Composition-Rhetoric eBook

Stratton D. Brooks
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 464 pages of information about Composition-Rhetoric.

Composition-Rhetoric eBook

Stratton D. Brooks
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 464 pages of information about Composition-Rhetoric.

Conjunctive adverbs introduce clauses:  [We went to the seashore, where we stayed a month].  Here where is used as a connective and also as a modifier of stayed.

Conjunctive adverbs introduce the following kinds of clauses: 

1.  Adverbial clauses:  [Go where duty calls].

2.  Adjective clauses:  [This is the very spot where I put them].

3.  Noun clause:  [I do not know how he will succeed].

Adverbs may also be classified, according to meaning, into adverbs of manner, time, place, and degree.  The classification is not, however, a rigid one.

Adverbs of manner answer the question How?  Most of these terminate in _-ly_.  A few, however, are identical in form with adjectives of like meaning:  [She sang very loud].

Adverbs of time answer the question When?

Adverbs of place answer the question Where?  This class, together with the preceding two classes, usually modify verbs.

Adverbs of degree answer the question To what extent?  These adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

+72.  Phrasal Adverbs.+—­Certain phrases, adverbial in character, cannot easily be separated into parts.  They have been called phrased adverbs; as, arm-in-arm, now-a-days, etc.

+73.  Inflection.+—­Some adverbs, like adjectives, are compared for the purpose of showing different degrees of quality or quantity.

The comparative and superlative degrees may be formed by adding the syllables er and est to the positive degree.  The great majority of adverbs, however, make use of the words more and most or less and least to show a difference in degree:  [Fast, faster, fastest; skillfully, more skillfully, most skillfully; carefully, less carefully, least carefully].

Some adverbs are compared irregularly:—­

badly } worse worst
ill (evil)}
far } { farther { farthest
forth } { further { furthest
late later { latest
{ last
little less least
much more most
nigh nigher { nigher
{ next
well better best

+74.  Suggestions and Cautions concerning the Use of Adverbs.+

1.  Some words, as fast, little, much, more, and others, have the same form for both adjective and adverb, and use alone can determine what part of speech each is.

(Adjective) He is a fast driver.  She looks well (in good health).

(Adverb) How fast he walks!  I learned my lesson well.

2.  Corresponding adjectives and adverbs usually have different forms which should not be confused.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Composition-Rhetoric from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.