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195
Adverbs of degree usually premodify adjectives or verbs:
awfully painful, terribly unjust, really pretty, so nice, to thoroughly understand, etc.
The most mobile are adverbs of time and place, which can occupy several positions without any change in
their meaning, as in:
Usually he sings well.
He usually sings well.
He sings well usually.
The initial position of the adverb of manner always makes it emphatic.
Proudly he showed his diploma to his parents.
Carefully he signed his name.
In these sentences, despite the detachment of the adverbial modifier, its connection with the verb is evident
(showed proudly, signed carefully).
Note:
Care should be taken not to confuse adverbs of manner and modal words, which may have the same word-
form and occur in the same position. The only guide in these cases is punctuation and the relation between the
words:
Naturally I wanted him to answer - modal word.
I wanted him to answer naturally - adverb.
They wanted to live naturally - adverb.
They wanted to live, naturally - modal word.
MODAL WORDS
§ 244. Modal words express the speaker’'s attitude to what his utterance denotes. The speaker’s judgement
may be of different kinds, that is, the speaker may express various modal meanings.
Modal words are an invariable part of speech. They may refer to a word, a phrase, a clause, or a sentence.
Their syntactical function is that of a parenthesis, they may also be a sentence in themselves, in which case they
are used to answer a general question:
Will you help me? Certainly.
Precisely this.
Except this man, of course.
Semantically modal words fall into three groups, denoting:
1. Certainty/doubt (certainly, of course, indeed, surely, decidedly, really, definitely, naturally, no doubt,
etc.).
Certainly, it was astonishing that she should be preoccupied with her schemes for the welfare of
Constance.
Of course, it would have been different if they had married.
In answers the meaning of these words is weakened.
2. Supposition (perhaps, maybe, probably, obviously, possibly, evidently, apparently, etc.).
Manson’s nature was extraordinarily intense. Probably he derived this from his mother.
You have come quickly to a resolution. But perhaps you have been considering this question for a long
time?