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Jooney Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Manner adverbs
Hi,
According to my grammar book, manner adjuncts stand in contrast to so called "act-related adjuncts."
ex)
A: He answered the question foolishly.(manner adjunct)
B: Foolishly, he answered two questions.(act-related adjunct)
A's interpretation: It was the way he answered the question that was foolish.(He gave a foolish answer)
B's interpretation: It was the act of answering two questions that was foolish.(His answer, in fact, may have been clever)
Ok, I have no problem understanding the distinction between the two concepts.
Then, Huddleston goes on to divide "act-related adjuncts" into two subtypes: subjective and volitional.
ex)
A: Foolishly, he answered two questions.(subjective)
B: The clerk deliberatly gave her the wrong change.(volitional)
A is subjective in that it involves an evaluation of the act by the speaker. It's the speaker's judgement that it was foolish to answer two questions.
"B does not involve this kind of subjective evaluation: it relates to the intentions or willingness of the agent, the clerk."
Q1) I don't understand what he meant by that(the quote in blue). Is he saying that his act of giving her the wrong change was downright deliberate in everybody's eyes? What's are the differences between these two subtypes?
"A good number of the subjective adverbs allow paraphrases where the adjective from which they are derived is used predicatively: It was foolish of him to answer two questions; He was foolish to answer two questions. Such paraphrases are not available with the volitional adverbs. It was deliberate of the clerk to give her the wrong change.(X)
Q2) Why is that so?
I would appreciate it if someone could help me understand this. Thank you.
According to my grammar book, manner adjuncts stand in contrast to so called "act-related adjuncts."
ex)
A: He answered the question foolishly.(manner adjunct)
B: Foolishly, he answered two questions.(act-related adjunct)
A's interpretation: It was the way he answered the question that was foolish.(He gave a foolish answer)
B's interpretation: It was the act of answering two questions that was foolish.(His answer, in fact, may have been clever)
Ok, I have no problem understanding the distinction between the two concepts.
Then, Huddleston goes on to divide "act-related adjuncts" into two subtypes: subjective and volitional.
ex)
A: Foolishly, he answered two questions.(subjective)
B: The clerk deliberatly gave her the wrong change.(volitional)
A is subjective in that it involves an evaluation of the act by the speaker. It's the speaker's judgement that it was foolish to answer two questions.
"B does not involve this kind of subjective evaluation: it relates to the intentions or willingness of the agent, the clerk."
Q1) I don't understand what he meant by that(the quote in blue). Is he saying that his act of giving her the wrong change was downright deliberate in everybody's eyes? What's are the differences between these two subtypes?
"A good number of the subjective adverbs allow paraphrases where the adjective from which they are derived is used predicatively: It was foolish of him to answer two questions; He was foolish to answer two questions. Such paraphrases are not available with the volitional adverbs. It was deliberate of the clerk to give her the wrong change.(X)
Q2) Why is that so?
I would appreciate it if someone could help me understand this. Thank you.
Top answer
Q1) I don't understand what he meant by that (the quote in blue). -- No. ) The volitional is the opinion/thought of the character within the sentence (The clerk in B was acting deliberately and the clerk knew what she was doing; the writer is merely recording the manner as a fact, not giving an opinion).
- Q1) I don't understand what he meant by that (the quote in blue).
- -- No.
- ) The volitional is the opinion/thought of the character within the sentence (The clerk in B was acting deliberately and the clerk knew what she was doing; the writer is merely recording the manner as a fact, not giving an opinion).
- - I am not as sure as Huddleston that that is always so, but his point is that the predicative adjective is a common way of presenting or intimating the writer's opinion .
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2 Answers
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Q1) I don't understand what he meant by that (the quote in blue). Is he saying that his act of giving her the wrong change was downright deliberate in everybody's eyes?-- No. What's are the differences between these two subtypes?- The subjective is the opinion of the speaker/writer of the sentence ('He' in A didn't think he was being foolish; the sentence writer thought that.) The volitional
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