The Major Parts of Speech(16) a. Clearly/apparently/obviously, Wonkers is a schizo.
b. Frankly/honestly, my dear, we don’t want a dam.
c. Luckily/fortunately, I regained control of the car.
Sentence modifiers also connect one clause or part of a clause with another,
as in (17a)-(17c).
(17) a. The paramedics arrived and eventually Oscar was stabilized.
b. Summer arrived; however, the weather remained poor.
c. He gambled away his inheritance, and consequently had to work for a living.The class of expressions referred to as “transition devices” by composition
teachers includes such connective adverbs.
The following examples illustrate adverbs (bolded) modifying verbs/verb
phrases (18a,b), adjectives (19a,b), and adverbs (20a,b) (italicized):
(18) a. He waved frantically.
b. She coolly aimed the pistol.
(19) a. It’s a wonderfully wicked play.
b. It was hideously deformed.
(20) a. They approached extremely hesitantly.
b. He reacted remarkably angrily.Exercise
Prescriptive grammarians often object to the use of hopefully as a sen-
tence modifier, as in Hopefully, my paycheck will arrive soon. Check
the usage labels on this word in a current dictionary. Does your diction-
ary mention this use of hopefully? If so, is it mentioned disapprovingly?
What (if any) reasons support the disapproval of this word? What does
the word mean? Is it an adverb or some other part of speech? What kind
of adverb is it? Does it differ grammatically or semantically from other
adverbs in its class?
Semantic subcategories of adverbs
Adverbs are often classified semantically in terms of Time, Place, Manner,
Frequency, and Degree. Table 9 illustrates these categories.