Positioning

Adverbs show considerable freedom of positioning so that it might appear, at first blush, that no definite rules for placement within a clause or sentence could be given. However, detailed study of the different functions of adverbs indicates that for each function there are one or more preferred positions.

English sentences show a canonical ordering of their constituent clauses, phrases and words. Variations from the template are possible but are generally marked by distinctive stress or intonation. For example, a DIMINSION adjective will generally precede a COLOR adjective, so that one says little white ’houses (where ’ indicates that major stress goes just on the head noun, houses, in this NP). It is permissible to say ’white little ’houses (for instance, when comparing them with ’black little ’houses), but such a non-prototypical word order is marked by stressing the COLOR adjective. However, in written English there is no device generally accepted available to mark this special contrastive stress.

Another technique used to indicate that a constituent is in a non-prototypical position is appositional intonation; this is sometimes (but not always) indicated in writing by the inclusion of a comma before and/or after the constituent. Some sentential adverbs may freely occur after the first word of the auxiliary or at the end or beginning of the clause; for example, He’ll soon come, or He’ll come soon, or Soon he’ll come. However, the sentential adverb again is prototypically restricted to just the first two of these positions: She’s again coming, or She’s coming again. It can be placed in initial position, but then makes up a separate intonation unit from the rest of the sentence, marked in writing by a comma: Again, she’s coming. This is called ‘appositional intonation’ or ‘comma intonation’.

One of these devices—contrastive stress or comma intonation—is typically used to indicate deviation from the placement preferences to be explained.

There are three prototypical positions in which a sentential adverb can occur, and two for a manner adverb. A single letter is assigned to each.

(a) Sentential adverbs

. ‘A’ position. After the first word of the auxiliary, if there is one, as in (11a–b); this is independent of the identity of the verb. If there is no auxiliary then the adverb comes immediately before the verb, as in (11c), unless the verb is copula be, in which case it follows it, as in (11d).

(11a) He [might now be hoping] to stand for Parliament

(11b) He [might now be] a candidate

(11c) He [now hopes] t o stand for Parliament

(11d) He [is now] a candidate

Some other positions are possible, but are marked and require contrastive stress: for example, He now ’is a candidate in place of (11d), where the word following the adverb is specially stressed.

. ‘F’ position. As final element in the clause. For example, now could be moved to the end of each of (11a–d): He might be hoping to stand for Parliament now, He is a candidate now, and so on.

. ‘I’ position. As initial element in the clause. For example, now could be moved to the beginning of each of (11a–d): Now he might be a candidate, Now he hopes to stand for Parliament, and so on.

 (b) Manner adverbs

. ‘V’ position. Immediately before the verb, as in (12a).

. ‘O’ position. Immediately after the verb, or verb-plus-object if there is an object as in (12b) (an adverb may not normally intrude between verb and object).

(12a) She might have [slightly underestimated the difficulties]

(12b) She might have [underestimated the difficulties slightly]

(A manner adverb may alternatively follow a prepositional NP, which then falls within its scope).

Most manner adverbs may occur in positions V and O but some are restricted to O (these include well, badly, simply and a-bit) while others are confined to V (including really, truly, and quite).

There are a number of adverbs which can have both sentential and manner functions, including HUMAN PROPENSITY items such as generously, angrily, cleverly and stupidly. They do, of course, have different semantic effects in the two functions. Consider a situation where a soldier is standing on parade and an inspecting officer asks a question of him. Trouble ensues. Later, someone suggests a reason, using the basic sentence The soldier must have answered the officer’s question with the addition of adverb stupidly. The adverb could be used in sentential function, in position A (after the first word of the auxiliary), or F (clause-finally) or I (clause-initially). That is:

The sentential use of stupidly implies that the solder was stupid to provide an answer to the question. It was perhaps a rhetorical question, and any attempt to answer it smacked of insubordination. (There is no significant difference in meaning between these three sentences.)

Now consider stupidly used as a manner adverb, which can be in position V (immediately before the verb) or O (following the object NP):

The manner use of stupidly carries a quite different meaning. One infers that the question was not rhetorical but did require an answer, and that the answer which the soldier provided was a stupid answer. (There is no significant difference in meaning between these two sentences.)

Note that (13b) and (14b) are identical except that in (13b) the sentential adverb is set off by comma intonation. In (13a) the adverb is in position A, following the first word of the auxiliary, and in (14a) it is in position V, immediately before the verb. But if there were no auxiliary, then positions A and V would coincide. That is, The soldier stupidly answered the officer’s question is ambiguous between a sentential meaning (position A) and a manner meaning (position V). The ambiguity could be resolved by rephrasing the sentence; say, The soldier was stupid to answer the officer’s question (sentential meaning) or The soldier answered the officer’s question in a stupid way (manner meaning). In negation, the difference is always clear—The soldier stupidly (A) didn’t answer the officer’s question for the sentential adverb, and The soldier didn’t stupidly (V) answer the officer’s question for the manner adverb.

We showed the correspondence between adjective-plus-derived-noun and derived-manner-adverb-plus-verb. For the manner function in (14a–b) we get:

(Here, noun and verb have the same form.) For the sentential function in (13a–b) we get the underlying adjective modifying the subject of the sentence (here soldier); that is:

A third function of stupidly is to modify an adjective, as in He was stupidly loyal. The corresponding NP would be stupid loyalty:

Note the congruence between (15) and (17)—corresponding to a manner adverb, the adjective modifies a deverbal noun, and corresponding to an adjectival adverb, the adjective modifies a de-adjectival noun.

Stupidly (and cleverly) maintain the same meaning when used in sentential or manner function; they just modify in different ways. However, some adverbs show a difference of meaning in the two functions. Consider quietly in:

Sentence (18a) could refer to the action being performed surreptitiously, so that no one noticed, whereas (18b) would be appropriate when it was done quietly, so as not to disturb anyone (but perhaps done ostentatiously, so that everyone saw him doing it).

The difference is greater with honestly:

In (19a), the question to be resolved is whether or not I had marked the exam, and the adverb honestly here carries the meaning ‘really, truly’. In contrast, the manner function of honestly in (19b) implies ‘in an honest way’. There is a similar division of meanings for frankly; when used in sentential function the speaker implies ‘in my candid opinion’, and when used in manner function it implies that the subject of the clause is doing something ‘in an open and unrestrained manner’.

Positions I, clause-initially, and V, immediately before the verb, are unambiguous. However, the other positions do require a measure of clarification and discussion.