This is just a quick informal survey-type question: For
those of you teaching K-12, how many times have you seen a textbook pointing
out that people frequently use information about time or place in order to
specify which thing they’re talking about (e.g. “The meeting *on
Thursday* was longer than the one on Monday,” or “She headed
for the *north* pasture”)? Many of my college students have quite
firmly internalized the notion that adverbs “tell you where, when, why,
or how,” but don’t remember ever seeing limitations put on that of
definition. They think about it as if it’s some kind of fundamental law
of the universe, and some of the K-12 textbooks I’ve looked at seem to be
presenting it that way. My institution’s “instructional media”
collection is mostly from the 80s and early 90s, though, so I can’t tell
if things have improved or not.
Thanks,
Bill Spruiell
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