The expression of manner, means and instrument in English

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maitecp82@hotmail.com TOPIC 15. THE EXPRESSION OF MANNER, MEANS AND INSTRUMENT

Justification

15.1. JUSTIFICATION. 15.2. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL RESOURCES. 15.3. INTRODUCTION. 15.4. ADVERBIALS. 15.5. MANNER. 15.6. MEANS. 15.7. INSTRUMENT. 15.8. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH. 15.9. CONCLUSION. 1maitecp82@hotmail.com Maite Calatayud Puerto. Oposiciones de secundaria. Temario de inglés.

15.1. JUSTIFICATION. The topic in question is one of the most relevant when teaching secondary and bachillerato school students, because the expression of manner, means and instrument is very common in everyday English. That is why the curriculum includes the expression of possessive relations at these levels.

Bibliographical Resources

15.2. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL RESOURCES. The content of this topic is based mainly on Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) theories, especially those included in their A University Grammar of English (Longman), also in their A Grammar of Contemporary English, which they wrote along with Leech and Svartvik (1972). Quite notorious are also the works by Thompson and Martinet (1969), A Practical English Grammar; Zandvoort's (1972) A Handbook of English Grammar; Palmer's (1974) The English Verb; and Jerspersen's (1949) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles.

Introduction to Manner, Means, and Instrument

15.3. INTRODUCTION. The expression of manner, means and instrument is a communicative competence that can be expressed by means of a grammatical category (adverb), a prepositional phrase (complement), a lexical term (word), mimic, tone of voice ... However, these three meanings are expressed mainly by adverbials. That is why we will have a close look at them and then, we will deal with the expression of the three meanings of the topic.

Adverbials Overview

15.4. ADVERBIALS. According to Quirk, adverbials have a wider range of meanings, forms, positions and grammatical functions than the other four elements in the clause structure (subject, verb, object and complement). Traditional adverbs' syntactic functions are as clause constituents and modifiers of adjectives and adverbs, but only one of them is enough for a word to be an adverb. Adverbs premodify, except for enough. However, not all adverbs that modify adjectives will also modify adverbs, and some adverbs may modify phrases, noun phrases and prepositional phrases.

According to Leech, adverbs add something extra about an action, happening or state (time, place, manner ... ). Adverbs' most common characteristic is morphological: they use the derivational suffix -y, but also other less common derivational suffixes such as -wise, -style or -fashion. By means of them new adverbs are created from adjectives and nouns, respectively. The prepositional paraphrase is also possible, but it includes postmodification (e.g. in the style of ... ). 2Maite Calatayud Puerto. Oposiciones de secundaria. Temario de inglés. maitecp82@hotmail.com

Adverb Forms and Classification

Some adjectives do not have a corresponding adverb, and if there is one, its meaning is different. Some adjectives have the same form as adverbs (so the paraphrase should be used for expressing an adverbial meaning), others change final -y to -i (-ily), drop final -e (-ible = - ibly) and some are irregular (e.g. good - well).

As adverbs are the commonest ways to express manner, means and instrument, we deem necessary to give a classification of them. According to their position, there are adverbs which appear:

• In front position or at the beginning of a clause: interrogative adverbs, those modifying the whole sentence (e.g. yes, no, still), and for emphasis or contrast;
• In middle position: between the subject and the lexical verb, between the verb to be and the complement, between the auxiliary and the lexical verb (except for have to);
• In end position: with intransitive verbs, after the verb; with transitive verbs, after the complement.

According to their meaning, adverbs can express:

• Time: adverbs answering the question When? Their normal position is at the end, but they can appear in front position for emphasis. Exceptions: still and already appear in middle position.
• Duration: usually prepositional phrases with for or since. They answer the question How long? Their normal position is at the end, but they can appear in front position for emphasis or contrast.
• Frequency: simple adverbs appear in mid position and adverb phrases at the end. Sometimes can have front position, as negative adverbs such as hardly, never, scarcely or barely, in a literary construction that implies syntactic inversion (adverb + auxiliary verb + subject + lexical verb).
• Degree: these adverbs appear in mid position. They answer the question How much? They are adverbs such as quite, rather, absolutely, completely, also, only, even, just, merely ...
• Place and direction: they answer the questions Where? and Where to? They appear in end position, but they can appear in front position for contrast. It is important to bear in mind that we can never split a verb of movement from its place adverbial.

Grammatical Functions of Adverbs

As far as adverbs' grammatical functions are concerned, they fall into four main categories, and sometimes items can belong to more than one class. These categories are the following: 3Maite Calatayud Puerto. Oposiciones de secundaria. Temario de inglés. maitecp82@hotmail.com

a) Adjuncts: these are adverbials that are integrated into the structure of the clause. They can be the focus of a cleft sentence (e.g. It was because you told me beforehand that I could study for the exam), the focus of a subjunct (e.g. I could study for the exam only because you told me beforehand), and they can be the focus of an alternative interrogation (e.g. Did you study for the exam because I told you or because you knew about it?) and an alternative negation (e.g. You didn't study for the exam because I told you, but because you knew about it), and these two last cases adjuncts cannot appear initially. They can also be elicited by question forms (e.g. Why did you study for the exam?), and they can fall within the scope of predication ellipsis or proforms (e.g. Because you told me, I could study for the exam, and so did Mary). The semantic roles of adjuncts are space, time, degree, modality, respect and contingency. Process adjuncts co-occur with dynamic verbs, but not with stative ones. They can have four different meanings: agency (e.g. It was written by him), manner (e.g. He presented his point very clearly), means (e.g. By her insight, she grasped the patient's real problem) and instrument (e.g. I have been eating rice with chopsticks). Process adjuncts usually have final position because they tend to receive the information focus, but they appear in mid position when the verb is in the passive voice, and initially if the focus of information is required on another part of the sentence.

b) Subjuncts: these adverbials can have a parenthetic role regarding the whole sentence, in which case they can have a wide orientation, meaning courtesy or viewpoint (these are mostly derived from adjectives with a -ly suffix), or they may also refer to some specific items within the sentence, having a narrower orientation and meaning manner (e.g. intentionally), emphasis or a heightening effect (e.g. actually, indeed, just), intensity including amplification at a scale (e.g. most, by far, so) or downtoners that have a lowering effect (e.g. quite, rather, a bit), but they can also have a focusing effect, as it happens with limiters such as only or additives such as also, and they can indicate time, duration, frequency, place, static position, direction, movement, passage, subject or agent in a passive sentence (which can be general, volition or formulaic).

c) Disjuncts: these adverbials are peripheral to the structure of the clause, cannot be the focus of a question or a clause negation, are usually separated from the rest of the sentence by commas or phrases in spoken English, and represent some comment detached from the sentence. They can be content disjuncts, which comment on utterance truth condition and mean certainty or evaluation, or style disjuncts, which 4Maite Calatayud Puerto. Oposiciones de secundaria. Temario de inglés. maitecp82@hotmail.com comment on style and mean respect, modality or manner. Example: Naturally, he didn't come.

d) Conjuncts: these are adverbials that are peripheral to the structure of the clause and have a connective function because they conjoin two parts of an utterance. They cannot be the focus of a question or a clause negation, and they can have the following meanings: listing (enumerative or additive), summative, appositive, resultive, inferential, contrastive (reformulatory, antithetic, concessive) and transitional (discoursal, temporal). Example: Therefore, he couldn't come.

As to their grammatical category, adverbials may be realized by an adverb phrase (e.g. He drives fast), a prepositional phrase (e.g. with the stick), a clause (e.g. as soon as possible) or a noun phrase (e.g. It cost a fortune). Despite this, adverbials are positioned according to their meaning (respect - process - space - time - contingency), are optional in most cases and only occasionally they can function as subjects (e.g. Slowly is exactly how he speaks). Sometimes there is not a clear distinction between an adverbial and a noun when it functions as a complement (e.g. They married young, They parted good friends), especially when there is a close connection with the verb (e.g. The shine shone bright). Besides, there is not a clear distinction between an adverbial and a noun indicating measure when the adverbial functions as a direct object (e.g. She jumped ten feet, Five times six equals thirty), and it happens the same between an adverbial and verb complements (e.g. The class is over, We are behind in our shopping debts).

Manner Adjuncts

15.5. MANNER. Manner adjuncts are realized by adverb phrases, which are open-class adverbs ending in -ly, -wise, -like, -fashion or -style (e.g. similarly, snakewise, peasantfashion, workmanlike); like-phrases (e.g. She behaved like a child); prepositional phrases with the preposition with (e.g. He spoke with a barrister's skill) or in (e.g. She behaved in a childish way / manner / style, although the preposition in may be omitted in informal language and the adverbial form is preferred); noun phrases (e.g. This restaurant cooks French style).

Manner adjuncts are almost always placed at the end of the sentence, except for adverbs qualifying the whole sentence with a transitive verb, in which case they appear in mid position. In middle position, manner adjuncts appear after the verb or after the object, if there is one (e.g. They spoke English well in the exam), especially when the verb is in the passive voice. They can also appear before the main verb (e.g. He accidentally touched her arm), and they should not be placed between the verb and the direct object. 5