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