), for example, an infinitive like to motivate is implied. When an object is implied, FAIL might be classified as what I have elsewhere called “object-dropping” (see 8. Object-Dropping Errors). When an infinitive is implied, FAIL might be called “infinitive-dropping”.

Infinitive-dropping verbs seem to be a subset of verbs that can combine with an infinitive, just as object-dropping ones are a subset of object-taking verbs. Consider this:

(i) Rain failed to fall in summer.

The fact that the infinitive to fall here can be dropped after failed further marks FAIL as infinitive-dropping. However, if tended replaces failed, dropping to fall would be ungrammatical, which suggests TEND is not infinitive-dropping. The same logic excludes LIKE, NEED and SEEM as infinitive-dropping and includes CEASE, CONTINUE, START, THREATEN and TRY.

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3. “Average”

This word may be a verb, noun or adjective. The verb AVERAGE is transitive (object-needing), its object often a number expression. If such an object follows a number-implying subject (figure, temperature, time etc.), as in the temperature averages 20 degrees, the verb cannot be passive, just like other measurement verbs (COST, LAST, MEASURE, WEIGH etc: see 113. Verbs that cannot be Passive). However, with other subjects, as in the following, the passive becomes possible:

(j) Walkers average 6 km/hour.

A further verb meaning is “find the average of”. The subject is likely to be a human or robotic calculator, the object a number-implying word:

(k) The software averages the values found.

The noun average often has a following of phrase specifying either the average (e.g. an average of 20 km) or its possessor (the average of the distances). Alternatively, the noun may follow the preposition on within a phrase typically located at the start of a sentence as a sentence-spanning adverbial:

(l) On average, humans live for 72 years.

The adjective average often accompanies a number-implying noun (the average speed, average temperatures). Where it does not, it is likely to mean “ordinary”:

(m) The service was average.

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4. “Instruction”

This noun has three main meanings: “teaching”, “command” and “direction”. The “teaching” use is uncountable – usable without special words before it, and not normally combined with an or -s. It generally means the same as the related -ing verb instructing, so that it can be considered an “action” noun (see 14. Action Outcomes):

(n) Instruction takes place in the mornings.

As with most action nouns, the recipients of instruction in this sense can be indicated with of, e.g. instruction of the trainees… (see 31. Prepositions after Action Nouns 1). The content of the instruction is typically shown with in (…in safety procedures).

By contrast, instruction meaning “command” is always countable. The recipient is usually indicated with to, e.g. instructions to visitors…, while the instructed action is likely to be expressed with a verb in the to (infinitive) form (…to register their name).

The “direction” use of instruction is also countable. Directions are information about how to do something (see 128. Imperative Verbs in Formal Writing, #1). Instructions in this sense are not obeyed like the “command” kind, but rather followed. The recipient (often not indicated) can be shown with to or for, e.g. instructions to/for applicants…, while the target of the instruction is likely to follow for (…for completing the form).

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5. ADVISE

This verb is probably most familiar as a near-synonym of RECOMMEND (see 187. Advising and Recommending). The advice itself can take various forms:

– a directly-following that statement (…that action is taken)

– a directly-following -ing verb (…doing something)

– an “action” noun (…action)

– an object (representing the advisee) + infinitive (…you to do something: see 208. Verbs with an Object + Infinitive, #3).

In all of these except that statements, negative advice can be shown by adding against (the infinitive in the last example becoming an -ing verb instead: …advise you against doing anything). In that statements after ADVISE, the verb can optionally be in the “subjunctive” mood (be taken above), just as verbs can after various other future-referring speech words (see 269. Exotic Grammar Structures 7, #7).

An alternative meaning of ADVISE is “inform”. This usually has the information receiver as its object, followed by either that (+ statement) or of (+ noun expression):

(o) We wish to advise passengers that service disruptions are likely next week (or of likely service disruptions next week).

313. Adverbs Linked Closely to a Noun

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Most adverbs cannot associate with a noun, but a few can

ADVERB ROLES IN ENGLISH SENTENCES

Adverbs are usually said to modify, or refine, a particular type of information in a sentence. In contrast to adjectives, which typically refine noun or pronoun information, adverbs are mostly associated with a verb or an adjective or another adverb or an entire statement. Elsewhere within this blog, it is suggested that adverbs can also modify the meaning of a preposition (see 262. Adverbs that Describe a Preposition).

In view of all this, a reasonable generalization would seem to be that adverbs can add information about practically anything in a sentence except nouns or their equivalents. Yet, as the above title indicates, that is not the case. In this post I wish to examine how adverbs can say something about a noun. Not every adverb has this capability, but that is not really surprising when the same thing could be said about every other adverb capability (see 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs, #2).

The total number of adverbs that can add information about a noun is not large, but it is perhaps greater than one would expect (and greater than implied by the rare illustrations that I have found in grammar books). My specific objectives here are to identify as many of the possibilities as possible, and to illustrate them copiously.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF NOUN-FOCUSSED ADVERBS

Noun-focussed adverbs tend, not surprisingly, to be located just before their noun. The problem is that adverbs before a noun are not always closely associated with it. Consider this:

(a) Obviously, water is not an infinite resource.

The adverb obviously here is saying something about the message of the entire sentence rather than just about water. This is recognizable from the fact that it can occupy a grammatical position elsewhere in the sentence, such as just before the verb is, without a change of meaning. The comma after obviously is also a clue, since sentence-starting adverbs with a following comma tend in general to be sentence-related (see 121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs).

Here is an example of a starting adverb that does link only with the noun after it:

(b) Quite a mess was left behind.

The close association of quite here with a mess is easier to see if the entire phrase is placed in the object position after a suitable verb:

(c) Workers left quite a mess behind.

If quite was being used here in the ordinary adverb way, its position between the verb and its object a mess would probably not be correct because ordinary adverbs are in general unlikely to be correct there (see 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs, #3). However, quite fits naturally into this position.

Contrast the use of quite in (c) with that of the manner adverb deliberately. That would have to go at the start or end of the sentence, or just before the verb left.

Slightly trickier to judge are adverbs before a noun in the “complement” position after a verb like BE. In the following example, could clearly be considered noun-focussed?

(d) The scale of the project was clearly a challenge.

There is no punctuation rule that could give assistance here, and meaning does not help: clearly appears to be as plausibly modifying the verb was as the complement a challenge.

A way forward in this case, perhaps, is to see how the sentence reads with the adverb placed before rather than after BE: …clearly was a challenge above. The change is obviously not a problem with clearly, but with quite it seems more of one:

(e) ?The scale of the project quite was a challenge.

Another problematic sentence type is where a starting adverb + noun are followed by a comma:

(f) Clearly a challenge, the scale of the project had to be reduced.

However, I take such sentence starts to be just a modified form of the complement usage shown in (d). This is because being can be added before the adverb without affecting the grammaticality or meaning of the sentence.

Sometimes, an adverb precedes a noun within a preposition phrase, e.g. in especially the sea. I discount this usage too, the reason being that the adverb can usually be repositioned before the preposition without a meaning change, thus suggesting that the modification is of the whole phrase rather than just the noun within it.

Finally, various adverbs can precede a noun placed directly after another noun within an “apposition” construction (see 77. Apposition, #1):

(g) The next planet out from the sun, obviously Mars, may provide evidence of alien life.

I would not take obviously here to be focussed on just the noun Mars. Again, it seems to be a variant of the complement usage since which could comfortably go before it, with is placed either before or after.

However, the adverb namely seems different – less natural-sounding with which is – and will be included. Other adverbs that seem like it are especially notably, particularly and specifically.

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MEANINGS OF NOUN-FOCUSSED ADVERBS

1. Degree Adverbs

Degree adverbs typically modify adjectives or other adverbs (see 194. Adverbs that Say How Much). The main ones that seem able to modify a noun (usually a countable one with a) are quite and rather. Quite with nouns seems the more widely usable. Its meaning varies less than with adjectives and adverbs (see 231. Confusions of Similar Structures 3, #2), being more typically “completely” than “moderately”. Rather, by contrast, does mean “moderately”, but it tends to be restricted to negative-sounding nouns like a fool, or a mess in sentence (c) above.

Some grammar books also mention back-referring such (= “at the recognised high level”), as in:

(h) Nobody could accept such a (radical) suggestion.

An adverb (as opposed to adjective) nature of such in this use is perhaps hinted at by the frequent implication of a following adjective that, like radical, conveys the main description of the noun.

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2. Inclusion Adverbs

Two fundamental inclusion meanings are “excluding all others” – most typically expressed by only (see 251. The Grammar of “Only”) – and “surprisingly included” – usually shown by even. Both words easily meet the sentence-position requirements. They may begin like this:

(i) Only/Even children may use this facility.

The adverbs are associated here with the noun children, not with the later use this facility: the sentence is not naming the single or extra thing that children may do. The noun association can be present even with the adverbs after rather than before their noun.

If children were in the object position (e.g. after We accept…), the placement of only/even before it would not sound strange (though placement after it would again be possible too).

Of the various synonyms of only, just and solely seem usable like it, whereas exclusively and purely do not. To me, these latter sound unlikely at the start of a sentence and unusual just before an object. They seem to fit much better before prepositions and conjunctions (exclusively in summer, purely when the sun shines).

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3. Highlighters

Especially, notably and particularly say that their noun deserves more attention than others in the same class (see 54. Sentence Lists 1: incidental). Their use with nouns seems mostly to be in apposition constructions, where there is another noun just before:

(j) Some parts of the solar system, especially Mars, may provide evidence of alien life.

Usage outside of apposition constructions, for example with a sentence-starting noun like children in (i), seems possible with especially and particularly, but rare and usually with the noun before rather than after them (Children especially…). A possible reason for the rarity may be a danger of a double meaning – difficulty deciding whether the adverb modifies the noun or the whole sentence. One way to more clearly show linkage with a starting noun is to use in particular (without commas) after it instead.

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4. Precision Adverbs

Various adverbs are usable before a quantity noun to show how exact it is, as in exactly a kilogram, approximately a litre and easily a megabyte. Other relevant adverbs include almost, at least, nearly, perhaps, practically, precisely, probably, roughly and virtually (see 95. Making Statements More Uncertain 1, #1).

However, all the adverbs in this category may be less definitely noun modifiers than the kinds in preceding sections. It is arguable that they actually modify not the noun after them but the article a(n) before it. They are not usable if the same nouns are made plural, with a(n) absent. Plural nouns after them usually need a number in between (e.g. almost 3 kg.). Given that a(n) is sometimes an alternative to the number one (see 263. Uses of “One” and “Ones”, #2), it is difficult not to conclude that this meaning is what the adverbs are modifying.

The standard negative adverb not, which similarly modifies nouns only when they have a(n) (e.g. Not a word was spoken), may be discounted for the same reasons (see 310. Aspects of Negation, #1).

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5. Name Indicators

The adverbs namely and specifically can introduce a name-informing noun placed along with them between two commas or equivalent as the second half of an apposition construction:

(k) One era of the dinosaurs, namely / specifically the Cretaceous, was the time of Tyrannosaurus.

Namely is always usable in such sentences, whereas specifically is only possible when the noun before it is indefinite, usually with a(n) or one (see the end of 206. Ways of Conveying a Name).

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6. Superficiality Adverbs

Apparently, ostensibly, seemingly and superficially placed before a pronoun with any- (anybody, anyone, anything) or every- or no- can be understood as modifying it:

(l)  The villagers had apparently nothing to do.

This usage seems possible with the pronoun used as either a subject or an object or an object of a preposition.

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7. Negatives

The adverbs barely, hardly and scarcely seem as questionably able as not to modify a noun (see #4 above). However, they do seem more able to modify pronouns with any-:

(m) Hardly anyone disputes the need for action.