The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Carol A. Chapelle
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remain eternally vigilant every single day / Diamonds are forever), frequency (Prices are reviewed and updated regularly), relationship, or “temporal continuity” (The rehearsal is already/still in progress/underway [the rehearsal has started/is ongoing]); process adverbs refer to manner (People were casually strolling in the park), means (Never has such naked aggression been so strongly and generously supported morally, politically, economically, and militarily), instrument (the mountain peak was measured geometrically and barometrically), agent (The printer connects wirelessly to your computer); respect adverbs convey the sense “in regard to” (They have no right legally, ethically, or morally to censor the book [in terms of the law, ethics, morals]); contingency adverbials refer to cause (Moods may change easily from laughter), reason (He never intended to marry—neither for love nor [for] money), purpose (We use language in this country in order to understand each other, and to give and receive information), result (As a result of the blocked land border, the main smuggling route is now by sea), condition (Long journeys by road should be undertaken only if absolutely necessary), concession (This month remains very cold despite a significant increase in temperatures)—where there is no one‐word adverb equivalent to the multiword adverbial units or expressions cited; modality adverbs refer to emphasis (The green eyes were incredibly [extremely] dark, approximation (The truth probably lies somewhere between the two poles of opinion), restriction or “focus” (This fact alone must have affected the way that people conceived of travel and of distance); degree adverbs refer to intensity (There are people who are not thrifty who really can't see the point of the little things / History is literally present in all that we do. It could scarcely be otherwise, since it is to history that we owe our frames of reference).
Sometimes medially placed adverbs overlap between two not unrelated readings, here modality (emphasis) and manner: He was locked in concentration, unswervingly focused on his meditation; “He was steadily/totally focused and focused in a determined/fixed manner.” The intensive meaning predominates: It is intimated by the lexical verb locked and the accompanying manner adverbial in concentration and, as a result of “delexicalization,” the more lexically loaded, adverbial of manner reading becomes secondary. This remains true, no matter how lexically loaded the adverb(s) appear to be: It does not feel right to refer to her voice in the past tense, because it always sounds so fantastically, vitally [“absolutely,” “completely,” “totally”] in the moment (Hoye, 1997). Adverb classes are not watertight; their interpretation will depend on recognizing the wider context in which they occur, where there may well be a blending of possible interpretations.
Adverbs in Discourse
Adverbs are more than mere ornamentation; they underpin processes of textual argumentation and provide additional, circumstantial information that helps avoid any sense of anomaly or incompleteness about what is being said (Goldberg & Ackerman, 2001, p. 798). Pervasive in discourse, adverbs occur across all genres, regardless of levels of formality or medium. And regardless of their many detractors, such as those cited at the outset. Used judiciously, their role may be crucial. Ernest Hemingway, known for his terse prose, was not totally immune to their use, especially the ‐ly variety: “after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally ‘salao’, which is the worst form of unlucky” (Hemingway, 1952, p. 1). Here, the meaning of “salao” (Cuban and southern Spanish slang for “the worst kind of bad luck”) is captured and reinforced by the two adverbs, as they herald the gloss in the relative clause that follows, and somehow hint at the inward travails the old man has yet to face.
Crystal (2004, pp. 279–81, 291–3) identifies very broad correspondences between text types and adverb use in historical, geographical, scientific, and instructional writing, and in courtroom language, sports commentary, and public speaking. For instance, historical writing is characterized by the use of temporal and space (place) adverbs (events have a time and a place); instructions by process adverbs (how and with what is “x” to be done). In their extensive quantitative analysis of adverbial behavior, Biber et al. (1999) explore four registers: conversation, fiction, news, and academic writing. Hasselgård (2010, pp. 7–10, 259–85) additionally covers sports commentary and social letters. Both conclude that, overall, adverbs (adjuncts) are more common in commentary and fiction. However, generalizations are not easy. As Crystal (2004, p. 279) remarks: “[Adverbial] choice and distribution will be influenced primarily by the subject‐matter of the discourse.” Indeed, their recruitment may be compelling:
So terrified was he . . . of being caught, by chance, in a false statement, that as a small boy he acquired the habit of adding “perhaps” to everything he said. “Is that you, Harry?” Mama might call from the drawing‐room. “Yes, Mama—perhaps.” “Are you going upstairs?” “Yes, perhaps.” “Will you see if I've left my bag in the bedroom?” “Yes, Mama, perhaps—p'r'haps—paps!” [italics added] (Toulmin, 2003, p. 41)
SEE ALSO: Formulaic Language and Collocation; Pragmatic Markers
References
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