Biber Et Al Seleccion

Este material se reproduce con fines didcticos nicamente Biber et al. Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Longman.
Seleccin. Pp. 408-429 !"8-!#9.
Intransitive phrasal verbs: I fellin. ( C ON V ) He just doesnt fit in. ( C ON V ) I would like to stay on and honor my contract. ( N E W S ) Details of the crimes in Chelmsford were still coming in yesterday. ( NE W S ) Free combinations of verb + prepositional phrase: ore than an inch of rain fell in a few hours. ( N E W S ) The mushroom was too !ig to fit in a special dryer at "urdue #ni$ersity%s
plant and fungi collectien. ( N E W S )
any dealers were conten& to stay on the sidelines. ( N E W S ) 'or coming in the opposite direction was an endless flood of motor cyclists.( NEWS ) B Prepositional verb v. free combination A second class of combinations with mltiple functions involves verbs followed by prepositional phrases that can be interpreted as either prepositional verbs or as free combinations. In some cases this distinction is difficult to ma e! since it involves an interpretation of whether the noun phrase following the preposition is functioning as an ob"ect #referring to a person or thing) or as part of an adverbial #e.g. referring to a place or time). $his duality of function is especially problematic with prepositions that can mar spatial relations! such as in( on( and %rom. &hen the noun phrase following these prepositions identifies a location or time! they function as free combinations #with w%i'(uestions typically formed with where or when)*
+ person resem!ling a poor clergyman or a poor actor appeared in the doorway. ( FIC )
,he ser$ice of the Irish church used in ount -erome is simpler. ( FIC ) .ert had appeared on the stairs. ( FI C ) em!ers are comingfrom Swit/erland( Germany( 0olland( . . . ( NEWS )) *owever! when the noun phrase following these prepositions primarily identifies a person or thing! these same multi'word se(uences can be considered prepositional verbs #with wh'(uestions formed with who or what)*
Susannah 1ork and +nna assey appear in the thriller ,he an from the "ru. ( N E W S )
,hey are( howe$er( widely used in the preparation of special cakes. ( !C !" ) Would2!e .arry 3ormans in Edin!urgh are !eing gi$en the chance to appear on a new mo$ie re$iew ,4 program.
(NEWS)
,he first goal came from ,im Cliss. ( N E W S ) C ransitive p#rasal verb v. prepositional verb v. free combination A few combinations can actually serve three different functions: as transitive phrasal verb! prepositional verb! and free combination. $hus! consider the following e+amples with put on and put in. $ransitive phrasal verb function,the particle on or in can be placed either before or after the ob"ect noun phrase: I put my shoes on. ( FI C )
0e had put on his spectades. ( FI C )
0a$e you put any alarms in yet5 ( C ON V ) 1ou want someone young( hungry( and willing to put in a lot of hours. ( NE W S ) -repositional verb function,the noun phrase following on or in mar s who or what.
,hey put handcuffs on me. ( FI C )
,hat%s !ecause you didnt put $inegar on it. ( N E W S ) Im gonna put tomato puree in it. ( C ON V ) ,hat%s right. "ut them in cold water( ( C ON V )
.nidad III / -r0ctica de la $raducci1n I / 2iber et al / Fragmentos seleccionados. -p. 345' 367! 895'8:7.
Free combination,the prepositional phrase beginning with on or in mar s where or when*

Don%t put it on the floor. ( C ON V )
She put it carefully on the ta!le. ( FI C ) I put them all in the deep free/e. ( C ON V ) "ut it in the microwa$e for two minutes. ( C ON V ) ". Interme$iate %ses <ther uses are intermediate and might be interpreted as belonging to multiple categories. For e+ample! come !ack
meaning to =recover= or >resume #an activity)= might be interpreted as either a free combination #since both come and !ack contribute independently to the meaning) or as a phrasal verb #since the combined meaning is somewhat different from the sum of the parts):
E$erton carne !ack from a goal down to !eat .lack!urn 627. ( N E W S ) It was not e8pected that 0anley( who returned from a summer in +ustralia with a !ad pel$ic strain( would come !ack !efore the 3ew 1ear. ( NE W S ) <f these two e+amples! the second is probably "udged more li e a free combination than the first: it can! for instance! be paraphrased by =go bac =. *owever! neither of these e+amples is a free combination comparable to the following purely literal e+ample of come !ack*
When -im went to the p9lice station( officers told him to come !ack another day. ( N E W S )
P#rasal verbs $here are two ma"or subcategories of phrasal verbs: intransitive and transitive. ?+amples of intransitive phrasal verbs include !reak down( come along( come on( hold on( shut up: e+amples of transitive phrasal verbs include !ring up( carry out( find out( pick up( point out(
take out( turn on. Intransitive phrasal verbs:
Come on( tell me a!out 3ick. ( C ON V ) ;h shut up< 1ou%re so cruel( ( C ON V ) .ut then this damn college kid asked if he could come along. ( FIC ) 0old on< What are you doing there5 ( FI C ) I just !roke down in tears when I saw the letter. ( N E W S ) $ransitive phrasal verbs: Did you point out the faults on it then5 ( C ON V ) @argotte rarely turned on the televisi1n set. #fict) % ventured to bring up the sub"ect of the future. #fict) &ith transitive phrasal verbs the direct ob"ect can appear between the particle and the verb. $his is the normal word order when the ob"ect is a pronoun #;;.6.3.3): $erri turnea it on. #conv) % "ust thought I would point it out to you. #conv) $he warden said that she would turn the heating on. #acad") In addition! a few phrasal verbs are copular! such as turn out! end up! and wind upA 8.8. 8.9.6.; Bemantic domains of phrasal verbs -hrasal verbs can be classified by semantic domain! based on their core meanings! using the same categories as simple le+ical verbs #8.6.;). Li e single'word le+ical verbs! many phrasal verbs have mltiple meanings. $his is especially true of activity verbs! which often have secondary meanings in some other domain. For e+ample! the phrasal verbs ma e up! ma e out! sort out! and ta e in can all refer to either physical or mental activities. -hysical activities: Bo he too it in to be loo ed at. #conv) % find myself obliged to ma e up ground. #fict) I now you were ma ing out with that Cerm0n maid. #fict) " pic them into a lard pail then sort out the dead twigs and leaves. #fict") @ental activities: I used to ma e up stories for him. #conv) Bhe held up her wristA on it he made out a small dar bruise. #fict) DI would be delighted! -rime @inister!D Andrew stammered! trying to ta e in the news. #fict) It has given me time to sort out my priorities. #news") Bimilarly! put down and ta e up can refer to either physical or communication activitiesA rurn round and wa e up can have a causatiye meaning in addition to the simply physical activity senseA eep up and set out can have both activity and aspectual meanings. *owever! most phrasal verbs have core meanings in only one domain! and the following lists #8.9.6.9) are organiEed in those terms. In addition! it is important to note that many combinations that function as phrasal verbs can also function as a prepositional verb or free combination #8.9.;.;). $he information included in these sections is based on counts of their occurrences as phrasal verbs only.
8.9.6.6 Fegister distribution of phrasal verbs G<F-.B FIHIIHCB 6 JK <verall! phrasal verbs are used most commonly in fiction and conversationA they are relatively rare in academic prose. J' In fiction and conversation! phrasal verbs occur almost 6!444 times per million words. $able 8.;9 <verall fre(uency of phrasal verbsA per million words each represents ;44 conv L ' K= -IG$ = ' L M KKK ' LKLN :': L= L KDK H?&B ' ' O ' ' ' IIBG.BBI<I@ <F FIHIIHCB $he distribution pattern of phrasal verbs closely matches that for le+ical verbs generally #cf. Figure 8.3)! e+cept that academic prose has fewer than would be e+pected. $hus! rather than being a mar ed feature of conversation! phrasal verbs are notably rare in academic prose. In their place! academic prose shows a much greater reliance on derived verbs and more specialiEed verbs generally #8.6.P). 8.9.6.9 $he most common phrasal verbs G<ft-.B FIHIIHCB 6 $he large ma"ority of common phrasal verbs are activity verbs #c. P8Q)A see $able 8.;3. <ther common verbs occurring more than ten times per million words: JL activity intransitive,get on! loo out! mofe in! step up! wal inA JK activity transitive,bring in! build up! fill in! eep up! pulR up! pulR down! put in! put up! set out! sort out! ta e away! ta e in! ta e out! turn on! wa e up! wor out! NM mental transitive,ma e outA J' communication transitive, bring up! cali inA JK occurrence intransitive,brea down! grow up! set inA JL aspectual intransitive,carry on! go ahead! hang onA J' aspectual transitive, eep on! start off. $here are relatively few common phrasal verbs from the domains of mental! communication! occurrence! and aspectual verbs. Intransitive phrasal verbs are particularly common in conversation and fiction! but e+tremely rare in news and academic prose. $he intransitive verb come on in conversation is the single most common phrasal verb. IIBG.BBI<H <F FIHIIHCB <verall! conversation and fiction show much greater use of the most common phrasal verbs than news and academic prose. $his difference is especially noteworthy for intransitive phrasal verbs! which are e+tremely common in conversation and fiction! but e+tremely rare in news and academic prose. <ne reason for this difference is that most phrasal verbs are collo(uial in tone. In fact! the most common intransitive phrasal verbs are activity verbs commonly used as directives! often occurring as imperatives. Bince imperative clauses are far more common in conversation than the e+pository registers #9.;9.3.6)! it is not surprising that phrasal verbs used in this way are also rare in the e+pository registers: $able 8.;3 -hrasal verbs by semantic domain across registers #including all phrasal verbs that occur over 34 times per million words in at least one register)A occurrences per million words ' over 944 over 644 over ;44 over 34 over 64 G<H FG$ H?&B AGAI S activity intransitive come on N ' getup Ai sRt down =r= vi get out KK= TU come over VLi stand up go off shut up come along sit up go ahead W B U8 V9 9 Ml f<
activity transitive getin pic up a put on ma e up carry out ta e up ta e on get bac get off loo up
X9 be Y9 a
?B m K Bi I i a
m s 7; sss ss ai 7 iZ ; a
IB m
9 Y ZZ @ [ 99 9 B i i ; 9 s
set up ta e off ta e over mental transitive fRnd out g%Se up i comtnunication transitive point out occurrence 39 intransitive come off run out \V
copular T; ; i turn out aspectual intransitive Bai a go on ]ou go and sit down^ #conv) Bhut up^ _ust forget it. #conv) Co off to bed now. #conv) Ho! don=t get up. #fict) ; Btand up straight^ -eople are loo ing^ #fict) Further! in declarative dauses these intransitive phrasal verbs tend to have human sub"ects: Ho! he cante over to the study. #conv) *e would get up at daybrea . #fict) Growe sat up and stared at Frederica. #fict) % sat down behind my des . #fict) 2y far the most common phrasal verb in any register is intransitive come on as used in conversation. $his verb has three ma"or functions: Asan e+damatory e+hortation to act: Gome on! let Andy do it. #conv) I mean! come on! it=s a bit obvious. #conv) As a pre'departure summons to move: Gome on! we better go. #conv) Gome on! let=s go. #conv) @eaning =to start= or =become activated=: $he heating didn=t come on this morning. #conv) *as that "ust come onZ #conv) $he combination go on is the most common phrasal verb overall in the LB&? Gorpus. $his phrasal verb is common in all four registers! serving a number of different functions: As an e+damatory e+hortation to act #li e come on above): Co on. Btamp on it. #conv) It=s alright! rub it in. Co on^ #conv) $o mar continued progression of a physical activity: I "ust ignored her and went on. I didn=t have time to tal . #conv) $o mar continuation of some general action #intransitive): If it failed once! there=s no point in going on. #fict) As time went on! Liebig developed his thesis. #acad_) $o mar continuation of some general action #transitive! ta ing a complement ing' or fo'infinitive dause as direct ob"ect): Labour would go on getting the public=s support by constructing strong unity
ofpurpose. #H?&sf) 2"omsson went on to study the newspapers of ;; countries. #acad) $o mar unspecified activity! with a meaning similar to =happen=: $hin what=s going on. It=s dreadfuL #fict) $here=s such and such going on. #conv) $ransitive phrasal verbs are more evenly distributed across registers. For e+ample! verbs such as put on! ma e up! and finaD out are relatively common in both conversation and the written e+pository registers: Bome people they rcad the top bit and read the bottom bit! and sort of ma e up the bit in the middle. #conv) 2ecause you tnight find out it wor s. #conv) *aven=t you found that out yetZ #fict) *e put on his business suit and coat. #fict) % haven=t even been able to put my soc s on. #news") For the modern mathematician these numbers would ma e up the ordered pair #SI! S6). #acad) Against the general trend! a few transitive phrasal verbs are even more common in written e+position than in conversation. $hese include carry out! ta e up! ta e on! set up! and point out. It is common practice to carry out a series of design point calculations. #acad f) $he rule also affected *enry Gotton! who too up the post at Foyal &aterloo! 2elgium! in ;799. #news") &hen the Bpanish arm of the operation needed assistance he was as ed to ta e on a supervisory role! #news) $he ?I$ was set up last year to help fund university research. #news `) Cushchin #;793) pointed out many of the wea nesses of these attempts. #acad f) Finally! the combination turn out #discussed further in 8.8) is unusual in that it is a phrasal verb that can function as a copular verb: Iidn=t my little pecan tartlets turn out very _ulia Gharles! #conv) Auntie @adge and _o would have several fits if any of us turned out snea s. #fict) 8.9.6.3 -roductivity of particular verbs and adverbial particles G<F-.B F;HIIHCB 6 J' A few le+ical verbs are particularly productive in combining with adverbial particles to form phrasal verbs that occur fre(uently #see $able 8.;8). J' @ost of these verbs are additionally productive in forming a large number of different phrasal verbs. JK In addition! a few adverbial particles are particularly productive in combining with le+ical verbs to form common phrasal verbs #see $able 8.;:). IIBG.BBI<H <F FtHIIHCB $he verbs that are most productive in combining with adverbial particles to form phrasal verbs are among the most common le+ical verbs in their own right. $hese e+tremely common verbs,ta e! get! come! put! go,are also unusually polysemous! so that they can combine with a range of adverbial particles: le+ical verb selected adverbial particles ta e + apart! bac ! down! in! off! on! out! over! up get + along! around! away! bac ! down! in! off! on! out! through! up come + about! across! along! around! bac ! down! in! off! on! out! over! up put + across! away! bac ! down! forward! in! off! on! out! over! through! up go + about! along down! in! off! on! out! over! through! up $his list also shows how a few adverbial particles are particularly productive in combining with le+ical verbs to form phrasal verbs. A_a of the most productive verbs of $able 8.;8 combine with the most productive particles listed in $able 8.;:. $able 8.;8 Humber of phrasal verb types formed with eight common verbs le+ical common phrasal total phrasal verb verbs #over ;4 per verbs listed in million) LI<G? ta e P 7 get : ;5 put 8 ;8 come 3 ;5
go 9 ;8 set 9 ;4 turn 6 ;4 bring 6 ;6 $able 8.;: Humber of phrasal verb types formed with si+ common adverbial particles adverbial common partide phrasal verbs up ;P out ;3 on 7 in 7 off 8 down 9 8.9.9 -repositional verbs Ail prepositional verbs ta e a prepositional ob"ect! i.e. the noun phrase occurring after the preposition #shown in brac ets in the e+amples below). $here are two ma"or structural patterns for prepositional verbs: -attern ;: H- + verb + preposition + HIt "ust loo s li e bthe barrelc. #conv) $ve never even ihought about bitc. #conv) 2ritannia said he had as ed for bpermission to see the flight dec c. #news) A new telephone hotline will be established by ]or Gity Gouncil to deal with bpar ing problems in the 2arbican 0reac! #news) -artera 6: H- 3' verb + H- + preposition + HHo! they li e to accuse women of bbeing mechanically ineptc. #coHvf) *e said farewell to busc on this very spot! #fict) 2ut @cCaughey bases his prediction on bfirst'hand e+periencec! #news f) For e+ample! the =library manager= reminded members of bthe procedures for ordering library stoc c. #acad`) -attern 6 is also common with passive verbs! where the noun phrase corresponding to the direct ob"ect has been placed in sub"ect position #:.3! ;;.9): I thin the media is falsely accused of ba lot of thingsc. #coHvf) cf. -eople falsely accuse the media of ba lot of thingsc. $he initiative is based on ba Bcottish schemec. #news f) cf. Bomeone based the initiative on ba Bcottish schemec. -repositional verbs have two competing structural analyses. <n the one hand! they can be treated as simple le+ical verbs followed by a prepositional phrase functioning as an adverbial #as in Ghapter ;4). $his analysis is supported by the fact that it is usually possible to insert another adverbial between the verb and the prepositional phrase in -attern ;: Bhe loo ed e+actly li e bdathleen Gleaverc. #fict) I never thought much about bitc. #fict) *owever! the verb plus preposition can also be considered as a single unit,a =prepositional verb=. From this perspective! the noun phrase following the preposition is analyEed as the ob"ect of the prepositional verb. <ne piece of evidence supporting this interpretation is the fact that! for many -attern ; prepositional verbs! the verb + preposition functions as a single semantic unit! with a meaning that cannot be derived completely from the individual meanings of the two parts. $hese two'word verbal units can often be replaced by a simple transitive verb with a similar meaning #8.9.;): loo s li e bthe barrelc 'NK resembles the barrel thought about bitc 'NK considered it as ed for bpermissionc 'NK re(uested permission deal with bpar ing problemsc 'NK handle par ing problems I won=t stand for bitc 'NK % won=t tolerate it <ther structural arguments supporting this interpretation! including wft' (uestion formation! are given in 8.9.; and 9.8.8. Bemantic domains of prepositional verbs Li e other verb categories! prepositional verbs can be classified by semantic domain based on their core meanings! with many common prepositional verbs being polysemous. $his is especially the case with activity verbs often used to refer to mental activitiesA for e+ample! deal with! get into! go through! loo at! return to! arrive at! engage in! get at! get through! loo into! derive H- from! reduce H- to! ta e H- as! ta e H- for.
Further! it is important to eep in mind that many of the combinations used as prepositional verbs can also function as phrasal verbs or free combinations #8.9.;.;). For e+ample come from! apart from its use as a prepositional verb! is also common as a free combination in conversation and fiction. Furthermore! some prepositional verbs occur with both -atterns ; and 6A for e+ample! apply to! connect #H-_ with! provide #H-) for! as #H-) for! hear #H-) about! now #H-_ about: -attern ; ; $he regidations abo apply to new buildings. #news f) -attern 6 $hey were cosmologists wrestling to apply (uantum mechanics to ?instein=s general theory of relativity. #acad) -attern ; 2ut $ve as ed for much too much already. #fict) -attern 6 *e as ed Btan for a "ob. #conv) $he counts in the following sections are based on occurrences of these combinations as prepositional verbs. $he passive altemative of -attern 6 is cited where this is more common than the active! although both alternatives are induded in the counts. 8.9.9.6 Fegister distribution of prepositional verbs G<F-.B F_HIIHCB 6 J' -repositional verbs are relatively common in all four registers! occurring almost 8!444 times per million words. J' $hey are particularly common in fiction. JK -repositional verbs are three to four times more common than phrasal verbs #cf. $able 8.;9). $able 8.;P <verall fre(uency of prepositional verbs across registersA per million words each N represents 644 conv fsf77NNRRg7miffR_*ffNRtT fict f7R7RN7TfNNgRfRf773gfNRfTRRf3NT H?&B acad NNTeNffNfT77TffTsTsfN IIBG.BBI<H <F FIHIIHCB Gompared with the distributional profile of verbs in general #Figure 8.3)! fiction stands out as having an especially high fre(uency of prepositional verbs #see also 8.9.9.9). $he fact that prepositional verbs are relativeh% common in academic prose shows that they do not have the same informal overtones as phrasal verbs. -repositional verbs have a higher fre(uency than phrasal verbs. -hrasal verbs have a limited set of adverbial particles available for their formation #8.9.6.3)! all denoting location or direction. -repositional verbs! on the other hand! draw on the full set of prepositions! including important forms denoting non'spatial relations! such as as! with! for! and of. 8.9.9.9 $he most common prepositional verbs J' $here are mar ed differences in the common prepositional verbs across registers #see $able 8.;5). J $he verb loo at! with its e+treme fre(uency in conversation and fiction! is the single most common prepositional verb overall. JK Bay to H- + (uote is also e+tremely common in conversation #and to a lesser e+tent in fiction). J Bevera^ other prepositional verbs are particularly common: LKJ' in fiction,thin of! Z' in academic prose,be used in! depend on! be based on! be associated with. J' $here are numerous common prepositional verbs in all domains e+cept aspectual. $able 8.;5 -repositional verbs by semantic domain across registers #including all prepositional verbs that occur over 34 times per million words in at least one register)A occurrences per million words @@if&X over 344 Ugii[Bii over 944 over 644 il0l over ;44 RlR over 34 i over 64 semantic G<HS FIG$ H?&B AGAI domain activity verb + h H-attern ;: preposition h loo at B. s m a loo for go for go through m m mi na. m m m m KU
watt for dea^ with pay for get into tum to play with stare at glance at smiSe at p%ay for serve as
m = sa m 7
m m i Y9 [9= ; 9 B
h 95 m i 5 m
BB a
activity -attern 6: verb + H- + preposition + Hbe applied to IB be used in do H- for be made of be aimed at send H- to give H- to be derived from fill H- with $able 8.;5 continued semantic G<HS domain be accused of BR FIG$ @ [ BI s 9 I i
i ; i m i\
H?&B AGAI
be charged with be "ailed for be divided into obtain H- from use H- as communicati -attern ;: verb + preposition + on Htal to tal about spea to as for refer to write to spea of cali for communicati -attern 6: verb + H- + on preposition + Hsay to H- + juote %say H- to B2ffiRfflBgi l\k@ be e+pressed in mental -attern ;: verb + preposition + Hh s i 6 7 9 mW m VB
X =K'f ==i 86
" c. m OR I2
@ n
thin of thin about listen to worry about now about hear of add to believe in occur to @ [ m 9 i m m Y9 @ h @ m Q
m i 9
=i
mental -attern 6: verb + H- + preposition + Hbe nown as m be seen in be regarded as be seen as be considered as be defRned as causative -attern ;: verb + preposition + Hlead to s come from 7 ; i i
2BI ;;
a BR R9
V\ Kta Be
ss
result in lYg contribute to BI allow for Bt depend on U = 'U .U.S0 belong to K\ T U8 account for 9 4 consist of Rs9 differ from ;9 e+istence or relationship -attern 6: verb + H- +L preposition + H- be based on be involved in aBi V9 be associated with BB0B be related to l 895 be included in 9 @ be composed of fY <ther common verbs #over ten occurrences per million words) L Activity verbs,-attern ; apply for! arrive at! brea into! connect with! engage in! get at! get over! get through! go on! laugh at! loo after! loo into! meet with! point to! stay with! succeed in! suffer from! wor at! wor for! wor on! wor with L Activity verbs,-attem 6 attach H- to! do H- about! eep H- in! ma e H- for! ma e H- from! place H- in! provide H- for! put H- into! put H- on! reduce H- to! spend H- on! ta e H- from! use H- for L Gommunication verbs,-attern ; bet on! respond to L Gommunication verbs,-attern 6 e+plain H- to! say H- about L @ental verbs,-attern ; agree with! conceive of! concentrate on! cope with! feel li e! hear about! now of! sound li e L @ental verbs,-attern 6 add H- to! be faced with! hear H- from L G0usative verbs,-attern ; cali for
$able 8.;5 continued semantic domain conv Fia news acad c0usative -attern 6: verb + H- + preposition + H- be re(uired for occurrence -attern ;: verb + preposition + H- loo li e .' ' ==K happen to occur in i: K e+istence or relationship -attern ;: verb 3' preposition + HL <ccurrence verbs,-attern ; fall into! run into L <ccurrence verbs,-attern 6 be covered with ; L ?+istence or relationship verbs,-attern ; refer to #over 34 occurrences per million words) .ve with! rely on! stand for L ?+istence or relationship verbs,-attern 6 be compared with! be involved with L Aspectual verbs,-attern ; begin with! enter into! start with In conversation and fiction! most common prepositional verbs are activity! communication! or mental verbs #see $able 8.;7). In contrast! nearly half of all common prepositional verbs in academic prose belong to the c0usative and e+istence verb domains. J' Academic prose also has many common activity and mental prepositional verbs. Iistribution of prepositional verbs across semantic domains! as a percentage of all common prepositional verbs in each register #based on the register distributions of $able 8.;5A number of verbs given in parentheses) semantic domain conv fict news acad activity 95Q #7) 3;Q #;: 3;Q #;5 99Q #;3 ) ) ) communicati 68Q #:) 6;Q #5) ;:Q #5) 8Q #6) on mental 68Q #:) 69Q #7) ;5Q #5) ;7Q #5) c0usative 4Q #4) 8Q #6) 8Q #6) ;3Q #:) occurrence 5Q #6) 8Q #6) 6Q #;) 9Q #;) e+istence 3Q #I 8Q #6) ;:Q #P) 6:Q #;; ) total ;44Q #63 ;44 #97 ;44 #33 ;44 #36 ) Q ) Q ) Q ) J Activity verbs and mental verbs are well represented in all registers! but there is a mar ed difference in their use of the two structural patterns #see $able 8.64): JK Gonversation and fiction have a very strong preference for -attern ;! with a single ob"ect #verb + preposition 3' H-). J' Academic prose has the opposite preference for -attern 6! with double ob"ects #verb 3' H- 3' preposition 3' H-)A this pattern fre(uentRy occurs in the passive versi1n: passive verb 3' preposition 3' H-. I;BG.BBI<H <F FIHIIHCB 2ecause of the topics and purposes typical of conversation and fiction! these registers have many common prepositional verbs that are activity! communication! or mental verbs #similar to the distribution of single word verbsA 8.6.;.9). $he most common of all! loo at! is used in two main ways. $o direct the attention of others: Loo at that great big tree stuc under the bridgel #conv) Loo at me. #fict) $able 8.;7 $able 8.64 Iistribution of prepositional verbs across structural patterns! as a percentage of all common prepositional verbs in each register #based on the register distributions of $able 8.;5A number of verbs given in parentheses) valency pattern G< FIG H? AGA HS $ &B I
;4
;44 #63 ;44 #97 ;44 #33 ;44 #36 Q ) Q ) Q ) Q ) $o describe actions involving sight: I want to loo at the anim0is! #conv) *e ain=t loo ing at her! is heZ #conv) I loo ed at that and thought it would be nice. #conv) $he boys loo ed at each other tearfully unbelieving. #fict) $he communication verb say H- to H- is also very common! especially in conversation but also in fiction. $his prepositional verb is used to report the contenR of speech #the direct ob"ect)! while also identifying the addressee #the prepositional ob"ect). In many e+amples with say to! a clause is used to report what was saidA this clause is often postponed to final position following the principie of end weight #;;.;.9): I said to Fussell bI will never ever ta e speedc. #conv) I eep saying to @ichael bit=s so e+pensive). #conv) Anyway! I says to Ii bSm not doing any in thisc. #conv) In some e+amples! the (uoted speech is actually given as a sep0rate main clause #cf. 9.;;.8! ;;.6.9.:'P): b&owc! Isidore said to himself. bIt really sounds as if it=s dyingc. #fict) In conversation! this construction is often spread across two complete clauses with say. the first identifies the addressee and the second reports the speech (uote: Iid you hear what that man said to his little girlZ *e said! boh loo ! there=s two boys and a girlc. #conv) I said to Hic ! I said bI bet something happens at the ballc. #conv) 2eyond these two especially fre(uent verbs! conversation and fiction use a number of other common prepositional verbs to mar physical activities! communication acts! and mental processes. Activity: Gouldn=t he "ust put it in hisbean bagZ #conv) -ity we couldn=t go for a romp around a canal! isn=t itZ #conv) -atrice held her breath! waiting for Lettie=s reply. #fict) *e stared at me blan ly! unbelievingly. #fict) DR am loo ing for a manD the lieutenant said. #fict) Gommunication: _ust tal to her. #conv) % was tal ing about the oRd sort of diesel mltiple unit. #conv) *e spo e to -aul in a bitter! controlled tone. #fict`) @ental: &hat did they thin of the brochure thenZ #conv) And then of course I always thought of Laurel #piG$f) % was thin ing about the playgroup downstairs. #conv) ; Bince when does nobody listen to youZ #conv) Academic prose also uses severa^ common prepositional verbs mar ing physical activities and mental states. *owever! these are mostly verbs that ta e the double ob"ect -attern 6! and they are typically used in the passive voice. $he most common of these is the prepositional verb use H- in: &e will continue to use $able 8.6 in out economic analysis. #acad`) Following the typical pattern! this verb is much more common in the passive voice: mbe) used in. As is usual in the passive! the agent of the verb,the person doing the =using=,is not specified. Father! the thing being used is given prominence in relation to some particular use: It can also sometimes be used to signify a disinfecting agent used in a wea er concentration. #acad`) $he models of community used in this argument are ideal in several ways. #acad) 2ecause academic writing focuses on the relations among inanimate entities! rather than the anRmate agent performing actions! there is a strong preference for using -attern 6 prepositional verbs in the passive voice! often with a preceding modal verb. $he following are other e+amples: Activity verbs: For e+ample! the @essage $ype can be derived from its infernal structure. #acad) Bimilarly other parRs of the body may be used as bases to start from. #acad^) $he method outlined could now be applied to a selected number of points along the blade length. #acad) @ental verbs: $his induced mustiness is nown as Bierra rice! #acad) $he electr1n may be regarded as a tiny mass carrying a negative charge.
-attern ;: verb + preposition + H-attern 6: verb + H- + preposition + Htotal
76Q #66 5PQ #93 :3Q #65 39Q #;5 ) ) ) ) 5Q #6) ;9Q #8) 9:Q #;: 8PQ #63 ) )
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#AGAIf) All members of the specified Fole Glass are considered as possible senders of the received message. #acad`) For similar reasons! academic prose uses a number of common prepositional verbs of causation and e+istence! in addition to the verb occur inA these verbs typically show relations among entities rather than describing actions. Gausative verbs: Further e+perimentation might lead to the identification of other diff ulty factors. #acad`) Feplacing the nonsense stems by ?nglish stems would have resulted in a grammatically corred se(uence. #acad^) -atrons and bro ers contributed to the widespread belief that a wastah #an intermediary) was the necessary means to contact. #acad) G<F-.B FIHIIHCB 6 JL A few le+ical verbs combine with mltiple prepositions to form common prepositional verbs! but #unli e the case of phrasal verbs) none of these verbs is particularly productive #see $able 8.6;). JL In contrast! some prepositions are very productive in combining with le+ical verbs to form prepositional verbs #see $able 8.66). $able 8.6; Humber of prepositional verb types formed with seven common verbsA based on all prepositional verbs occurring more than ;4 times per million words le+ical verb prepositional verbs get 8 loo 8 wor 3 go 9 now 9 hear 9 use 9 IIBG.BBI<H <F FIHIIHCB $he most productive word forms used for prepositional verbs tend to be different from those used for phrasal verbs. <nly the verbs get and go overlap on the two lists! while only in and on are productive as both adverbial particle and preposition. In general! there are a large number of verbs used to form prepositional verbs! and these are distributed widely across semantic domains. *owever! few individual verbs are very fre(uent or productive. In contrast! the verbs used to form phrasal verbs primarily refer to physical activities! and a few of these verbs are particularly fre(uent and productive. $here is a similar contrast in the particles%prepositions used in these combinations. &hile all adverbial particles used with phrasal verbs have spatial%locative core meanings! a much wider range of prepositions is used to form prepositional verbs. ?+istence verbs: It will depend on the purpose of! and audience for! the writing. #acad) @ental models related to the physical domain are therefore in general necessary. #acad^) <ccurrence verbs: It occurs in many manganese ore bodies and is usually associated with metasomatic activity. #acad) 8.9.9.3 -roductivity of particular verbs and prepositions $able 8.66 Humber of prepositional verb types formed with ;4 common prepositionsA based on aii prepositional verbs occurring more than ;4 times per million words preposition prepositional verbs to 6; with ;3 for ;: in ;9 on ;6 into P about : of : at : as p. 8
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8.9.3 -hrasal'prepositional verbs $he third ma"or type of multi'word verb has characteristics of both phrasal and prepositional verbs: phrasal' prepositional verbs consist of a le+ical verb combined with an adverbial particle plus a preposition. As with prepositional verbs #8.9.;! 8.9.9)! the complement of the preposition in these constructions functions as the direct ob"ect of the phrasal'prepositional verb #shown in bc below). $here are two ma"or structural patterns for phrasal' prepositional verbs. -attern ;: H- 3' verb 3' particle 3' preposition + H-: <h I shall loo forward to bthisc now. #conv) 2ut since there was no other mili! people had to put up with bsuch treatmentc. #fict) -erhaps I can get out of bitc without having to tell her anything. #fict) Ho one has been oble to come up with ba product as lucrative and easy to mar et as opiumc. #H?&sf) -attern 6: H- 3' verb 3' H- 3' particle 3' preposition 3' H-: I could hand him over to bBadi(c. #fict) <nly a few phrasal'prepositional verbs can ta e two ob"ects. Another is put H- up roH-. -hrasal'prepositional verbs function as a semantic unit and can sometimes be replaced by a single transitive le+ical verb with similar meaning: put up with bsuch treatmentc 'NK tolerate bsuch treatmentc get out of bitc 'JK avoid bitc loo forward to bthisc 'NK anticRpate bthisc. 8.9.3.; Fegister distribution of phrasal'prepositional verbs $able 8.69 G<F-.B FIHIIHCB $he overall fre(uency of phrasal'prepositional verbs is here organiEed by semantic domain. As before! the passive variant is cited if that is more common than the active. -hrasal'prepositional verbs are somewhat more common in conversation and fiction! but they are particularly rare in academic prose #only about 84 per million wordsA see $able 8.69). In comparison with phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs! phrasal'prepositional verbs are generally rare #see $able 8.63). <verall fre(uency of phrasal'prepositional verbs across registersA occurrences per million words each ' represents 84 conv fict Lv '!R Vi 'i new s acad 'J $able 8.63 <verall corpus fre(uency of multi'word verb typesA occurrences per million words each JR represents ;44 phrasal verbs prepositional verbs phrasal'prepositional verbs 'a i N 4D LN 0 f N 'X f N g N 'a as N N ifT '.J tZJ N sJ Ri IIBG.BBI<H <F FIHIIHCB Although phrasal'prepositional verbs are similar to prepositional verbs in their valency patterns! their register distribution is more similar to phrasal verbs #cf. $ables 8.;9! 8.;P! and 8.69). In particular! both phrasal verbs and phrasal'prepositional verbs are notably rare in academic prose. As the following sections show! phrasal' prepositional verbs are also similar to phrasal verbs in being used primarily for physical activities! in contrast to the wide range of meanings associated with prepositional verbs. $he relative absence of phrasal'prepositional verbs in the occurrence! e+istence! and causative domains helps to account for their rarity in academic prose. 9.3.6 $he most common phrasal'prepositional verbs G<F-.B FIHIIHCB 6 J' @ost common phrasal'prepositional verbs are activity verbs #see $able 8.68). $he most fre(uent verb overall is get out of. Gome out of and get bac to are also relatively fre(uent. J' In the mental domain! loo forward to is the most common verb. J Sery few phrasal'prepositional verbs are used commonly with two ob"ects #-attern 6)A however! two passive verbs occur with moderate fre(uency in academic prose: be set up in and be set out in. IIBG.BBI<H <F FIHIIHCB @ost common phrasal'prepositional verbs are activity verbs! especially in conversation and fiction. $he combination get out of is the most fre(uent! with two ma"or uses. Imperative: _ust get out of my way. #conv) Cet out of there. #conv) Ieclarative:
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&e have to get out ofhere. #fict) Beveral other activity phrasal'prepositional verbs are relatively common in these two registers: I=ve never heard a word come out of her mouth. #conv) ]ou can go up to full beam! can t youZ #conv) Btop ya ing and get on with it^ #conv) <mi carne out ofhis revene. #Ficrf) *e said he would get bac to me -.@. #fict) 2urns went up to the soldiers and started tal ing. #fict) Apart from these activity verbs! only the mental verb loo forward to is relatively common across registers! occurring especially in fiction and news: Bhe had been loo ing forward to this moment. #fict) In the case of news reportage! this verb typically occurs in direct or reported speech: &e are loo ing forward to the gome #news) *e said he was loo ing forward to the results of the in(uiry. #news`) $wo other phrasal'prepositional verbs are relatively common in news reportage, get bac to and come up with: It=s going to ta e time for you to get bac to full strength. #news) $he panel will be as ed to come up with the best all'time team on earth. #news) Finally! although phrasal'prepositional verbs are generally rare in academic prose! the single verb be set out in mset H- out in) is commonly used to identify the source of information: $hese pro"ect ob"ectives were set out in the first pro"ect report. #acad) $here are three forms of statutory demand set out in Bchedule 3. #AGAIf) $able 8.68 -hrasal'prepositional verbs by semantic domain across registers! including all prepositional verbs that occur over ;4 times per million words in at least one register occurrences per million words ' over 34 over 64 . over ;4 semantic domain G<HS FIG$ H?&B AGAI activity get out of L=L J come out of get bac to goupto get on with get away with get off at get off with go out for caten up with get away from go over to hold on to turn away from turn bac to be set up in i Q ''L i 'U = ' 'KDK=V Li X '9 5 R" h R
other attested verbs: come in for! get bac into! go along with! hand Hover to! eep up with! loo out for communication come out with other attested verbs: bring H- up in
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mental loo forward to come up with put up with other attested verbs: give in to oceurrence come down to e+istence be set out in
N I a
m 9'
other attested verbs: be made up of! be cut off from $able 8.68 continued semantic domain conv fict news acad causativo attested verbs: end up with aspectual attested verbs: go on to! move on to 8.9.8 <ther multi'word verb constructions In addition to phrasal and prepositional verbs! there are three ma"or types of idiomatic multi'word verb constructions: L verb + prepositional phrase combinations L verb + verb combinations L verb + noun phrase combinations. $hese combinations are introduced here but illustrated more fully in ;9.9'3. A Serb + prepositional phrase combinations First! several verb + prepositional phrase combinations have idiomatic status. $hese indude combinations li e bear in mina! come as a surprise! fall in love! ta e into account! and ta e into consideration. Buch combinations function semantically as a coherent unit that can often be replaced by a single le+ical verb #cf. 8.9.;2): bear in mind 'n remember come as a surprise 'NK surprise ta e into account % ta e into consideration 'N consider. For e+ample: I also have to bear in mind the interests of my wife and family. #H?wsf) $he triumph carne as a surprise to many. #news) ]ou have to ta e into account where the younger shoots are dominant. #fict) $he organiEation had to ta e into consideration human feelings and actitudes! #acad"') 2 Serb + verb combinations A second idiomatic category involves verb + verb combinations! such as ma e do #with) and let H- go%be. ]ou have to ma e do! dont youZ #conv) -atients had to ma e do with (uiche or ham salad! #news f) *e was Dvery reluctantD to _et him go. #news") % thin it is time to let it be. #news) G Serb + noun phrase combinations $hird! there are a few semantically light verbs,such as ta e! ma e! have! and do,that combine with noun phrases to form set verbal e+pressions. In many cases! the combination also includes a following preposition: ]es! Sil ta e care of it. #fict) It wilt ta e time to cut costs in the ac(uisitions. #news) 2ut you now how you ma e fun of me sometimes. #conv) &e don=t have a chance! #news)
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Io you want me to do your hairZ #conv) $he verbs in such e+amples can be followed by a deverbal noun! so that the verb + noun combination can sometimes be paraphrased by a simple verb corresponding to the noun: *ow can she ma e a bet on an unpublished authorZ #acad") cf. *ow can she bet on an unpublished authorZ *owever! in more idiomatic e+amples of this type! the alternative versi1n does not mean the same: *e went to the dar ness of the bathroom to ta e a le0 . #Ficrf) cf. *e went to the dar ness of the bathroom to lea . 8.3 @ain and au+iliary functions of primary verbs $he three primary verbs,be! have! and do,can serve as botli main verbs and au+iliary verbs. $hey differ! however! in their particular main and au+iliary functions. 8.3.; 2e As a main verb! be is the most hnportant copular verb in ?nglish! serving to lin the sub"ect noun phrase with a sub"ect predicative or obligatory adverbial #see also 9.8.6'9! 8.;.6! 8.8): = = BS-B#H-) ]ou dran coffee li e it was bwaterc! #conv) BS-s#Ad"-) $he odds are bfavourable enoughc. #news f) BSAG &ell that=s how we got ac(uainted so well because she was bin <lie=s roomc a lot. #conv) As an au+iliary verb! be has two distinct functions: mar ing progressive aspect and passive voice: -rogressive aspect: ]ou=re going so slow. #conv) $he last light was fading by the time he entered the town. #fict) -assive voice: Bhareholders will be advised of the outcome as soon as possible. #news) ?ach is callea a path or a history. #acad) $hese two au+iliary uses of be can occur together in the same dause: A mutual investment fund for ?astern ?urope is being launched today with the bac ing of Gontinental Crain. #news`) -rogressive aspect and passive voice verbs are discussed further in :.9 and :.3. m2e is also a component of the semi'modal verb be going toA :.:.) .3.6 *ave As a transitive main verb! have is as common as the most fre(uent le+ical verbs in ?nglish #8.6.6). Across the four registers! have is most common in conversation and least common in academic prose. &ithin academic prose! though! have is more common than any of the le+ical verbs. In the same way as get! the main verb have can be used with various meanings mar ing many different inds of logical relations. -hysical possession: <ne in three of these families has two cars. #news) $hey had three tons of sugar. #fict ") Family connection: *er story was this: she had a husband and child. #fict) _im is aged 34 and has two children. #news") Food consumption: $he ids had Dsuperhero sundaesD which turned out to be merely ice cream. #news D_< ?+istential #cf. ;;.3.7): 2ut it really would be nice to have a young person about the house again. #fict) cf. It would be nice if there was a young person about the house. Lin ing a person to some abstract (uality: ]ou re gonna have problems with your.feet. #conv) &ill you have enough to doZ #conv) % hope she has fun. #conv) I had moments of indecisi1n when I wanted to distribute the orange. #fict) *er visitor had a strong pungent odor of a winters doy. #fict) Lin ing an inanimate sub"ect to some abstract (uality: In practical terms! the gates and fences probably have little advantage over the waist'high barrier. #news I) Btylistics can have other goals than this. #acad^) In these e+tensions soil science will always have a ma"or role! #acad") @ar ing causation: $he problem contines to be that a religious'fascist state wishes to hire professional terrorists to have me illed. #news) Also the verb have has marginal semi'modal status in the e+pression have to #:.:.6): Sil have to blan it out. #conv) $here are many good and prosperous people here. #Ficrt) *er former lover is a good and supportive friend. #H?wsf) 2ut! to (uote one of @aggie=s very own good and faithful servants O...J #H?&Bf)
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Hote that the attributive #non'intensifying) uses tend to combine good with another ad"ective carrying favorable connotations #e.g. faithful! prosperous)! whereas predicative uses favor ad"ectives carrying negative connotations #e.g. sorry! sic ). &ith nice! the intensifying use holds for favorable and unfavorable ad"ectives ali e. In both 2r? and Am? conversation! nice and is far more fre(uent than good and. $here are over 94 occurrences per million words for nice and + ad"ective v. only about two occurrences per million words for good and + ad"ective. P.;; <verview of adverbs In a clause! adverbs can either be integrated into an element of the clause or function themselves as an element of the clause. In the first case! the adverbs serve as modifiersA in the second! they are adverbials. @ost commonly! adverbs that are integrated into another element of the clause modify an ad"ective or another adverb! as in the following e+amples #the modified word is mar ed with bc)=K ; I am almost bpositivec she borrowed that off 2arbie^ #conv) 6 First! health service managers must be able to price their services reasonably baccuratelyc for trading purposes. #news) In ; the adverb almost modifies the ad"ective positive! while in 6 the adverb reasonably modifies the adverb accurately. In contrast! e+amples 9 and 3 Alstrate adverbs that are themselves elements of the clause: 9 I thin she=ll be married shortly. #conv) 3 -ossibly the &esleyan Ghurch tolerated outside unions uno"ficially! in a way that the Anglican Ghurch did not. #acad) In 9 the adverb shortly provides further information about the time for the entire clause she=ll be married. In 3 possibly conveys the level of certainty for the entire following clause. $hus! these adverbs are not integrated into another element within the clauseA rather! they are adverbials. It is important to note that the same adverbs that function as modifiers can also function as adverbials. For e+ample! the adverbs in 8 and P are modifiers! while the same adverbs in : and 5 are adverbials: 8 $o put on a grey shirt once more was strangely bpleasingc. #fict) : Btrangely! it is in this 0rea that the greatest fears concerning GAI e+ist. #acad) P $his apparently complicated e+pression for pull'out tor(ue gives the surprisingly bsimplec characteristic shown in Fig 8.5. #acad) 5 Burprisingly! the cho ed voice resumes! #fict) $he overall distribution of adverbs and ad"ectives across registers is discussed in 6.9.8 #see Figures 6.9 and 6.3) and in P.;. $he following sections discuss adverbs in terms of their forms #P.9.6)! their syntactic roles #P.9.9)! and their semantic categories #P.9.3). Adverbials are dealt with in detail in Ghapter ;4! which includes an account of the use of adverbs as adverbials. $hus! although this section introduces information about adverbs as adverbials! we concentrete here on structural information about adverbs and on ftndings related to the use of adverbs as modifiers. Adverbs are sometimes characteriEed as ending in 'ly. &hile this is true of some adverbs! the class is far more diverse in form. $here are four ma"or formal categories of adverbs! and each category also contains substantial variation within it. Bimple adverbs are single words that are not formed from compounds or derivational affi+es. ?+amples include well! too! rather! (uite! soon! and here. <ther simple adverbs are clearly related to other word classes: fast and long can be ad"ectivesA down and round can be used as prepositions #but contrast these forms with adverbial particlesA 6.3.:)A today and tomorrow can be used as nouns. In addition! some simple adverbs originated as compounds! but the independent meaning of the two parts is no longer transparent #e.g. already! indeed). 2 Gompound adverbs Gompound adverbs are formed by combining two or more elements into a single word. ?+amples include adverbs such as anyway #any + way)! nowhere mno + where)! and heretofore mhere + to + fore). G Adverbs derived by suffR+ation @any adverbs are formed by suffi+ing 'ly to the base form of an ad"ective! such as clearly formed from the ad"ective clear. Hote! however! that not all adverbs ending in '%y are formed by the addition of 'ly to an ad"ectival form. Bome adverbs are derived from ad"ectives that already end in 'ly. e.g. wee ly! fatherly. In these cases the adverb is normally formed by Eero derivation! i.e. by adding nothing to the ad"ective form: wee ly! not Nwee lily! fatherly not Nfatherlily. $he productivity of the 'ly suffi+ can be seen from some unusual 'ly adverbs used in both spo en and written te+ts. ?ven the e+pository registers! rarely thought of as showing G$eatrvity! include rare adverbs derived from ad"ectives with an 'ly suffi+. ?+amples include: <h yes! it went very "ollify. #conv)
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]ou=re doing spif"ily. #conv) ?very 64 minutes or so! the phiy guffawingly alludes to the non'arrival of some long'ordered calculators. #news) Ghannel 3 has in any case ta en on the mantle of the senator for adult'intelligent viewing: in other words! the place where you can watch randily beneath a thinnish veneer of nowledge and a deeper understanding of self. #news) P.;6 $he form of adverbs P.;6.; Formation of adverbs A Bimple adverbs All phenols can act bactericidally or fungicidally. #acad"') $wenty'si+ patients with 2arret=s columnar lined lower oesophagus were diagnosed by endoscopio documentation of the s(uamocolumnar "unction being circumferentially more than 9 cm above. #acad^) In addition to 'ly! other suffi+es are used to form adverbs. $wo relatively common ones are 'wise and 'wards. $he suffi+ 'wise is added to some nouns #e.g. piecewise)! and the suffi+ 'ward#s) to some nouns #e.g. homewards! seawards) and prepositions #e.g. onward! afterwards). Fi+ed phrases $here are also some fi+ed phrases which are used as adverbs. $hese phrases are invariant in form! and the component words rarely retain their independent meaning. ?+amples include of coursey ind of! and at last. P.;6.;.; Adverb forms Gonsidering all adverb forms that occur over 84 times per million words! Figure P.9 brea s down the proportion in each register that falls into each class. Figure P9 @orphoiogical forms of common adverbs,proportional use by register ` ;44 54 :4 34 64 G<F-.B FIHIIHCB ;6 Gommon adverbs are distributed differ'ently over the four form categories! and! more significantly! over the four registers. Bimple forms and 'ly suffi+es account for the greatest percentage of fre(uently occurring adverbs in all four registers. =m' Gonversation and academic prose re'present opposite e+tremes of use: in conversation! over :4Q of the common adverbs are simple forms! and only about 64Q 'ly formsA in academic prose! about 88Q of the common adverbs are 'ly forms! and slightly over 94Q simple forms. <ther suffi+es! fi+ed phrases! and com'pound forms occur much less commonly in all four registers. IIBG.BBI<H <F FIHIIHCB Bimple adverbs and 'ly adverbs have different comple+ity and typical uses! resulting in their differing distrRbutions across registers. In conversation! many simple adverbs are adverbials used to establish time or place relationshipsA they include items such as again! always! already! far! here! never! now! soon! still! then! and yet. Gertain modifying adverbs are also common! such as very! rather! (uite! and pretty. ?+amples include: And a lot of women that are on fertility drugs nowZ #conv) 2ut we couldn=t! didnt wal too far today. #conv) It=s (uite nice yeah yeah. #conv) $hat=s pretty good. #conv) ` ` simple j compourtd `YV 'ly suffi+ ig` other suffi+ * fi+ed phrase In contrast! adverbs formed with the 'ly suffi+ are mostly derived from ad"ectives. In academic prose! these adverbs are used for a variety of purposes. @any have to do with stance! that is! with the author=s attitude towards the proposition in the clause #cf. ;4.9). <ften these forms comment on the li eiihood of aXroposition! its generaliEability or its e+pectedness! with adverbs such as generally! possibly! probably! certainiy! and obviously. <bviously this is an overstatement. #acad") ?+pressive movement would be out of place! unprofitable and possibly dangerous. #acad) Oimplying =possibly e+pressive movement would be dangerous=J $he second group contains both brown and grey soils with shallow #generally
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less than ;4 cm) surface horiEons. #acad`) In addition! 'ly adverbs in academic prose are used in descriptions of processes or conditions! or in instructions: $he solubility decreases rapidly as the temperature falls. #acad I) $he passage is almost entirely in third'person narration. #acad) ?+amine footnotes carefully. #acad) Academic prose also commonly uses 'ly adverbs as modifiers: AcclimatiEation is relatively unimportant. #acad") $he paper by Ionchin et al. is a particularly good methodological criti(ue of research in this 0rea! #acad) Cenerally these modifiers differ from those typical of conversation! many of which are simple and perceived as appropriate to casual speech #e.g. pretty and rather). Also in academic prose! modifiers with 'ly suffi+es are used to e+press precisi1n or estimation with measurements: After e+actly five years the tree that had grown up weighed ;:7 pounds and about three ounces. #acad) Appro+imately :4 percent of the community are of -olish and Fussian ancestry. #acad`) Iifferences in the choice of modifiers between conversation and academic prose are discussed further in P.;9.;.;. It is interesting to note that! overall! fiction also uses many different descriptive 'ly adverbs! although few of these are notably common #occurring over 84 times per million words). Father! fiction shows great diversity in its use of 'ly adverbs. In describing fictRonal events and the actions of fictional characters! writers often use adverbs with specific descriptive meanings: All three adults giggled easily and at everything! absentmindedly fingering small silver spoons. #fictD_D) *e was smiling benignly! almost fatherly! at her. #fict`) $he slighdy higher proportion of compound adverbs in conversation and fiction partly reflects a difference in formality and precisi1n between these two registers and the e+pository written registers. $he compound adverbs in conversation and fiction tend to e+press vague meanings or be informal terms: e.g. sometimes! anywhere! everywhere! anyway! and maybe. Fiction also uses compound adverbs to indRcate location! such as inside and upstairs: Sil ' puf them somewhere. #conv) If it=s anywhere it=ll be here. #conv) @ama herself would more often than not stand to eat! sometimes out of the pot. #fict") % went upstairs uneasily and noc ed on his door. #fict) A final point of interest concerns the slightly greater proportional use of fi+ed phrases in conversation and academic prose over fiction and news. $he specific phrases used in conversation and academic prose are very different! however. Gonversation uses the hedges sort of and ind of as well as forms such as o=doc ! at least! and as well. Academic prose! on the other hand! is notable for its foreign phrases #particularly the Latin abbreviatlons Le.! e.g. and etc.) and lin ing adverbials #e.g. in general! in particular! see ;4.3 for more discussion of these). P.;6.6 Adverbs and ad"ectives with the same form In some cases! an adverb has the identical form as a related ad"ective. For e+ample! fast is an ad"ective in ; below! while in 6 it is an adverb. ; Fast guys tire! a bas eiball coach once said of his own high'rise team! but big guys don=t shrin . #news) 6 <ne looter! a woman who did not run fast enough! was shot dead. #fict) In addition! particularly in informal situations! forms that are usually used as ad"ectives can sometimes be used as adverbs. In many of these cases! the 'ly suffi+ of the more accepted adverb form is omitted. For e+ample! the following adverbs in conversation could instead have the forms slowly! (uic ly! and smoothly. $he big one went so slow. #conv) &ell it was hot but it didn=t come out (uic . #conv) $hey want to ma e sure it runs smooth first. #coHvf) From a prescriptive point of view! this use of the ad"ective form is often stigmatiEed as non'standard. *owever! in some instances = this usage is widespread! particularly in collo(uial Am? #see $ables P.7 and P.;4). In addition! good is sometimes used as an adverb in place of the prescriptively correct adverb well: $hey go good with baggy "eans. #conv) DIt=s running good now.D #fict) &hen used as an adverb! good is typically an adverbial! as in the above e+amples. *owever! other adverbs that have the same form as ad"ectives occur as modifiers. <ne e+ample is the modifier real used in place of the more prescriptively correct really. It carne out real bgoodc. #conv) P.;6.6.; Cood and rea^ as adverbs G<F-.B FIHIIHCB 69 JK Cood is commonly used as an adverb #as an alternative to well) in Am? conversation. $his usage is rare in 2r? conversation and in the written registers.
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$able P7 Iistribution of good functioning as an adverb across registers and dialectsA occurrences per million words each represents c. ;4 G represents less than ;4 ' unattested Vn that Fegister 2r? G<HS Am? G<HS FIG$ H?&B AGAI J' In 2r? conversation! it is very rare for real to be used as a modifier of an ad"ectiveA the adverb really is very common. JL In Am? conversation! the adverb really is e+tremely common. J' Feal is also very common as an adverb in Am? conversation! almost as fre(uent as really in 2r? conversation. $able P ;4 Iistribution of rea% and really functioning as adverbs in conversation! across dialectsA occurrences per million words each 8!represents c. 64 2r? G<HS Am? G<HS real f N N" ON n VN JW' RR tJ git really 't OZ O$'=f RJ 8TNRf o h KN N Rf iN f i o '5 T f N N T 7 Rf T N N UR J" rJ NR N N l IIBG.BBI<H <F FIHIIHCB <nly Am? conversation has a notable use of good as an adverb. $his use is rare but attested in 2r? conversation! as well as in fiction and news #in direct speech or (uotations from interviews). Glearly! this is a casual speech form! favored by Americans. $ypical e+amples include: It"ust wor ed out good! didn=t itZ #Am? conv) 2ruce _ac son! In ?+cess= trainer said! D*e ran good! but he runs good all the time. It was easy.D #Am? news) 2oth 2r? and Am? conversation use really to modify a variety of ad"ectives. $he four most common collocates with really are good! nice! had! and funny #all occurring over 64 times per million words): $his loo s really bgoodc this little,thing. #2r? conv) 2ut he=s always! he=s always ma ing really bfunnyc comments. #2r? conv) ]ou couldn=t tell from loo ing at him but he was driving a really bnicec car. #Am? conv) $he alternative is to .ve with my parents which I now is a bad idea! a really bbadc idea. #Am? conv) <n the other hand! only Am? conversation uses real with a variety of ad"ectives. $he most common collocates! occurring over five times per million words! are: good! nice! hard! bad! big! and easy: It would have been real bbadc news. #Am? conv) $hat=s one of the real bhardc things ... #Am? coHvf) Bhe=s a real bnicec girl. #Am? conv) Interestingly! the same spea er may alternate between really and real in ci1se pro+imity: % have a really bgoodc video with a real bgoodc soundtrac . #aiue conv) P.;6.9 Gomparative and superlative forms Adverbs can be mar ed inflectionally for comparative or superlative degree #e.g. fast!f0ster! fastestA hard! harder! hardest). Gomparative and superlative forms are used more commonly for ad"ectives than adverbs #P.P.9). Buperlative forms are very rarely used as adverbs! while comparative forms are occasionally used. ?+amples include: ; % "ust ept wor ing harder and harder #H?&sf) 6 $he creature san farther! retreating! turning. #fict) 9 *e went to the altar every first Friday! sometimes with her! oftener by himself. #fict") In some cases! an adverb can be made comparative either with the use of more or with the 'er inflection. For e+ample! 9 above illustrates the use of oftener where more often could also be used. $his choice appears to be related to register and authorial style. <ftener occurs only in fiction! and then is used by only a small number of writers #only seven of the almost ;84 fiction authors in the LB&? Gorpus). It occurs in both narrative and dialog: &e didn=t always go to the same bar! but oftener to SRctor s than anywhere else. #fict) D$han s. I wish it might happen oftener!D said the visitor in his easy arrogant way. #fict) In contrast! the other registers use only more often: I love .ve theatre! of course! I really ought to go more often. #conv) <ther officials said the sweeps come about once a wee ! maybe more often. #news `)
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All of the registers tend to use more often when the adverb is followed by than: @ore often bthanc usual her head loo ed up as she swam from ban to ban . #fict") K = In fact! more often bthanc not! it will be found that the wor of mass selection must be repeated annually. #acad) P.;9 Byntactic roles of adverbs P.;9.; Adverbs modifying ad"ectives <ne of the primary functions of adverbs is to modify ad"ectives! as in these e+amples: .f Sm rather bpartialc to parsnips. #conv) P was utterly! hopelessly! horribly bgladc. #fict) *e is a deeply bsic c man. #news f) $his is slightiy blargerc than the calculated value! #acad f) .sually! adverbs precede the ad"ectives that they modify! but postmodification also occurs. $he adverbs enough and ago must be placed after the ad"ectives they modify! but other adverbs can also be postposed: Iown carne the dry fla es! bfatc enough and bheavyc enough to crash li e nic els on stone. #fict) $hat seems so blongc ago. #fict") It is brichc nutritionally with high calcium contenR! #acad) Beveral preparations are bavailablec commercially. #acad`) In cases such as the last it becomes difficult to differentiate between occurrence as postmodifier and as adverbial! since this adverb can be separated from the ad"ective #cf. Beveral preparations are bavailablec to us commercially.) .;9.;.; Adverbs modifying ad"ectives in conversation and academic prose Fegisters vary greatly with respect to the adverb + ad"ective pairs that commonly occur #cf. P.;6.;.;). &e focus here on the two contrasting registers of conversation and academic prose. G<F-.B FIHIIHCB 6 KKLJ'L Gonversation #in both dialects) has higher fre(uencies of ad"ective with modifying adverb combinations than academic prose does. J' Academic prose! in contrast! has more diversity in the ad"ectives and adverbs that collocate. JK $he following are the most common collocations: J' <ccurring over ;44 times per million words,Am? Gonv: pretty good! really goodA 2r? Gonv: very good! very nice. J' <ccurring over 84 times per million words,Am? Gonv: too bad! very goodA 2r? Gonv: (uite good! really good. JK <ccurring over 64 times per million words,Am? Gonv: real good! real (uic ! really bad! really nice! too big! very niceA 2r? Gonv: pretty good! (uite nice! really nice! too bad! fair enoughA Acad: more general! (uite different! significantly different! significantly higher! statistically significant! very difficult! very important! very large! very low. IIBG.BBI<H <F FIHIIHCB $he higher fre(uency of adverb + ad"ective combinations in conversation #in both dialects) and their greater diversity in academic prose is typical of the general contrast between conversation and the e+pository registers. Gonversation usually has less diversity in word choice: see! for e+ample! ;4.6.3.9 on the diversity in circumstance adverbialsA cf. also 6.6.; in general. For the most part! adverb + ad"ective pairs in conversation have a single type of modifier! i.e. a degree adverb #P.;3.6.3). $he degree adverbs (uite! real! really! too! pretty! and very are especially common. $his group of adverbs and the ad"ectives that they typically modify,e.g. bad! good! nice,are vague or informal words. $he adverb modifiers in academic prose also include degree adverbs! especially more! (uite! and very. *owever! the ad"ectives modified by these forms have more to do with specific characteristics than general value "udgments #e.g. different! higher! di"ficult). In addition! several of the pairs in academic prose refer to statistical measurements! such as significantly differentlhigher and statistically significant. $hese general trends are illustrated in the following e+amples: Gonversational: $hat sounds very bgoodc. #Am? conv) $hat loo s pretty bgoodc. #Am? conv) Feally! I! I fancy ?mma eos she=s a very bnicec girl #2r? conv) Academic: *e found it very bdifficultc to regain his usual level of activity because his arthritis seemed worse after the operation. #agadR) $he hospital mortality at 6; days for those who received strepto inase was not significantly bdifferentc from the control group. #acad+) $he statistically bsignificantc interaction between condition of retention and visual field of presentation was held to confirm the hemispheric locus of visual and verbal codes. #acad) Iegree adverbs as modifiers are discussed further in P.;3.6.3 P.;9.6 Adverbs modifying other adverbs
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Adverbs also serve as modifiers of other adverbs: $hey=ll figure it out really bfastc. #conv) $he do'it'yourself builder almost balwaysc uses a water'repellent plywood! oil'tempered hardboard or fibre'cement sheet. #acadDpN) P.;9.6.; Adverbs modifying adverbs in conversation and academic prose *ere we e+emplify the range of use of adverb 'f adverb combinations by considering only the most common combinations in conversation #Am? and 2r?) and academic prose: G<F-.B FIHIIHCB 6 JL Adverbs are less common as modifiers of other adverbs than as modifiers of ad"ectives. JK $he following are the most most common collocations. JK <ccurring over ;44 times per million words,Am? Gonv: right now. J' <ccurring over 84 times per million words,Am? Gonv: pretty much! right here! right there! so much! very muchA 2r? Gonv: very muchA Acad: much more. J' <ccurring over 64 times per million words,Am? Gonv: much better! much more! pretty soon! pretty well! really well! too much! very wellA 2r? Gonv: too muchA Acad: much less. KNf <ccurring over ten times per million words,Am? Gonv: so fast! so wellA 2r? Gonv: "ust now! "ust there! much better! (uite well! really well! right now! very oftenA Acad: almost certainly! almost entirely! very much! very often. `:iLmmfi.i_fflaiB@ In both conversation and academic prose! modifying adverbs in the most'common collocate pairs often show a concern for (ualifying arpounts of something or for (ualifying a comparison. $hus! conversation includes common pairs such as very much! much better! and much more! while academic prose includes very much! much more! and much less. ?+amples of these items include: ; <h! you re going to do much better. #Am? conv) 6 $han you very much for listening. #2r? conv) 9 % admitted! however! that interna^ s epticism offers a much more powerful challenge to our pro"ect. #acad) 3 It is much less easy when one has to e+plain the simultaneous e+tinction of several unrelated groups. #acad) As e+amples 9 and 3 VIlstrate! in academic prose the adverbs more and less in the pairs much more and much less are usually themselves modifiers of a following ad"ective. &ith the use of pretty much in Am? conversation! it is sometimes difficult to differentRate between the meaning of a decrease in intensity and a hedge #P.;3.6.:): 8 &hat they did in India was study Bans rit! which is pretty much a waste of time. #Am? conv) : Li e Sm pretty much in awe of it when I see it. #Am? conv) In 8! pretty much could signal either that the study of Bans rit was mostly,but not entirely,a waste of time! or that Saste of time= is not a precisely accurate choice of words. In :! pretty much could be interpreted as meaning $m in slight but not great awe=! or that the phrase in awe is somehow imprecise. #In fact the entire proposition in : is mar ed as imprecise with the hedge li e at the beginning of the clause.) Gonversation also shows a concern for time and place! particularly in the use of right in Am? as a modifier to suggest e+actness! and occasionally in the similar use of "ust in 2r?: I really couldnt eep him in my apartment right bnowc. #Am? conv) Bhe already got a twenty percent tip right bherec. #Am? conv) And the whatchacallems are right btherec! seeZ #Am? coHvf) Gan you see a little spar ofgreen "ust btherecZ #2r? conv) I thin well put it off "ust bnowc! Crant. #2r? conv) Gonversation also commonly uses adverb modifiers that occur with well to describe either (uality or thoroughness: &ell that=s how we got ac(uainted so bwellc because she was in <lie=s room a lot. #Am? conv) ]ou could remember that number pretty bwellc. #Am? conv) ?ngland did really bwellc! didn=t theyZ #2r? conv) In contrast to conversation! academic prose has two common pairs with almost as modifier! both serving to soften a claim: $his decline is almost bcertainlyc partly due to the increased disease incidence. #acad) $he passage is almost bentirelyc in third'person narration. #acad) As in these e+amples! the modifier almost allows academic authors to ma e strong but not absolute claims. Adverbs modifying other elements
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Although adverbs that are used as modifiers most commonly modify ad"ectives or other adverbs! they can also serve as modifiers of noun phrases #or parts of noun phrases)! prepositional phrases! particles! and numer0is or measurements: DIt carne as (uite ba surprisec!D said one. #news) Opremodifier of noun phraseJ Almost Vnobodyc! it seemed! could eat what they were given. #nc$f) Omodifier of pronounJ I=ve done about bhalfc a side. #conv) Omodifier of predeterminen 2ut there=s a hell of a lot,well binto their seventiesc. #conv) Omodifier of prepositional phraseJ It=s really filled the room right bupc. #conv) Omodifier of particle of phrasal verbJ It is still not clear whether the appro+imately b684c people still .sted as missing include those whom e+'detainees say were still alive in @ay. #news) Omodifier of numeralJ $osi #;753:6P'93! Figure 9) estimates that roughly bone'(uarter to one'thirdc of the total surface 0rea of four sites in Dprehistoric $uranD was devoted to different craft activities. #acad) Omodifier of numerical e+pressionJ As with ad"ective and adverb modifiers! most of these adverbs occur as premodifiers. *owever! postmodification also occurs! especially with locative information about a noun phrase: $hus! in bthe ammonia e+amplec above! if ammonia! H*X is allowed to escape from the reaction system! the reaction cannot achieve e(uilibrium. #acad) Opostmodifier of noun phraseJ For some of these functions! only a small set of adverbs is used. For instance! few adverbs apart from right! well! and directly are commonly used to modify prepositions. Adverbs as complements of prepositions Another function of adverbs is to serve as the complement of a preposition. Gonsider the following e+amples! with the preposition in bc and the adverb in bold: ; ]ou can=t go bthroughc here can youZ #conv) 6 $here=s another sweatshirt lur ing bunderc there that I didn=t see. #conv) 9 2ut I=m seeing all this bfromc above. #fict f) 3 b.ntilc now! I did not realiEe how much of a s i lesson is spent not s iing. #news`) 8 b2efarec long! he met a pretty singing cowgirl from $e+as who went by the qame of Iale ?vans! #news) : Its imp1rtame has often been recogniEed bsincec then. #acad^) As these e+amples dem1nstrate! the adverbs serving as complements of prepositions usually denote place fas in ;'9) or time #3':). For problems of overlap with constructions with adverbial particles see 6.3.:.6. i P.;9.8 Adverbs as clause elements: adverbials $here are three ma"or types of adverbials: circumstance adverbials! stance adverbials! and lin ing adverbials #see 9.6.5 for the basic distinctionA and also Ghapter ;4). A Gircumstance adverbials add information about the action or state that is descrRbed in the clause! giving details about factors such as time! manner! and place: $hey=re gomia be there @om. #conv) *e too it in slowly but uncomprehendingly. #Ficrf) 2 Btance adverbials convey the spea er%writer=s assessment of the proposition in the clause. $hey include comments about: L the epistemic conditions on the clause! e.g. the level of doubt%certainty with maybe! probably: *is boo undoubtedly filis a need. #news) L the spea er%writer=s attitude towards the proposition! e.g. unfortunately or surprisingly. $hen! amaEingly! he would turn over the microphone to his daughter @aureen and give her e(ual time to spea on behalf of the amendment. #acad) L the styie in which the proposition is being conveyed! e.g. honestly or firan ly. And he sounded a bit low! (uite firan ly! to me yesterday on the phone. #conv) G Lin ing adverbials serve to connect stretches of te+t,phrases! sentences! paragraphs or longer: $he weight of bureaucracy still hangs a trifle heavy. Hevertheless! the review represents substancial progress. #news) @ost of our rural people do not have radio or televisi1n and a large proportion are illiterate. $herefore we had to use approaches that do not depend on the mass media or on literacy. #acad) As the above e+amples illustrate! all three inds of adverbials can be realiEed by adverbs or adverb phrases. Ghapter ;4 gives a detailed account of adverbials. P.;9.: Adverbs with degree complements
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$he clauses and phrases which occur as degree complements with ad"ectives #P.6.P) also occur with adverbs #mar ed with bc below). <f the si+ ma"or strucfural types of degree complement usted in P.5! the first two can be phrasal or clausal structures! while the others are clausal only. $he whole adverb phrase functions as an adverbial in all of the e+amples below. A Adverb'er 3' t%ian'phrase%clause <F more%less + adverb 3' than'phrase%clause -hrase: *e rode it boftenerc than ever. #fict) Cenerally spea ing! those higher in occupational status suffered bless acutelyc than those lower down. #acad) Glause: &e e+pected this to happen bmuch (uic erc than it did. #news) It could happen bmore (uic lyc than anyone e+pects. #news`) Ford and 2each=s study of nearly two hundred societies concluded that in virtually all of them se+ is regarded as something the woman does for the man. *e needs it bmore urgentlyc than she does. #acad) As the e+amples show! this structure can include inflectional or phrasal mar ing of comparative degree on the adverb #i.e. (uic er v. more (uic ly). 2 as + adverb 3' as'phrase%clause -hrase: $he normal sean must be resumed bas (uic lyc as possible. #acad) Glause: % didn=t do bas wellc as I wish that I had. #conv) =P don=t now where you got the idea I was ill!D I said bas heartilyc as I could. #fict) G so 3' adverb 3' that'clause It happened bso fastc that I didn=t even realise I had fallen off. #conv) *e wanted it bso urgentlyc that he fidgeted in his chair. #fict) I so 3' adverb 3' as to'clause $his structure occurs most commonly with the adverb far. *e went bso farc as to write home some vague intimation ofhis feelings about business and its prospeets. #fict) @y new found anti'regulatory spirit goes bso farc as to ob"ect to the movement in Gongress to set the rotes that Gable $S compontes can charge. #news) ? too 3' adverb 3' to'clause $hrough the open window the voice of the beauty of the world carne murmuring! btoo softlyc to hear e+actRy what it said. #fict") $he situation has deteriorated btoo farc to repair. #news t) F Adverb enough + to'clause It couldn=t turn b(uic ly enoughc to foiow them. #fict) At least four people were bitten bseriously enoughc to be hospitaliEed. #news) *ow it is done is less important than learning something bwell enoughc to share it in collective .fe #AGAIf) As with ad"ectives as head! the degree adverb in all of these constructions can also occur without the following degree complement construction! for e+ample: ]ou shouldn=t go to bed too earlyl #conv) i P.;9.P Adverbs standing alone In conversation #and direct reports of dialogue in other registers)! adverbs can stand alone as structurally unconnected elements #see 9.;8 and ;3.9.3)! and even as complete utterances. In some cases! the adverbs are related to ellipted forms of previous sentences! as in: $he itten=s gone craEy. Ho! totally I mean it. $otally and utterly. #conv) Oi.e. $he itten has gone totally and utterly craEy.J A: Cetting there. 2: ]eah. A: Blowly but surely. #conv) Oi.e. I am getting there slowly but surely.J Adverbs as utterances can also serve to e+press,or emphasiEe,agreement or concurrence: A: &hat you could afford you had. 2: ?+actly. ?+actly. #conv) A: In other words the s ills of a counselorZ 2: ]es. ]es. G: Iefinitely. Iefinitely. #conv) Adverbs can also be used as (uestions. <ften! these adverbs are stance adverbials of actuality or style of spea ing: A: ]ou can still vote if you lost it. 2: FeallyZ A: $hey should have your qame on the roster. #conv) A: ]ou re supposed to put the lid on! otherwise it won=t switch off. 2: BeriouslyZ A: ]eah. #conv)
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A: *ave you got any on thatZ 2: Ho. A: *onestlyZ 2: *onestly^ #conv) Bome of the above e+amples illustrate that adverbs can serve not only to pose (uestions! but also to answer them. <ther e+amples include: A: It=s warm isn=t it. 2y the radiator. 2: -robably. #conv) A: Are they that goodZ 2: Iefinitely. <nly band I want to see playing,in the world. #conv) Again! most adverbs answering (uestions are stance adverbs. P.;3 Bemantic categories of adverbs P.;3.; Importance of conte+t in the semantics of adverbs As with ad"ectives #P.9) and verbs #8.6.;)! many adverbs have meanings that vary with conte+t of use. First! some adverbs have both literal and more metaphorical meanings. For e+ample! perfectly can be used in its literal meaning of =in a perfect manner=: e.g. perfectly arrangedA perfectly fits the bilR. *owever! more commonly it is used in a more metaphorical sense to mean =completely=: e.g. perfectly normalA perfectly safe. <ther adverbs can be used with distinctly different meanings. For e+ample! the adverb "ust has a wide range of meanings: L denoting closeness in time: e.g. the horse had "ust had its foal L increasing the intensity of a following element: e.g. "ust dreadful! "ust what I wanted L decreasing intensity of a following element: e.g. "ust 3.8 points down L signalling manner: e.g. it=ll "ust stop #i.e.! =by itself=). $he adverb far has a literal meaning with distance #too far up the road)! a metaphorical meaning with time mso far! with Ghristmas not that far off)! and a third meaning of intensification #a far better atmosphere! far more numerous). $hus! the meaning of an adverb is often conte+t'dependent. P.;3.6 Iescription of semantic categories Adverbs cover a wide range of semantic categories. $he following discussion identifies seven main categories! as well as discussing other less common meanings. P.;3.6.; -lace Adverbs of place can show position! direction! or distance: *e laves it there. #conv) OpositionJ It hopped bac ward among its companions. #fictp')' OdirectionJ DIon=t worry! he cant have gone far.D #fict) OdistanceJ As in the above e+amples! adverbs of place are typically adverbials #;4.6.;.;). $hey can also occur occasionally as the first word in compound ad"ectives #P.7.9): <nly four of the forward'bloo ingc components were positive. #news) $he changes made in @ap 9.4 are far'breachingc. #acad) *owever! in these cases it would not be appropriate to consider the adverb to be an independent modifier! since the following participle could not occur alone as an 'ing ad"ective: Nthe loo ing components and N$he changes ... are reaching do not ma e sense. !X.;3.6.6 $ime Adverbs convey information about time in four ways: position! fre(uency! duration! and relationship: ; Bhe doesnt say go away very much now. #conv) Otime positionJ 6 $hey loo ed intently at him! then at each other! then e+ecuted a smart about'face. #fict) Otime positionJ 9 Fecently deserted by her husband she=s found it hard enough to ma e ends meet in the past. #news) Otime position%relationshipJ N 3 Bhe always eats the onion. #conv) Otime fre(uencyJ 8 &orse still! the product itselfis often dull and unchanging. #news) Otime fre(uencyJ : Bhe will remain a happy memory with us always. #news) Otime durationJ P &hen they too the oRd one out it was already in seven sep0rate piecesl #conv) Otime relationshipJ $hese e+amples illustrate two characteristics common in the semantics of adverbs of time. First! a single adverb can incorp1rate more than one temporal meaning. In e+ample 9! recently conveys both a sense of a point in the near past and a time relationship #Le. more recent than other events). Becondly! the same adverb can have different temporal meanings! depending on its conte+t of use. In 3! always refers to fre(uency #i.e. each time there=s an onion! she eats it). In :! always refers more to duration: she will endure as a happy memory with us from now and continuing for ever. Glearly the semantic domain of the verb in the clause is important for interpreting the adverb: eat refers to an activity which can be performed repeatedly! remain is a stative verb of e+istence #8.6.;.;). @anner @any adverbs e+press information about how an action is performed. @any, though not all,manner adverbs have 'ly suffi+es! ta ing their meanings from the ad"ectives from which they are derived. ?+amples include:
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*e really believed that because we were hitch'hi ing! we were whores and that we would happily go to his house. #coHvt) Automatically she bac ed away. #fict) 2ut sentiment recovered (uic ly. #news f) $here could be no doubt that ?-F! as we shall acronymicaiy refer to them! had drawn attention. #acad^) *owever! other adverbs of manner are not 'ly adverbs: ]ou can run fast but not here. #conv) $hey were riding abreast down the railway .nes! #fictI) $o perform well it has to be tightly targeted to cope with (uite a narrow band of fre(uencies. #news) Fecorded interviews and reports of observations were transcribed verbatRm and chec ed for accuracy before analysis. #acad) $he above e+amples illustrate manner adverbs used as adverbials. @any manner adverbs are also used as modifiers of participial premodifiers of a noun! providing descriptive information that is integrated into a noun phrase: 2y the dar waters of 2uda! her tears dropping hotly among the (uietly bflowingc dead leaves. #fict`) In a fast bmovingc first half the teams appeared to cancel each other out in midfield. #news) $he Fussian leader threw the carefuiy barrangedc welcome into chaos. #H?&Bf) $hese combinations can also be analyEed as compound ad"ectives! an analysis which the presence of a hyphen between the adverbs and participle would render more persuasive #P.7.9). <ccasionally manner adverbs also occur as modifiers within compound predicative ad"ectives: $hey are fast'bmovingc! colourftd! noisy! and as good if not better than anything you can buy for home computen! #news) 2ut it is clean! well'blRghtedc and you can be certain it wil be well tended. #news) Gertain 'ly adverbs that can act as manner adverbials often ta e on the role of degree adverbs when they are used as modifiers. Gonsider! for e+ample! the difference between ; and 6 below: ; $he doy which ended terribly at the presidential palace started badly at the same venue. #news) 6 *e=s a terribly bimaginativec businessman. #fict) In ;! the adverbial terribly is used to describe a bad situation. *owever! in 6 there is nothing terrible about the imaginativeness of the businessmanA rather! the modifier terribly emphasiEes the e+tent of his imaginativeness. $his type of semantic change is particularly apparent with adverbs that have negative meanings as adverbials! but lose their negative value as modifiers #e.g. awfully! terribly). P.;3.6.3 Iegree Adverbs of degree describe the e+tent to which a characteristic holds. $hey can be used to mar that the e+tent or degree is either greater or less than usual or than that of something else in the neighboring discourse. $hey occur as both adverbials and modifiers. ?+amples of degree adverbs functioning as adverbials include: It=s insulated slightly with polystyrene behind. #conv) $hose letters from you! it got so I almost believed they were really written to me. #fict) $hey thoroughly deserved a draw last night. #news") Fluids were withheld completely for 3 hours prior to surgery. #acad`) Adverbials of e+tent%degree are discussed further in ;4.6.;.8. A Amplifiers%intensifiers $raditionally! degree adverbs that increase intensity are called amplifiers #or intensifiers). Bome of these modify gradable ad"ectives and indicate degrees on a scale. $hey include more! very! so! too! e+tremely! and good and #P.;4.6)A bc below mar s the head word: <ut dentist was very bgoodc! #conv) &e both thought you were marvellous. And so b indc to let us come to the party afterwards. #fict) @ost wil be e+tremely bcautiousc until new case law defines the e+tent of the new Act. #news) <ther amplifiers indicate an endpoint on a scale. $hese include totally! absolutely! and (uite #in the sense of =completely=): 2ut snow and ice accumulate in a totally bdifferentc way from sediment. #acad) 3 Gompletely bcoldc and bunemotionalc. #fict") $hese amplifiers are used with some gradables #those denoting a scale that can be thought of as having a fi+ed end! such as different! sure and possible) and also some non'gradables #P.6). *ow is also used as a degree adverb in e+clamative clauses #9.;9.9): A: &ell it ain=t the child=s fault.
6:
2: Ho. A: *ow bcruelc^ #conv) *ow bironicc that *ays is launching one of the biggest non'privatisation share offers to the public at a time when the party is in trouble. #news) $his!'use of how as an amplifier typically introduces ironic comments in conversation: A: $his guy carne reeling down the hallway completely plastered! uh! and the manager told me! oh! don=t worry about him. *e .ves here! but he=s completely harmless! and he sits out front! on the grass! right in front of the door to my apartment and drin s. 2: *ow blovelyc. #conv) As noted above! adverbs that can also be used as manner adverbials sometimes lose their literal semantic value when they are used as amplifiers. $hus consider: ; Hew ]or =s an awfully bsafec place! #fict) 6 And Gari was perfectly bawfulc. #fict) In ;! awfully does not mean =in an awful way=A it simply increases the intensity of safe. In 6! perfectly ta es on its more metaphorical sense of=absolutely= #P.;3.;). Iead is another adverb used in collo(uial situations to modify ad"ectives. Glearly! dead has lost its literal meaning in such cases: It=s dead beasyf. #conv) It=s dead bnicec. #conv) *e is dead bseriousc all the time! #conv) Iiminishers%downtoners Iegree adverbs which scale down the effect of the modified item are sometimes called diminishers #or downtoners). As with intensifiers! many indicate degrees on a scale and apply to gradable ad"ectives. $hey include less! slightly! somewhat! rather! and (uite #in the sense =to some e+tent=): 9 A slightly bcoldc start gave way to wonderful contrasts offeeling. #news) 3 Gonse(uently! @ar+ often uses the term dlasse in a somewhat bcavalierc fashion. #acad`) Bome of these adverbs are related to hedges #discussed below as stance adverbs). $hat is! they convey some sense that the use of the modified item is not precisely accurate. For e+ample! in 9 and 3 above! cold and cavalier appear not to be absolutely e+act in describing the start and a fashion. *owever! we ma e a distinction between the items that primarily modify intensity #degree adverbs) and items that primarily mar imprecisi1n or estimation #hedges such as ind of). As can be seen in the above discussion! (uite can occur with both gradables and non'gradables! but often with a different meaning. &ith gradables whose meaning does not imply any absolute end'point of the scale it usually means =to some e+tent=: (uite nice #conv) &ith non'gradables it has the meaning mentioned earlier! =completely=: (uite motionless #fict) *owever! there are many ad"ectives with which (uite can be used in both its senses for e+ample: % was (uite bconfidentc that it would stay in. #conv") Gonfident can be interpreted as gradable or as an absolute state. $hus! (uite confident could indRcate either moderate or complete confidence. Intonation would li ely ma e the interpretation easier in the actual spo en versi1n. *owever! in practice it has often been impossible to decide which of the senses of (uite is being used! and they have been conflated in the counts below. Bimilar to diminishers! other degree adverbs may indRcate lesser degree in terms of falling short of the endpoint on a scale! e.g. almost! nearly! pretty! and far from. $hese also occur with some non'gradables #P.6). @r Ieanes glass is almost bemptyc. #fict) For discussion of the use of amplifiers and diminishers with supposedly non'gradable ad"ectives! see P.P.:. P.;3.6.8 Additive%restrictive Additive adverbs show that one item is being added to another,either at a clausal level! as in ; and 6A or at a phrasal level! as in 9: ; <h! my dad was a great guy! too. #conv) 6 $he formula also shows the number of moles of atoms of each element in one mole of molecules. #acad) 9 I can hear the hatred! but also the need. #fict)! . ?ven when they occur as adverbials at clause level! additive adverbs typically single out one particular part of the clause=s meaning as being =additional= to something else #often implied). For e+ample! out of conte+t! ; is ambiguous between two senses: =@y dad #in addition to someone else) was a great guy= and =@y dad was a great guy #in addition to being some other ind of person)=. $hat is! the focus in this case can be either on the sub"ect or on the sub"ect predicative #cf. the scope of negators! 9.5.8).
6P
Festrictive adverbs such as only are similar to additive adverbs in that they focus attention on a certain element of the clause. $hey serve to emphasiEe the importance of one part of the proposition! by restricting the truth value of the proposition either primarily or e+clusively to that part: $he idea of anybo0y! @arge especially! li ing that wall'eyed o+ in preference to Iic ie made $om smile. #fict) <nly those who can afford the monthly payment of l;!6;4.48! plus l7;.:: a month during probation! can be ordered to pay. #news) Bections ;4.6.;.: discusses further considerations with additive and restrictive adverbials! the ma"ority of which are adverbs. $he ci1se connection between the restrictive and degree categories is also discussed in ;4.6.;.:. i P.;3.6.: Btance Adverbs can be used to realiEe all three types of stance: epistemic! attitude! and style. $hese are e+emplified below! detailed discussion is in ;4.9. A ?pistemic stance adverbs L Adverbs can show leveis of certainty or doubt: Ho it=s alright Sil probably manage with it #conv) @y ideas about food are definitely passe. #news) L Adverbs can comment on the reality or actuality of a proposition: Actually Sm not very fussy at all. #conv) %% % li e the music enough! I really could care less who the people are. #Am? conv) Ocould core less occurs commonly in Am? speech for the more litera.y true couldn=t care lessJ L Adverbs can be used to show that a proposition is based on some evidence! without specifying the e+act source: Bhe was a rosychee ed! very unassuming! and simple woman! who smiled easily and tal ed with difficulty! and for the rest lived apparently a servile .fe of satisfaction and contenR! #fict) $he supernumerary instar is reportedly dependent on the density of the parental population. #acad) L Adverbs can be used to show the limitations on a proposition: <ur losses were mainly due to promotional activity from our rivals. #H?&Bf) $ypically! the front top si+ teeth will decay because of the way the child has suc ed on its bottle. #news) L Adverbs can be used to convey imprecisi1n. $hese adverbs are also called hedges: It was ind of strange. #conv) " ain=t seen Rhis series I "ust sort of remember from the last series! #conv) $he ratio of cler s to total employees in the same manufacturing industries roughly averages 7Q. #agadR) @any hedges occur as adverbialsA however! hedges are also very common as modifiers of phrases and words. In conversation they can show the imprecisi1n of word choice! as in the following e+ample where a little flaming fire thing is clearly imprecise: $hey=d bring li e ba little flaming fire thingc. #convI) *edges are also very common with numbers! measurements! and (uantities. $hese forms are also called appro+imators! and typically function as modifiers of numerical or other (uantifying e+pressions #cf. 6.P.P.3): $hey were suing durt for li e bseventy thousandc dollars. #conv) Bo now I needed a "ob that I could do for appro+imately bfour monthsc. #fict) About b;8c families attended the first meeting. #news t) -rices were lower across the board! with nearly ballc blue'chip stoc s losing ground. #news) $he category of hedges also overlaps with stance adverbs that convey uncertainty. For e+ample! the use of maybe in the following sentences shows the imprecisi1n of the following measurements: Bee it=s come to me maybe ' beleven o=cloc ! half'past elevenc in the morning. #conv) &e see 84! maybe b;44c new &ine Fac s in a year=s time! #news) Attitude stance adverbs $hese adverbs tell a spea er=s or writer=s attitude towards a proposition: % lost the manual that goes with it! unfortunately. #conv) Burprisingly! the dividend rates of some pretty solid companies e(ual and sometimes e+ceed rates available from bonds and certificates ofdeposit. #news) Guriously! an #at first sight) almost diameRrically opposed argument may be advanced without contradicting the above. #acad) All of these attitude stance adverbs function as adverbialsA see ;4.9 for further discussion. Btyle stance adverbs Btyle stance adverbs comment on the manner of spea ing which the spea er is
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adopting: for e+ample! is the spea er #or writer) using the language sincereh%! fran ly! or simplyZ Grac ers she is! that woman^ *onestly^ Bhe=s crac ers^ #conv) Fran ly! Iee Iee suspects that in this instance she may also be a victim of loo ism! i.e.! discrimination against persons who do not measure up to an arbitrary! unrealistic and se+ist standard of beauty. #H?&st) juite simply! .fe cannot be the same. #H?&sf) Li e adverbs that show attitude! these style stance adverbs function as adverbials and are covered in more detail in ;4.9. P.;3.6.P Lin ing Lin ing adverbs serve to ma e semantic connections between spans of discourse of varying length! thus contributing to the cohesi1n of discourse. $hey function as adverbials and are covered in more detail in ;4.3. For their distinction from coordinators see 6.3.P.6. &e briefly e+emplify the different semantic categories here. A ?numeration and addition For 2raverman! $aylor=s =scientific management= rested on three principies. First! management must systematicaiy investRgate and ac(uire nowledge and information O.. .J. Becondly! the nowledge ac(uired by management is used for O.. .J. $hirdly! O . .J #acad") Additionally! the serum potassium level may be useful as a differential point. #acad f) 2 Bummation Altogether! Fose @ilton was as unli e as possible to the stage or novelist=s conception of a lady=s maid. #fict) <verall! there are several ma"or issues confronting us on the media front right now. #news) G Apposition It must be remembered that evaluation usually ta es place while another! more primary! activity is going on, namely! that of the service program. #acad) A third decisi1n criterion is becoming increasingly popular: the paybac period! Le. the length oftime it will ta e for the present value of accumulated net benefits to e(ual the total capital conversi1n costs. #acadD`D) I Fesult%inference 2ut facing me in the nets for two winters! he got to now my bowling inside out and by the end of our stay in Gape $own he was hammering me all around the practice 0rea. $herefore! I suppose I should claim some credit for Craham currently being one of the best batsmen against spin in the world. #news) $hey need to propel themselves upwards and it is that moment of suspensi1n coming between their force upwards and the force of gravity downwards that. is so important. $hus it is possible to fly onto and off apparatus as sep0rate tas s. #acad `) ? Gontrast%concession A: $hey=re "ust ground beef. 2: It=s really gross though. #conv) $he p1lice would li e another chance to tal to @ichaels about those responsible! namely his friends from the mountains. Alternatively they want us to put certain (uestions to him. #fict) And the month befare he left! he had made several long distance phone calis to AriEona and <hio. -1lice! however! would not say where they were concentrating their search. #news) F $ransition Bomeone had the idea that if he wal ed along prodding the ground with his shovel! he could ma e the clams s(uirt ahead of him. ?veryone else was doing the sanie thing! everyone but the oRd timen. <ne oRd timer told me later that the constant prodding ept the clams lying low until the tide carne bac . in. Incidentally! out of some 34 or 84 people on the beach that doy! the only ones with clams carried small hand shovels. #news) In other words! the width of the band of wavelengths thus re(uired will be inversely proportional to +A as the latter narrows! the former must widen. How! de 2roglie! when he hypothesiEed matter waves! related their waveiength to the particle momentum through the e(uation p r h%s. #acad) P.;3.6.5 <ther meanings In addition to the categories specified above! adverbs occasionally realiEe other meanings. For e+ample! consider the following: ; $he technical achievement of opening a vessel measured angiographically was similarly successfid for both groups of patiertts. #acad) 6 &hen there Vs a funeral! the body is washed symbolically as part of the service. #news) In ;! angiographically could be considered a manner adverb! but more specifically it shows meansA that is! it specifies the method by which the vessel was measured. #Bee ;4.6.;.9 for more on adverbials of means.) In 6! the adverb ma es clear that the purpose of the body washing is symbolic! and it could therefore be considered a purpose adverb. $he semantic categories of means and purpose! as well as certain other categories identified for adverbials in
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Ghapter ;4! are more commonly realiEed by structures other than adverbsA however! adverbs are occasionally used tbr these semantic categories. <ne adverb which does not fit into any of the above categories is the courtesy adverb! indly. It functions similarly to the inserR please to mar politeness overtly in re(uests. It is used most commonly in fiction! and in re(uests lends itself to an ironic #i.e. impolite) interpretation: In any case! indly as the authorities to cali off their search. #fict) DIn the meantime! will you two indly stop yapping! and try to give me some ideas ofwhat we should do to eep the ids (uiet this afiemoon!D commanded 2eth. #fict) dindly attend to what I say and not to what @r Bhelly says! sir. #fict) P.;3.9 Bemantic domains of adverbs in conversation and academic prose G<F-.B FIHIIHCB 69 JK ln conversation! the ma"ority of common adverbs fall into three semantic domains: time! degree! and stance. JL In contrast! a greater number of the common adverbs in academic prose are from the semantic domains of degree and lin ing #see $able P.;;). IIBG.BBI<H <F FIHIIHCB $he distribution of semantic categories of adverbs is in many cases dosely related to patterns of use for semantic categories of adverbials #;4.6.6! ;4.9.;.8! ;4.3.;.5). First! in conversation #both Am? and 2r?) many common adverbs fall in the time #and to a lesser e+tent place) categories. *ere! there! then! and now are especially common. $his is to be e+pected in that their meanings are all deictic, i.e. they can only be defined relative to the time and place of a particular utterance #e.g. now r =at the time of spea ing=). $hese and other adverbs are typically used as adverbialsA their use and the contrast between conversation and academic prose are further discussed in ;4.6.8. $able P.;; @ost common adverbs groups by semantic domain in 2r? and Am? conversation and in academic proseA occurrences per million words #Listing all adverbs that occur at least 644 times per million words! including both modifier and adverbial functions.) over ;!444 at least 644 semantic 2r? G<HS Am? G<HS domain AGAI place adverbs here there away time adverbs now then again always still today never ago ever "ust yesterday already sometimes yet later often usually 9 i i i y a 5 9 9 8 B ; a i 6 7 l Q B 9 a a i 9 i R^ f ZU N
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manner adverbs together significantly well degree adverbs very really too (uite e+actly right pretty real more relatively i
a i i B 5
N i a i9 Y 9
=i
semantic 2r? Am?G<HS AGAI domain G<HS additive%restrictive adverbs "ust only even too e%se a%so especially particularly stance adverbs of course i probably really li e actually maybe sort of perhaps ind of generally indeed lin ing adverbs then so anyway though however e.g. i.e. N a i 2 i a B i R N it a BI ; ; is q l" i Rq S^ =O
_ R
9;
therefore 7 thus 5 Becondly! there are a higher number of common adverbs serving a lin ing function in academic prose than in conversation. $heir fre(uency reflects the importance in academic prose of mar ing the connections between ideas and e+plicitly showing the development of logical arguments. $hese forms function as adverbials and are discussed further in ;4.3. $he difference in the use of stance adverbs between conversation and academic prose is also covered in the discussion of stance adverbials in ;4.9. *owever! it is important to note here that some of the common stance adverbs of conversation are also used to modify ad"ectives and noun phrases: $able P.;; continued Angies one is really li e bhotc and mil dry things. #conv) And at that stage my plaster that Sd had on after the er op had only been off perhaps ba fortnightc. #conv) ]ou can still find that in @e+ico in sort of bhacienda'li ec places and ranchos! #conv) O.. .J when I go away away! visiting! I mean! li e ba wee c. #coHvf) In the additive%restrictive category! most of the very common items are adverbials #see discussion in ;4.6.8). *owever! one Rtem classed as additive #although it might arguably be placed in the =other meanings= category) is not an adverbial. $he characteristically conversational adverb else is used as a postmodifier of indefinite and wh'pronouns #3.;8.;! 3.;:): %% we run out of toilet rolls right! bsomeonec else can buy them cause l bought the last two lots. #conv) b?verybodyc else doing o ay right nowZ #conv) Kf=thought I had bsomethingc else to show you up there. #conv) b&hatc else happened at school todayZ #conv) $his type of vague language is more typical of conversation than the written registers #see ;3.;.6.9). $he semantic category of manner is notable for having very few common adverbs! even though adverbs of manner are common overall #;4.6.6). $he great diversity of manner adverbs results in few commonly recurring items. $he three adverbs that are relatively common,together! significantly! and well,tend to have general meanings or more than one meaningA that is! they can be applied to very diverse conte+ts. For e+ample! in the following samples! together is used to describe: ; people living in the same houseA 6 e+ercises being brought into se(uence with each otherA and 9 individu0is standing side by side: ; &e=re going to have to .ve together. #conv) 6 $each each one individually! then put those two together. #conv) 9 Btand together. #conv) Bignificantly is used in academic prose both in a general sense to show importance #or lac of importance) and in the more specific statisticaR sense: &ithout significantly lengthening the boo we have added new material to most chapters. #acad) <verall decreases of breeding differ significantly. #acad) $he common degree adverbs are dealt with in more detail in P.;8. *owever! one item deserves discussion here: right! which occurs fre(uently in Am? conversation as a modifier of adverbials of place and time. It typically modifies prepositional phrases of position and the adverbs there and now. *e said maybe right bin the cityc. #Am? conv) *e ta es that little hammer thing right btherec and whac s me. #Am? conv) 2ut he! uh! they re in this really hairy lawsuit right bnowc. #Am? conv) 2oth well and right are also very common as discourse mar ers in conversation #9.3.8). $hese usages as inserts #6.8) are distinguished from the use of well and right as adverbs #see also ;3.9.9.9). P.;8 Iiscourse choices for degree adverbs as modifiers Bpea ers and writers have a variety of degree adverbs to choose from in modifying ad"ectives. In some cases! the degree adverbs have slightly different meanings. Gonsider the following e+amples: $he highly priced 2asmati varieties of rice! produced in -a ist0n and India! are strongly baromaticc! #acad) <bligations of fraternity need not be fuRly bvoluntaryc. #acad`) In the above e+amples! strongly and fidly clearly are not interchangeable. *owever! in many cases! there is little semantic difference between the degree adverbs. $hus! the adverbs could be e+changed in the following pair of sentences with little or no change in meaning: $hat=s that=s,completely bdifferentc. #conv)
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It=s totally bdifferentc. #conv) ?ven for similar degree adverbs! there are differing preferences across registers and associations with different ad"ectives. $he following subsections describe the use of amplifiers #P.;8.;) and other modifying adverbs of degree #P.;8.6) in 2r? conversation! Am? conversation! and academic prose. P.;8.; Amplifiers in conversation and academic prose G<F-.B FIHIIHCB 69 JK Gonversation uses a wider range of common amplifiers than academic prose. JK Am? and 2r? conversation have a similar profile of fre(uency e+cept that: s, so! totally! really! and real are more common in Am? J' bloody and absolutely are more common in 2r?. IIBG.BBI<H <F FIHIIHCB Gonversation uses a range of informal amplifiers which are generally not used in academic prose. $hey include: bloody #in 2r? conversation)! damn! incredibly! terribly! real #especially in Am? conversation)! and really. ]ou=re stupid! you=re bloody bstupidc^ #ar? conv) *e=ll loo really bsweetc. #2r? conv) It=s terribly bslowc ioday. #2r? conv) I got that speeding tic et and now I=m ma ing damn bsurec I don=t speed. #Am? conv) _f=s probably real beasyc to use. #Am? conv) _f=s incredibly bannoying". #Am? conv) Bee P.;6.6.; for the use of real and really across dialects. As illustrated in the above e+amples! various ad"ectives are modified by these amplifiers. $he most common have to do with positive value "udgments #good! cool! nice)! though negative "udgments #awful! bad! stupid) are also relatively common. $able P';6 Iistribution of most common amplifiers #immediately preceding ad"ectives) in 2r? and Am? conversation and in academic proseA occurrences per million words each represents 84 2r? G<HS Am? G<HS AGAI very = ' K= D= ' K K '= D so really
too real completely absolutely JKJ totally U L LL damn v bloody ONf e+tremely ff highly af entirely f fully f <ther amplifiers occurring c. ;4 times per million words: incredibly! perfectly! strongly! terribly. In contrast to conversation! academic prose ma es more fre(uent use of the amplifiers entirely! e+tremely! fully! highly! and strongly. 2ut the publication ofIarwins theory of biological evolution gave an entirely bnewc stimulus to the elaboration of organicist theories. #acad) Indeed it is e+tremely bdifficultc to establish any truly satisfactory system of defining the limits of these functions. #acad) $he office slave boasts a waist and slender figure! while the nawy rolls along! a fully bdevelopedc man of bone and muscle. #acadp) $he highly bcomple+c process of ad"ustment to infection is determined by many variables! #acad) &hen both calmodulin and C$- are present! a strongly bbiphasicc curve is produced with a pea activity at ;.; + ;4M3m. #acad) @ost of these amplifiers are used to e+press the degree of intensity of a specific characteristic,newness! difRiculty! development! comple+ity! and biphasicity in the above e+amples. In academic prose! there are fewer collocations with the more general positive or negative Salue "udgments found in conversation. $hree of the most common amplifiers fre(uently occur in both conversation and academic prose: very! so! and too. $hese degree adverbs are used with a large variety of ad"ectives! though in conversation the most common collocates with very are again general positive words mgood! nice):
99
$hat sounds very bgoodc. #conv) *e=s a very bnicec person and I li e him. #conv) Am? and 2r? conversation are similar in their common collocates with too: bad! big! and late. *owever! 2r? conversation shows more of a tendency for too bad to be used in negative constructions #identifying something as =not too bad=)! while Am? conversation shows a tendency to use too bad in positive constructions: $hey are damp but they don=t feel too bbadc. #2r? conv) $hat=s really too bbadc. #Am? conv) Beveral collocates of too occur commonly in both conversation and academic prose: early! easy! hard! late! little! long! low! small. In all registers! too + head functions as a ind of comparative construction #P.5! P.;9.:)! describing the degree of a characteristic as e+cessive relative to the re(uirements of a particular set of circumstances: $he doctor said it was too blatec! $he damage had been done! #conv) *er blood count was too blowc so we couldn=t have it. #conv) $he general surrender of personality and autonomy it contemplates would leave people too blittlec room for leading their own .ves rather than being led along them. #acad) Bo is more common in Am? conversation than in 2r? conversation: A: Are you loo ing for a "obZ 2: ]eah. A: It=s so hard isn=t itZ 2: I now! it=s a nightmare. #Am? conv) $he compound amplifier ever so! however! is found in conversation only in 2r?! where it is (uite fre(uent as a means of emotive intensif ation: % mean he was a super chap! really lovely chap! ever so nice. #2r? conv) P.;8.6 Iegree modifiers other than amplifiers in conversation and academic prose Apart from amplifiers! modifying degree adverbs have a varied semantic effect #P.;3.6.3). G<F-.B FIHIIHCB 69 JK Academic prose uses a wider range of common adverbs of these types than conversation. JL $he use of these adverbs in 2r? and Am? conversation is similar! with the e+ception of (uite and pretty. J' 2r? conversation has a much higher fre(uency of (uite! and Am? conversation has a much higher fre(uency of pretty. P.;9 Iistribution of most common amplifiers #immediately preceding ad"ectives) in 2r? and Am? conversation and in academic proseA occutrences per million words i ?ach represents 84 2r? G<HS Am? G<HS AGAI (uite pretty nearly rather relatively fairly slightly almost somewhat N <ther non'amplifier degree adverbs occurring c. ;4 times per million words: moderately. IIBG.BBI<H <F FIHIIHCB Gonsidering the dialect difference with respect to (uite and pretty! many of the same collocates that occur with (uite in 2r? conversation occur with pretty in Am? conversation: bad! big! cheap! easy! e+pensive! funny! high! interesting: Bhe=s (uite bbigc. #2r? conv) % guess they=re pretty bbigc. #Am? conv) It=s (uite beasyc actually. #2r? conv) Is it a system that would be pretty beasyc to learnZ #Am? conv) It was (uite bfunnyc. #2r? conv) Bo that was pretty bfunnyc. #Am? conv) $he ad"ectives good and sure occur commonly in both dialects with (uite and pretty. A difference between the dialects! however! is that Am? conversation tends to use (uite sure e+clusively in negative conte+ts! where pretty sure is impossible #that is! one cannot say I am not pretty sure). 2r? conversation! ' ' : K L '=A rv =.. ='NKLTKN +. '.A KK:P 'r S TRf NH NAT iN
7 =N a * LN ^f iN NN K
93
on the other hand! uses (uite sure in both positive and negative conte+ts. ?+amples of (uite good! pretty good! and pretty sure in both dialects: I bet it=s actually (uite bgoodc! #2r? conv) It=s supposed ta be (uite bgoodc. #Am? conv) &e are really doing a pretty bgoodc "ob. #2r? conv) 2ut it seems li e you have a pretty bgoodc relationship with Hicole. #Am? conv) I=m pretty bsurec we must have paid it. #2r? conv) I=m pretty bsurec I brought it upstairs. #Am? conv) ?+amples of (uite sure in both dialects: Bhe was probably (uite bsurec. #2r? conv) I thin so! I=m not (uite bsurec! #2r? conv) I wasn=t (uite bsurec what her purpose in .fe was. #Am? conv) ]ou re never (uite bsurec which goal they=re tryirtg to achieve. #ahi? conv) $he reason for this difference appears to be that 2r? favors the more intensifying use of (uite! which can be used with ad"ectives which indRcate the end' point of a scale! such as right! true! and sure. $hus in (uite right! (uite sure! and (uite trae! (uite has a force similar to =entirely= or =absolutely= and is not ci1se in meaning to pretty sure. $his use is relatively rare in Am?! e+cept when a negative precedes (uiteA in both dialects! in fact! negator + (uite! meaning =not entirely=! is not uncommon. Academic prose has more variety in the use of non'amplifier adverbs of degree! although no individual form is as fre(uent as pretty or (uite in conversation. Buch adverbs in academic prose modify a range of ad"ectives: In fact more accurate calculations lead to almost bidenticalc m0+imum efficiencies. #acad") In general! then! recent evidence points to conceptual or linguistic diffculties of a fairly bhighc level #acad) $he ventral interradial plates are slightly bsmallerc than the dorsal piafes. #acad) $hese temperatures tend to be somewhat blowerc than those in common practice. #acad) As the above e+amples illustrate! several of the collocations in academic prose have to do with mar ing the e+tent of comparison between two items #e.g. slightly smaller! somewhat lower). Li ewise! specifying the amount of difference appears to be an important function for degree adverbs in academic proseA the ad"ective different is a common collocate with several modifying adverbs: $he laws of thermodynamics! li e Hewton=s laws of motion! are (uite bdifferentc in ind. #acad") $he most stri ing feature of these results is that they are rather bdifferentc from those reponed in the great ma"ority of studies. #acad") $he ?uropean study as ed a slightly bdifferentc (uestion. #acad t) Garburettor icing is somewhat bdifferentc as it can occur in very hot weather conditions. #acad) Gompared with conversation! academic prose is afe1 notable for its use of relatively. $he use of this adverb also indicates the importance of cornparisons in this register: ; *owever! the morphology is still relatively bsimplec! #acad^) 6 In any relatively bstablec society! there e+ists an e(uilibrium between the mode of production! the social relations! and the DsuperstructureD. #acad f) 9 Amphiboles occur characteristically in the plutonic roc s and in general are relatively bunimportantc minerals of the volcanic roc s. #acad) $he use of relatively in these e+amples implies that measuring certain characteristics,simplicity in ;! stability in 6! and importance. in 9,depends on comparison with other members of a group. juite is also used notably in academic prose #though not as commonly as in 2r? conversation). 2esides modifying a variety of ad"ectives describing characteristics #e.g. common! distinct! large! small)! the collocates of (uite in academic prose also include ad"ectives mar ing stance #clear! li ely! possible)! for e+ample: It is (uite bli elyc that the population will be so uni(ue that the pro"ect is not feasible. #AGAIt) ;
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Este material se reproduce con fines didcticos nicamente Biber et al. Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Longman.

Seleccin. Pp. 408-429 !"8-!#9.

Free combination,the prepositional phrase beginning with on or in mar s where or when*

-attern ;: verb + preposition + H-attern 6: verb + H- + preposition + Htotal

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