§ 6. Positional characteristics

As adverbs modify words of different classes, they accordingly occupy different positions in the sentence. In comparison with other words, adverbs may be considered as the most movable words. However, adverbs are not identical in their ability to be moved to another position in the structure. Thus, adverbs of manner and degree are very closely attached to the word they modify and cannot be moved away from it. He sings well – is the only possible arrangement of the three words, unless the change of position is caused by inversion and a general shift of the communicative focus (E.g. Only well does he sing (он поет только хорошо). If such an adverb is put in other positions this may result in a change of meaning in which case it is no longer an adverb (it has already been mentioned that adverbs are often defined by position rather than form): well, he sings when nobody is in.

If the predicate is an analytical form adverbs of frequency and indefinite time are usually placed between its parts (E.g. Have you ever seen him? You are always laughing at me).

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: (E.g. Usually he sings well. He usually sings well. He sings well usually).

The initial position of the adverb of manner always makes it emphatic. (E.g. 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 (E.g. 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.

Chapter VII. (Some Notional Parts of Speech)

§ 1. The Words of the Category of State

The stative denotes a temporary state of a person or a non-person. Unlike such classes of words as nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs the number of statives functioning in English is limited.

There are about thirty stable statives.

Semantically statives fall into five groups describing various states of persons and non- persons:

-psychological states of persons (E.g. afraid, aghast, ashamed, aware);

-physical states of persons (E.g. alive, awake, asleep);

-states of motion or activity of persons or non-persons (E.g. afoot, astir, adrift);

-physical states of non-persons (E.g.afire, aflame, alight, ablaze);

-the posture of non-persons (E.g. askew, awry);

§ 2. The Modal Words

Modal words express the speaker’s attitude to what his utterance denotes. The speaker’s judgment 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 parentheses, they may also be a sentence in themselves in which case they are used to answer a general question (E.g. Will you help me? Certainly. Precisely this. Except this man, of course.)

Semantically modal words fall into three groups, denoting:

-certainty/ doubt (certainly, of course, indeed, surely, decidedly, really, definitely, no doubt.)

-supposition (perhaps, maybe, probably, obviously, possibly, evidently)

-estimate proper (good/bad) (luckily, fortunately, happily, unfortunately, unluckily.)