When I imply that I am hopeful that you will get smarter it is implicit in the show of hope that 'will' is used as an indicator of futurity.? Had I demanded that you get smarter I would have said so.? Commandingly.? Obviously I meant 'will' in its general sense of 'shall'. It is of course possible to create a sentence using a -ly word as a true adverb.? For example: "Erratically we walked through the market."? However, such use is not generally observed because such constructions tend to be somewhat ambiguous.? It can mean what it prima facie appears to mean: that the walking was erratic.? But given that 'erratic' can convey the sense of 'unusual' - 'aberrant' even - the speaker may mean that the choice to walk was unusual or that the choice to walk through the market was unusual.Ī sentence beginning with a -ly word usually informs the listener or reader about the speaker's or writer's frame of mind or habitual behavior.? Adverb schmadverb. Hopefully you will understand my meaning.? That is to say: I am in a hopeful frame of mind about the chance that you will understand my meaning.? It is to be hoped ? No! The question is, what did the archbishop find?' 'I know what "it" means well enough, when I find a thing,' said the Duck: 'it's generally a frog or a worm.
'Found IT,' the Mouse replied rather crossly: 'of course you know what "it" means.' "Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him: and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable?"'
In ordinary everyday speech - as anyone who takes thought on the matter can verify - when someone starts a sentence with a -ly word - which appears to be an adverb to a language maven - they are making plain their own mental state or their behavioral norms.? A -ly word in this context is not somehow neutered: it does not mean, as some would have it: " it is to be hoped that. Despite the wide use of sentences beginning with a word ending in -ly? and despite the acceptance of such usage by people who know how language is used in the real world: despite these facts there are still some people who throw up their hands in horror at such "abuse" of language.? Having been taught no doubt by repeaters of that Latin-based snobbery which was once peddled as English grammar, such people insist that -ly words are adverbs and as such they must, must, must - on pain of death - modify a verb.? "Where is the verb?", they cry.? That is woo of the first water.
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