Linking verbs and Adverbs

Question

Some experts say that adverbs (of time, place, etc.) can modify linking verbs; other experts feel that linking verbs cannot be modified by adverbs. I need the expert opinions of you teachers.

So 1 teacher = how many ordinary experts?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

I have read a few things that might be helpful.

(1) Many teachers seem to agree that in sentences such as these, the adverb does modify the copula (linking verb):

They SLOWLY BECAME rich.

The soup SUDDENLY TASTED strange.

She QUICKLY GREW angry.

(2) Some teachers say that it depends on the meaning of your sentence:

(a) What does "yesterday" modify in "She didn't seem angry yesterday"?

(i) This is an analysis that someone whom I trust gave me.

(a) It was HE who seemed angry yesterday, but SHE didn't seem angry yesterday.

(i) The stress is on "she." There is no stress on "yesterday." So "yesterday" modifies the whole sentence.

(b) Why is she so angry TODAY? She didn't seem angry YESTERDAY!

(i) The stress is on "yesterday," which compares it with another day. So "yesterday" is within the sentence. That is, it can be said to modify the verb.

(3) I believe that most high school teachers, however, do not expect their students to do such an analysis. So I think that they simply analyze the adverb as modifying the verb. The important thing for high school students is to learn using adjectives ( not adverbs) as complements of copulas.

(4) Hopefully, someone else will give us a better answer.

Anonymous · Answer

I just don't understand how you can have an adverb modify a state of being a.k.a "linking verb. In the examples above, I think you could make a good argument that the adverb modifies the Predicate Adjective. The word placement in the examples given is that of a regular/ action verb, but you could also say:

They became slowly rich.
The soup tasted suddenly strange.
She grew quickly angry.

What do you think?

Mister Micawber · Answer

Those are not natural placements of the adverbs, and any editor would return them to their normal positions (slowly became, suddenly tasted, quickly grew). Just take a step back and think about them: what do slowly rich, suddenly strange, quickly angry mean? Substitute some other verbs: (X) He is slowly rich; (X) He tasted the soup suddenly strange;(X) She remained quickly angry.

Rich, strange and angry are all relatively stable conditions; it is the action of the verb that varies in speed/transformation/intensity.

Anonymous · Answer

If the adverb "under" were alone in this sentence, then it would seem to be an adverb modifying the verb "is." However, "under the table" is a prepositional phrase.  Prepositional phrases can be used as adjectives or adverbs; in this case. the prepositional phrase "under the table" is being used as the predicate adjective modifying the subject armadillo.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousSome experts say that adverbs (of time, place, etc.) can modify linking verbs; other experts feel that linking verbs cannot be modified by adverbs.

It seems to me that it depends on what you consider modification, what you consider a linking verb, and which linking verb you're talking about. Volumes have been written on these topics, and I don't foresee the issues being resolved here.

Quite often the linking verb be simply connects a subject to what is predicated of that subject. It's a place-holder required by English grammar which often has little or no meaning of its own.

This coat is red.

If you don't distinguish between modification and complementation, then I suppose you think that "red" in some way modifies the meaning of "is". But "is" has only structural meaning here, so it's hard to conceptualize "red" as somehow modifying that "meaning". I would say that "red" is a complement, not a modifier -- much in the same way that "letter" is not a modifier of "sent" in I sent them a letter. It's a complement.

_____________

The coat is on the chair.

Here a location rather than a property (a color) is predicated of a coat. Again I would say that "on the chair" has no role as a modifier of "is". This is an example of another use of be -- to indicate a location. Therefore it has a complement that signifies a location.
______

The coat is here.

Here the locational phrase is reduced to a single adverb, but I don't see "here" as a modifier of anything. It's simply a complement in the location usage of be.
____________________

This red coat is always here.

Now we have an adverb that modifies, but I think it's a sentential adverb (as opposed to a verb-phrase adverb). I read it as "It is always the case that this red coat is here". After all, there is no such location as "always here". I'd say that always modifies the whole sentence. It doesn't modify "is" or "here" (or even "red" or "coat").

____________

When you switch to inchoative linking verbs like become, you have another situation. Now you have a change taking place so it's perfectly possible to have plenty of different adverbs that can modify the verb phrase, some of them already mentioned in previous posts. The room became cold very quickly.

____________

It seems to me that each example involving linking verbs and adverbs has a little trick of its own to be considered.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Become

Taste

Grew

Are all action verbs. This is why they can be modified by adverbs even if they are being used in an abstract thought.

Anonymous · Answer

Some experts say that adverbs (of time, place, etc.) can modify linking verbs; other experts feel that linking verbs cannot be modified by adverbs. I need the expert opinions of you teachers.

So 1 teacher = how many ordinary experts?

AlpheccaStars · Answer

So, let's take an example, and use this definition of adverb: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverbial

a) Mary is in the garden.
b) Mary walked in the garden.

The adverbial is "in the garden."
So, in ( a), does it modify the sentence or the verb?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverbial_complement

It is an adverbial complement, because the sentence is ill=formed without it.

adverbial complements are both part of the argument structure construction and stored as information regarding the verb itself.

So by example, we have a linking verb with a adverbial complement, which "modifies" (complements) the verb. But, if you read the prior posts, the word "modify" is grammatically somewhat outdated, and the subject is rather subject to debate..

BillJ · Answer

AnonymousSome experts say that adverbs (of time, place, etc.) can modify linking verbs; other experts feel that linking verbs cannot be modified by adverbs. I need the expert opinions of you teachers.

They can't. You can't modify a linking verb; you can only complement it ('modify' and 'complement' are two entirely different functions). In an example like "The letter is on the table" the preposition phrase "on the table" is a locative complement. The structural similarity between this and "The letter is highly offensive" suggests that assigning a location to something is comparable to assigning it a property, hence its resemblance to a predicative complement.

The crucial point is that it cannot reasonably be said that "on the table" modifies the verb "be". It no more modifies the verb than does "highly offensive", an indisputable predicative complement.

BillJ

Anonymous · Answer

Jim, in your fine answer, one part of your analysis is:

...The coat is here.

Here the locational phrase is reduced to a single adverb, but I don't see "here" as a modifier of anything. It's simply a complement in the location usage of be.

I agree that it is illogical to stretch the concept of modification to try to accommodate here (or any of the other "locational constructions" - or at times, 'goal constructions' in your examples / in general use) as a modifier of anything. In fact, the "hereness" is more central to the semantics of the sentences than the "be-ing".

However, that really gives me a problem with referring to "here" here as an adverb or adverbial.

I think certain grammars refer to such constructions as having 'locative / goal complements', but they don't seem to suggest that these non-adverbs (for single word examples) be labelled as a new part of speech.

Edwin Ashworth

Linking verbs and Adverbs

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