About adverb usage

Question

People say adverbs are only used for describing v, adj, and adv. Now here is an awkward case: "Primarily a strategy to attract the votes of the elderly, the social security adjustment carried great weight among the entire voting publicof the day."  Here "Primary" is an adverb. What does it describe? The strategy? But it's a noun. I remember there is many contradictions of adverb usage like that one.

Mr Wordy · Accepted Answer

I'd say there's an omitted "be" verb:

"The social security adjustment was primarily a strategy to attract the votes of the elderly, but it carried great weight among the entire voting public of the day."

RobinG · Answer

Hi Mr. Wordy you made it very clear by reversing the two parts of the sentence, but why is the "but"? My point is that social security adjustment is primarily a strategy to attract the votes of the elderly BECAUSE it carried great weight among the entire voting public of the day. Not sure if I'm right?

CalifJim · Answer

RobinGHi Mr. Wordy

Robin,

Please note the dates on posts. You are responding to a post that is more than a year old. Forum members come and go. As it happens, Mr. Wordy has not been seen on this forum for quite some time, so I doubt that he will be answering your question.

With older posts it may be more effective for you not to mention any particular forum member specifically.

I will answer in a separate post.

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

RobinG ... you made it very clear by reversing the two parts of the sentence, but why is the "but"? My point is that social security adjustment is primarily a strategy to attract the votes of the elderly BECAUSE it carried great weight among the entire voting public of the day.

No. You have reversed the logic.

That the adjustment carried great weight among all voters did not cause the adjustment to be primarily a way of attracting votes of the elderly.

Rather, the adjustment was made first, and it was made primarily for the purpose of attracting votes of the elderly. So the adjustment is the strategy (the plan, the method) for attracting a certain subset of the votes. Nevertheless, the public did not see this adjustment as a strategy directed at the elderly. So in spite of the fact that the adjustment was made to please the elderly, the public in general liked the adjustment very much anyway. It carried great weight among all of them. Thus,

Even though the adjustment was used primarily to attract votes among the elderly, it carried great weight with all the voters.

OR, stated differently:
The adjustment was used primarily to attract votes among the elderly, but it carried great weight with all the voters.

CJ

RobinG · Answer

Thanks CJ, for correcting.
Logics are always a headache for me.

CalifJim · Answer

RobinG~~Logics are~~ Logic is always a headache for me.

Well, this one was particularly difficult, so don't feel too bad about it.

CJ

RobinG · Answer

Haha....thanks a lot! That's really comforting.
One question out of the topic, CJ are you a Californanian in the U.S?

CalifJim · Answer

Yes. I grew up in Michigan, but now I live in northern California.

CJ

RobinG · Answer

Noted, great to have you as a helper with my English. In the meantime, I live in Beijing China, so if you need any information about China or anything, don't hesitate to let me know, I'll try my best to help.

About adverb usage

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