Modifiers

Adverbs

Adverbs modify the meaning of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs by providing details or by increasing the specificity of details.

Rule: Place adverbs as close as possible to the word(s) they are modifying.

Example 1: On 24 April 2009, The Globe and Mail reported Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney’s reluctance to use untested powers: “Mr. Carney said he will take only the unprecedented step of buying corporate and government debt if things get bad enough to warrant it.”

What’s wrong: The adverb only is meant to indicate the one single condition under which Mr. Carney will take the unprecedented step, not that he will take the unprecedented step and no others.

Correct usage: “Mr. Carney said he will take the unprecedented step of buying corporate and government debt only if things get bad enough to warrant it.”

Example 2: On 12 January 2007, The Globe and Mail reported reaction to US President George W. Bush’s decision to increase by 20 000 the number of U.S. troops in occupied Iraq. The US Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, was quoted as saying that “in choosing to escalate the war, the President virtually stands alone.”

What’s wrong: The adverb virtually is meant to modify the adverb alone, not the verb stands. It’s not that the President virtually stands, but that the President stands virtually alone.

Correct usage: “… in choosing to escalate the war, the President stands virtually alone.”

Example 3: In the 1990 novel The Vor Game, Lieutenant Ahn, “a twenty-year man within weeks of retirement,” is briefing newly commissioned Ensign Miles Vorkosigan, his reluctant replacement, at the “Camp Permafrost” weather station:

Except for a tendency to talk about his machines as though they were human, Ahn seemed coherent enough as he detailed his job, only drifting into randomness, then hung-over silence, when he accidentally strayed from the topic.

What’s wrong: The adverb only is meant to modify the conjunction when, not the verb drifting. The author, Lois McMaster Bujold, is not saying that Ahn arrives at a state of randomness only by drifting and not, say, by lapsing, but rather that Ahn drifts into randomness only when he accidentally strays from the topic.

Correct usage: “… Ahn seemed coherent enough as he detailed his job, drifting into randomness, then hung-over silence, only when he accidentally strayed from the topic.”

This article last revised 2009-04-26.

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