Focusing on clauses or clause elements using adjuncts Commenting on your statement: sentence adjuncts

10.56 There are many adjuncts that are used to indicate your attitude to what you are saying or to make your hearer have a particular attitude to what you are saying. These are dealt with in paragraphs 10.57 to 10.72.

Others are used to show a particular link between sentences. These are dealt with in paragraphs 10.73 to 10.81.

There are also some that are used to make a statement narrower or to focus attention on a particular thing that it applies to. These are dealt with in paragraphs 10.87 to 10.91.

All these adjuncts are called sentence adjuncts because they apply to the whole sentence they are in. They are sometimes called sentence adverbials or disjuncts in other grammars.

Sentence adjuncts are often placed at the beginning of a sentence. Some are also used in other positions, as shown in the examples given below, but they are usually separated from the words around them by intonation or by commas, to show that they apply to the whole sentence.

For more general information about adjuncts, see Chapter 6.

Indicating your attitude to what you are saying

10.57 One group of sentence adjuncts is used to indicate your reaction to, or your opinion of, the fact or event you are talking about.

Surprisingly, most of my help came from the technicians.

Luckily, I had seen the play before so I knew what it was about.

It is fortunately not a bad bump, and Henry is only slightly hurt.

Interestingly, the solution adopted in these two countries was the same.

The following adjuncts are commonly used in this way:

absurdly admittedly alas anyway astonishingly at least characteristically coincidentally conveniently curiously

fortunately happily incredibly interestingly ironically luckily mercifully miraculously mysteriously naturally

oddly of course paradoxically please predictably remarkably sadly significantly strangely surprisingly

true typically unbelievably understandably unexpectedly unfortunately unhappily unnecessarily

One of the uses of 'at least' and 'anyway' is to indicate that you are pleased about the fact you are giving, although there may be other less desirable facts.

At least we're agreed on something.

He fell back with a look of surprise-dead. It's quick, anyway, I thought.

USAGE NOTE 10.58 There are a small number of adverbs which are often followed by 'enough' when used to indicate your opinion of what you are talking about.

curiously

funnily

interestingly

oddly

strangely

Interestingly enough, this proportion has not increased.

Funnily enough, old people seem to love bingo.

I find myself strangely enough in agreement with John for a change.

distancing and qualifying 10.59 There are a number of sentence adjuncts which have the effect showing that you are not completely committed to the truth of your statement.

Rats eat practically anything.

If was almost a relief when the race was over.

There are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand.

In a way I liked her better than Mark.

The following adjuncts are used in this way:

almost in a manner of speaking in a way in effect more or less practically

so to speak to all intents and purposes to some extent up to a point virtually

Note that 'almost', 'practically', and 'virtually' are not used at the beginning of a clause.

Expressions such as 'I think', 'I believe', and 'I suppose' are also used to indicate your lack of commitment to the truth of what you are saying.

indicating viewpoint 10.60 With adverbs such as 'luckily', 'fortunately', 'happily', and 'unfortunately', you can indicate whose viewpoint you are giving by adding 'for' and a noun group referring to the person.

'Does he do his fair share of the household chores?'—'Oh yes, fortunately for me.'

Luckily for me and them, love did eventually grow and flourish.

indicating quality of the agent 10.61 Another group of sentence adjuncts is used to indicate the quality you think someone showed by doing an action. They are formed from adjectives which can be used to describe people, and are often placed after the subject of the sentence and in front of the verb.

The League of friends generously provided about five thousand pounds.

Paul Gayner is rightly famed for his menu for vegetarians.

She very kindly arranged a beautiful lunch.

Foolishly, we had said we would do the decorating.

The following adverbs are used in this way:

bravely carelessly cleverly

correctly foolishly generously

kindly rightly wisely

wrongly

indicating your justification for a statement 10.62 If you are basing your statement on something that you have seen, heard, or read, you can use a sentence adverb to indicate this. For example, if you can see that an object has been made by hand, you might say 'It is obviously made by hand.'

His friend was obviously impressed.

Higgins evidently knew nothing about their efforts.

Apparently they had a row.

These are some common adverbs used in this way:

apparently clearly

evidently manifestly

obviously plainly

unmistakably visibly

10.63 People often use sentence adjuncts to persuade someone to agree with them. By using the adjunct, they indicate that they are assuming that what they are saying is obvious.

Obviously I can't do the whole lot myself.

Price, of course, is a critical factor.

The following adjuncts are often used in this way:

clearly

naturally

obviously

of course

plainly

10.64 A number of adjuncts are used to indicate whether a situation actually exists or whether it merely seems to exist, or might exist.

Even sympathetic observers have said that what he's really doing is protecting his own interests.

Germs were allegedly scattered from airplanes.

Extra cash is probably the best present.

The following adjuncts are used like this:

actually certainly conceivably definitely doubtless hopefully

in fact in practice in reality in theory maybe no doubt

officially perhaps possibly presumably probably really

unofficially ~ allegedly apparently nominally ostensibly

potentially seemingly supposedly theoretically undoubtedly

The adverbs in the second group are often used in front of adjectives.

We drove along apparently empty streets.

They pointed out that it would be theoretically possible to lay a cable from a satellite to earth.

10.65 If you want to make it clear what your attitude is to what you are saying, you can use a sentence adjunct.

Frankly, the more I hear about him, the less I like him.

In my opinion it was probably a mistake.

In fairness it should be said that he cannot be accused of a lack of objectivity.

Here is a list of some of the common adjuncts used in this way:

frankly honestly in all honesty

in fairness in my opinion in my view

in retrospect on reflection personally

seriously to my mind

10.66 Another way of indicating the sort of statement you are making is to use 'to be' followed by an adjective, or 'to put it' followed by an adverb.

I don't really know, to be honest.

To put it crudely, all unions have got the responsibility of looking after their members.

politeness 10.67 When someone who is making a request wants to be polite, they use the sentence adverb 'please'.

May I have a word with you, please?

Would you please remove your glasses?

Please be careful.