Herb,
I agree—adverbs
do seem to be a grab bag.
And where did we
get this eight-parts-of-speech notion?
Christine
From:
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006
8:18 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Conjunctive Adverbs
Adverb is, and has always
been, a grab bag. If it doesn’t work as a noun, adjective, verb,
etc. call it an adverb and be done with it, and then don’t be too careful
in defining what an adverb is. Part of the problem here is the, usually
unconsidered, decision to limit ourselves to eight parts of speech or to accept
traditional definitions. But the deeper problem lies in the notion
category itself, the idea that a word is one part of speech or another and that
those categories are discrete. The fact is that the categories have fuzzy
edges, or, better, the categories represent prototypical sets of morphological,
syntactic, semantic, and functional characteristics that define a small class
of words, and words that share some of these characteristics are then assigned
to the class as well. Since a lot of students, and a lot of teachers,
won’t ask the difficult questions about received wisdom, the names and
the misconceptions persist. Klammer is right in distinguishing
“always” etc. from adverbs. I’m not sure calling them
qualifiers is a step forward though, since it simply establishes another
category and labels it with a term that already has a meaning, if a
questionable one, in traditional grammar (“adjectives qualify, adverbs
modify”).
Herb
From:
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006
9:57 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Conjunctive Adverbs
Peter,
Thomas Klammer would disagree with you. and after using his
book for years, I now too disagree with you about these words as adverbs.
In his book Analyzing English Grammar, Klammer labels
“always,” “sometimes,” “never,” etc.
qualifiers, I think.
I believe he points out that one of the tests of an adverb is
whether “one” can put very or another intensifier in front of
it. He uses frame sentences as a way to identify a word as/check whether
a word actually is a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb.
I really really like his book. Get a copy from your Longman
rep.
Christine
From:
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006
7:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Conjunctive Adverbs
In a message dated 9/10/06 5:55:25 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:
Peter, I know what you mean about conjunctive adverbs. They are “mobile,”
as are adverbs.
However, conjunctive adverbs cannot be intensified, which is, I think, a
property adverbs have: very suddenly, for example. Nor are conjunctive
adverbs able to modify verbs.
Good points, Christine, but consider the following. Some adverbs also
cannot be intensified: always, sometimes, now, today, never. I
don't think anyone would argue these are not adverbs.
Also, take a look at these:
Christine likes adverbs, but Herb, nevertheless,
prefers conjunctions.
Ed believes in innate knowledge, and Phil, therefore,
agrees with him.
In these two, it seems clear that the so-called conjunctive adverb is not
joining the two clauses; the coordinating conjunctions are serving that
purpose. So would we still call them conjunctions in sentences like
these?
Or how about in a simple declarative sentence.
Roger Federer won the US Open, for example, in four sets.
Why would we want to consider for example to be a conjunction in a sentence
like this. Or would we?
Peter Adams
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