(Luận văn thạc sĩ) a study on english adverbs as modifiers (a contrastive analysis with vietnamese equivalents)

Vietnam national university, Ha noi College of foreign languages Post-graduate department Le Thi Minh Hien A study on English adverbs as modifiers (A contrastive analysis with Vietnamese equivalents) Nghiªn cøu trạng từ tiếng Anh với chức bổ nghĩa (So sánh đối chiếu với tiếng Việt) M.a Minor-Thesis Field: English linguistics Code: 60.22.15 Hanoi, 2009 iv Table of contents Acknowledgements ii Table of content iii Symbols and abbreviations vii List of table viii Part one: introduction 01 Rationale 02 Aims of the study 03 Scope of the study 04 Method of the study 05 Design of the study Part two: investigation Chapter I: theoretical preliminaries I.1 Definition of adverb I.2 Features of adverbs I.2.1 The complex/ derived group I.2.2 The compound group I.2.3 The simple group I.2.4 Morphonology of Vietnamese adverbs I.3 Classification of adverbs I.3.1 Syntactic classification of English adverbs I.3.2 Syntactic classification of Vietnamese adverbs I.3.3 Semantic classification of English adverbs I.3.3.1 Circumstantial adverbs v I.3.3.2 Process adverbs I.3.3.3 Modal adverbs 10 I.3.3.4 Adverbs of degree 10 I.3.3.5 Focusing adverbs 10 I.3.3.6 Conjunctive adverbs 10 I.3.4 Semantic classification of Vietnamese adverbs 10 I.3.4.1 Adverbs of time 10 I.3.4.2 Adverbs of place 10 I.3.4.3 Adverbs of frequency 10 I.3.4.4 Adverbs of manner 10 I.3.4.5 Adverbs of cause/ reason 11 I.3.4.6 Adverbs of purpose 11 I.3.4.7 Adverbs of modality 11 I.3.4.8 Adverbs of degree 11 I.3.4.9 Adverbs of conjunction 11 I.3.5 Position classification of English adverbs 11 I.3.5.1 Circumstantial adverbs 11 I.3.5.2 Adverbs of manner 12 I.3.5.3 Modal adverbs 12 I.3.5.4 Adverbs of degree and focusing adverbs 12 I.3.5.5 Conjunctive adverbs 12 I.3.5.6 Adverbs in initial position 13 I.3.6 position classification of Vietnamese adverbs 13 I.4 Functions of English adverbs 14 I.4.1 What is considered to be “modifier”? 14 I.4.2 Main functions of adverbs 14 I.4.2.1 Modifier of verbs 14 I.4.2.2 Modifier of adjectives 15 I.4.2.3 Modifier of other adverbs 15 I.4.2.4 Modifier of nouns/ noun phrases 15 I.4.2.5 Modifier of participles, prepositions and prepositional phrases 16 vi I.4.2.6 Modifier of (pre)determiners, cardinal numerals, indefinite pronouns/quantifiers 16 I.4.2.7 Modifier of sentences 16 I.4.3 Types of modifiers 17 I.4.3.1 Grading modifiers 17 I.4.3.2 Intensifying modifier 18 I.4.3.3 Attenuating modifier 18 I.4.3.4 Quantifying modifier 18 I.4.3.5 Descriptive or attitudinal modifiers 18 I.4.3.6 Focusing or reinforcing modifiers 18 I.5 Adverbs and Adverbials 18 I.5.1 What is an adverbial? 18 I.5.2 Units realizing adverbial functions 18 I.5.3 Classes of adverbials 19 I.5.4 Types of adverbials forming sentence elements 20 I.5.4.1 What is an adjunct? 22 I.5.4.2 What is a disjunct? 26 I.5.4.3 What is a conjunct? 26 Chapter II: English adverbs as modifiers and their vietnamese equivalents 29 II.1 Contrastive analysis with teaching and learning of foreign languages 29 II.2 Modifying function of English adverbs and their Vietnamese equivalents 29 II.2.1 Modifier of adjectives and adverbs 29 II.2.2 Modifier of verbs 29 II.2.3 Modifier of nouns/ noun phrases 30 II.2.4 Modifier of particles, prepositions and prepositional phrases 31 II.2.5 Modifier of (pre)determiners/ cardinal numerals/ indefinite pronouns 31 II.2.6 Cases of subjuncts 31 vii II.2.7 Modifier of a sentence 31 II.3 Mobility in positions of English and Vietnamese adverbs 32 II.4 Similarities and differences between English adverbs as modifiers and Vietnamese equivalents 33 II.4.1 Similarities 33 II.4.2 Differences 34 Chapter III: Implications to teaching adverbs as modifiers 35 III.1 Errors made by Vietnamese learners in using adverb 35 III.2 An experiment 35 III.3 Error analysis 35 III.3.1 Errors in confusing adjectives and of adverbs 35 III.3.2 Errors in placing adverbs 36 III.3.3 Errors in choosing adverbs of degree (=intensifiers) 37 III.4 Suggestions for teaching and learning English adverbs as modifier 38 III.2.1 To the teachers 38 III.2.2 To the student 38 Part three: Conclusion 39 Recapitulation 39 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 40 Bibliography x Appendix I viii Symbols and abbreviations A Adverbial Adv Adverb A.P Adverb phrase C Complement C.A Contrastive analysis E End position I Initial M Medial NP Noun phrase O Object S Subject P Predicate V Verb * Unacceptable/ Ungrammatical structures [ ] the number of the example used ix List of table Table Types of Item Subjuncts 21 Table Residue functions 23 Table Types of circumstantial elements 23 Table Correspondence between experiential and interpersonal functions 24 Table Types of adjuncts 25 Table English adverbs of degree and their Vietnamese equivalents 29 Table Types of adverbs modifying verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents 30 Part one Introduction Rationale So far, English has been widely used as the language of international commerce, popular cultures and the Internet all over the world It is English that has play an important part in bringing people from different cultures closer with greater mutual understanding In recent years, in Vietnam, this language has become a compulsory subject in schools, colleges and universities thanks to its importance to the work force in the future However, in learning process, quite a lot of Vietnamese learners find English grammar, especially the role and position of word classes difficult to master This obstacle may partly due to teaching process, lack of practice and sometimes their mother tongue interference In a try to offer a remedial suggestion to this problem, this topic has been chosen for the three following reasons: - Adverb is one of word classes in English Nevertheless, it used to be regarded as a “dustbin” word-class since it has a complicated morphological classification as well as a variety of semantic and syntactic functions However, in theory, adverb will be definitely clarified if the different types of adverbs and their functions are fully focused on in a detailed study - Adverb is a language phenomenon, generally found in both English and Vietnamese Since these two languages originate from different language families, there certainly exist similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in this linguistic category As a result, Vietnamese learners of English have great trouble in understanding, identifying and using adverbs in general and their different functions in particular - It’s commonly believed that contrastive analysis is considered a device for predicting points of difficulty and possible errors that learners will make R Lado (1957) states: “We can predict and describe the pattern that will cause difficulty by comparing systematically the language and the culture to be learnt with the native language and culture of the learners” aims of the study: The aims of the study on English adverbs as modifiers in contrast with their Vietnamese equivalents are: - To provide a clear classification on English adverbs in terms of their morphological features as well as their semantic and syntactic functions - To study the positions and roles of English adverbs as modifiers in relation with other word classes (i.e verbs, adjectives, ) or other words - To show the linguistic characteristics of English adverbs in contrast with the Vietnamese equivalents, chiefly basing on the function of modification - To find out similarities and differences of adverbs as modifiers in English and Vietnamese - To suggest some types of exercises and activities on the adverbs as modifiers in English with an aim to help Vietnamese learners avoid errors and negative interference Scope of the study: This study examines English adverbs as modifiers compared with Vietnamese equivalents to point out the distinctive features of English adverbs and possible difficulties that Vietnamese learners may meet when studying English adverbs Therefore, attention paid to English will far outweigh to Vietnamese as this study will be used in teaching English adverbs as modifiers to Vietnamese learners In general, English adverbs have two syntactic functions: modifiers and adverbials As the study requires, more focus will be on the modifying function methods of the study: As the study sets its main objectives of investigating and contrasting the syntactic and semantic functions and the classification of adverbs in general and adverbs as modifiers in particular , in English and Vietnamese, the research method is mainly based on microlinguistic CA On the basis of CA, an experiment is done on certain obstacles that Vietnamese learners may encounter when learning adverbs The data for analysis is based on the experiment and examples are collected from the grammatical materials and reference books written by contemporary English and Vietnamese linguists The source of materials is taken from English texts in different genres: novels, short stories, books and the like Design of the study: This study is composed of three parts: Part one, entitled “Introduction” outlines the background of the study Part two with the title of “Investigation” comprises three chapters: Chapter I discusses the theoretical preliminaries with a focus on the characteristics of the adverbs as modifiers Chapter II presents and describes cases of adverbs with the modifying function as compared to Vietnamese translation equivalents The last chapter shows the findings and implications for teaching and learning English adverbs extracted from the study Part three is “Conclusion” provides the recapitulation, limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies The study ends with the “Bibliography” If the sentence is translated into English with the adverb functioning as the subject, the sentence is grammatically incorrect and make no sense *Here is easy for bikes to be stolen chapter III Implications to learning and teaching adverbs as modifiers So far, we have examined the English adverbs as well as the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese adverbs as modifiers in the previous chapter This chapter will focus on two main parts: an experiment carried out to find out mistakes in using English adverbs and some remedial suggestions for teaching and learning III.1 Errors made by Vietnamese learners in using adverbs: Learning a foreign language is considered to be very difficult, which is partly due to the target language itself, the differences between the two languages or sometimes due to mother tongue interference and some other factors Learning a language is not a master of acquiring a set of grammatical rules and building up a large vocabulary However, it is unacceptable to produce ungrammatical sentences Therefore, teaching grammar really works well to learners if this helps them to master the language When working with learners, who starts learning ESP at MTA, teachers should focus on the uses and the forms of the major word-classes as well as grammatical rules Among major word classes, adverbs are of great importance Before giving suggestions, the writer would like to discuss and analyze some common mistakes in using adverbs III.2 An experiment: To obtain a better result through adjusted teaching methods, experiments have to be done to find out actual errors made by students in learning processes Therefore, a survey with three types of exercises has been designed The subjects involved in this study were 25 thirdyear students from the group Rada 1+2 at Military Technical Academy They were requested to the survey individually Then all the paper was collected, carefully read and analyzed The common errors are marked and arranged into groups as shown in the Appendix II and presented in the next part III.3 Error analysis: III.3.1 Errors in confusing adjectives and of adverbs: + In Vietnamese, adjectives and adverbs are the same in form so learners sometimes mis-use adjectives in place of manner adverbs [145] * She recovered rapid [146] * It will certain be a hard job Instead of : She recovered rapidly It will certainly be a hard job However, this error is relatively common (46%) though in English many learners are familiar to constructing an adverb by adding –ly suffix to a corresponding adjective + In English, the majority of adverbs are created by the suffix –ly Therefore, learners sometimes over-generalize this rule, not realizing that there are a number of exceptions to this In other words, some words take the role of adjective and adverb at the same time without changing forms i.e fast, hard, late, early, right, back [147] * she works hardly Instead of: She works hard However, some words when being added –ly suffix carry such different meaning For instance: Lazily > < Hard (adv) # Hardly = almost never Early > < Late (adv) # Lately = so far Therefore, quite a lot of students (above 50%) failure to distinguish this semantic difference As a result, they tend to produce the sentences with –ly suffix + In contrast to the –ly suffix rule of most English adverbs, some English adjectives have no corresponding adverb forms Once again, learners make mistakes with over-using this rule, about 54% gave the wrong answer [148] * She greeted us really friendly Instead of: She greeted us in a really friendly way + It should be noticed here that such a lot of students (67%) made mistakes with syntactic feature of the pair: really-too [149] * The exam was too difficult Instead of: The exam was really difficult III.3.2 Errors in placing adverbs: + Due to Vietnamese inference, Vietnamese learners (62,5%) commonly put adverbs of place/ time at the very beginning of the sentence; whereas these English adverbs mainly appear at E position [150] * Here they not allow smoking Instead of: They not allow smoking here + For modal adverbs, Vietnamese learners tend to put them at I-position of the clause due to direct translation whereas these adverbs often go in M-position [151] *Definitely he was there [152] *Probably/ Perhaps/ Maybe, this afternoon it will rain Instead of: He definitely was there It will probably rain this afternoon + For some sentence adverbs, still a few students (about 10%) put them at M or E position though their widely-known position is I as they are to connect the two sentences [153] * A tiger suddenly jumped out of a tree Instead of: Suddenly, a tiger jumped out of a tree (more favored) + Similarly, due to direct translation, so many subjects (96%) gave the wrong word order with noun modifier [154] * The upstairs flat has just been broken into Instead of: The flat upstairs has just been broken into III.3.3 Errors in choosing adverbs of degree (=intensifiers): + Basically, some intensifiers only modify gradable adjectives/ adverbs Not distinguishing gradable and non-gradable adjectives and adverbs, more than half of the subjects (58%) use them inappropriately [155] * I’m very starving [156] * It’s very excellent news Instead of: I’m very hungry or I’m nearly starving It’s very good news or It’s really excellent news + This is a complicated matter as it relates to a subtle meaning layer of some intensifiers when used with verbs As explained in the previous chapter, certain intensifiers can only go with certain verbs, not all the verbs alike As a result, some of the subjects (29%) tend to produce the sentences as: [157] * I very like this TV program Instead of: I really like this TV program or I like this TV program very much III.4 Suggestions for teaching and studying English adverbs: III.4.1 To the teachers: A conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that English adverb is a complex word-class Thus, the concept of English adverbs should be treated with caution by teachers as they help students to comprehend them correctly First, teachers should make it clear to students that English is an inflectional language as compared to Vietnamese Accordingly, teachers may stress on morphological characteristics of English adverbs as well as some exceptions Second, teachers are advised to focus on the syntactic functions and the interrelation between positions of English adverbs and their meanings Third, it is recommended for teachers to distinguish different types of adverbs on semantic features as this has a big influence on student’s choice of adverbs in certain cases Last, as we have found in this study, English adverbs as modifiers are really common not only in written but also in spoken registers, especially mood adjuncts Therefore, mood adjuncts should be taken into account in developing speaking materials for students III.4.2 To the students: As a matter of fact, the two languages belonging to different families own distinctive features, which is right to English and Vietnamese In Vietnamese, adverb is partly realized by word(s) and partly found through its functions or positions in the clause Therefore, students’ task of mastering adverbs in general and adverbs as modifiers in particular is surely hard An insight into the nature and the differences between English and Vietnamese adverbs will obviously help students overcome obstacles that they may encounter when expressing information or ideas by means of adverbs Part three Conclusion Recapitulation: This study has attempted to investigate the semantic and syntactic characteristics and the classification of English adverbs They are popular in both written and spoken registers In terms of syntactic features, English adverbs are common with the two main functions: the adverbial and the modifier In terms of semantic features, English adverbs are widely realized as circumstantial elements which are optional or peripheral to the clause structure Taken the modifying function into account, English adverbs perform a variety of modification Different types of adverbs act different types of modifiers However, as their name suggests, English adverbs as modifiers take the task of modifying as well as providing extra information which can be omitted and still leave the sentence grammatical; except for obligatory adjuncts The contrastive analysis of English adverbs as modifiers with Vietnamese equivalents shows that there are both similarities and differences which can be summed up as follows: (a) Similarities: - Adverb is to supply the circumstantial meaning of an event - Adverbs are semantically classified into some main types - Adverbs can take three positions in the clause In many cases, changing positions results in semantic changes - Adverbs perform the modifying function to a variety of sentence units (b) Differences: - Morphologically, most of the English adverbs can be easily realized by the suffix –ly or –wise/ - ward (less common) whereas Vietnamese ones can only be found through their functions and positions in the clause - Vietnamese circumstantial adverbs can act as subjects which can rarely be carried out by English ones [158] Mai lµ chđ nhËt – Tomorrow is Sunday (less common in English) -> It’s Sunday tomorrow Finally, this CA helps us make a prediction basing on an experiment to find out some common errors made by students at the Military Technical Academy in using English adverbs as modifiers The result reveals that there are three common errors: errors in confusing adjectives and of adverbs, errors in placing adverbs, errors in choosing adverbs of degree Accordingly, some types of exercises (in the Appendix III) are suggested for students to practice the use of English adverbs appropriately Limitations and suggestions for further studies: This study has limited to examples of English adverbs as modifiers in the written, especially in texts or short stories so not much attention has been paid to the conversations Moreover, much of our effort has been focused on the analysis of English adverbs as modifiers basing on Traditional Grammar and very little attempt has been made to analyze them basing on other grammar currents Therefore, further studies of the topic, if possible, should cover a broader range of English adverbs as modifiers by turning notice to such grammar currents as: Functional Grammar, Transformational-Generative Grammar, etc Besides, since the main concern of this study is on the modifying function of English adverbs, another aspect of the study, if interested, is the modification of such English units as adjectives, nouns or participles This comparison will definitely be of great value Due to my limited ability and condition of study, some mistakes are inevitable elsewhere Therefore, I would like the readers of the study to make valuable suggestions for the improvement x Bibliography a English Alexander, L.G (1988) Longman English Grammar London Longman Bibber, D et al (1999) Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English Longman Bloor, T (1995) The functional analysis of English: a Halliday approach London New York Ann, C.B (1986) Health English Grammar and composition Lexington Cobuild, C (1990) English Grammar Collins Publishers, London Dixon, Robert, M.W (1991) A new approach to English grammar, on semantic principle Oxford England David M.G (2000) Syntax in Functional Grammar: an introduction to lexicogrammar in systemic linguistics London New York Downing, A and Lock, P (1992) A university course in English Grammar New York Prentice Hall International Eskerslly, C.E (1970) A Comprehensive English Grammar London, Longman 10 Eastwood, J (1999) Oxford practice grammar Oxford University Press 11 Els, T.V et al (1984) Applied Linguistics and the Learning and Teaching of Foreign Languages Adward Arnold Ltd London 12 Frances H.B (2002) A little Princess Oxford University Press 13 Fries, C.C (1945) Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language University of Michigan Press 14 Geoff, T (1996) Introducing Functional Grammar London New York Adward Arnold Ltd 15 Gerald P Delahunty & James J Garvey (1994) Language, grammar and communication McGraw-Hill, Inc 16 Halliday, M.A.K (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar New York, Edward Arnold Ltd xi 17 Ivan A Sag, et al (2000) Syntactic Theory (A formal Introduction) Second Edition CSLT Publications 18 James, C (1980) Contrastive Analysis Essex: Longman 19 Jackson, H (1992) Grammar and Meaning: a semantic approach to English Grammar Longman, London New York 20 Leech, G and Svartvik (1975) A Communicative Grammar of English Essex: Longman 21 Murphy, R (1989) English Grammar in Use Cambridge University Press 22 Martin, J.R et al (1997) Working with Functional Grammar London New York Edward Arnold Ltd 23 Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S (1987) A University Grammar of English Longman 24 Quirk, et al (1985) A grammar of Contemporary English Longman 25 Richard, J (1992) Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics London, Longman 26 Swan, M (1980) Practical English Usage Oxford University Press 27 Thomson, A.J and Martinet, A.V (1989) A Practical English Grammar Oxford University Press B In Vietnamese Ban, Diệp Quang (1984) Cấu tạo câu đơn Tiếng Việt NXB Đại học s- phạm Hà nội I Ban, Diệp Quang and Thung, Hoàng Văn (2002) Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt NXB GD Đào, Trần Thị Mai (2007) Mối quan hệ vị trí trạng tõ tiÕng Anh (cã liªn hƯ víi tiÕng ViƯt) Tạp chí Ngôn ngữ đời sống (số 8-142; tr 27-28) NXB Chính trị quốc gia Hòa, Nguyễn and Thu Minh (2006) Luyện dịch Việt-Anh NXB ĐHQG Hà nội Hạo, Cao Xuân (1991) Tiếng việt sơ thảo ngữ pháp chức NXB GD Kế, Lê Khả., Liêu, Đặng Chấn & Trọng, Phạm Duy (1997) Từ điển Việt – Anh NXB Thµnh Hå ChÝ Minh PhiÕn, Hoàng Trọng (1980) Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt Câu NXB Đại học Trung học chuyên nghiệp, Hà nội Thản, Nguyễn Kim (1996) Cơ sở ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt NXB KHXH Hà Nội xii Thản, Nguyễn Kim (1964) Nghiên cứu ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt NXB KHXH 10 Thắng, Lý Toàn (2004) Lý thuyết trật tự từ cú pháp NXB Đại học quốc gia Hà nội 11 Thiệp, Nguyễn Huy (2004) Truyện ngắn (tái bản) Nhà xuất Hội nhà văn 12 Vân, Hoàng Văn (2002) Ngữ pháp kinh nghiệm cú Tiếng Việt: mô tả theo quan điểm chức hệ thống NXB Khoa học x· héi I Appendix I A survey This survey is designed for students to collect data for research paper ‘A study on English adverbs as modifiers – A contrastive analysis with Vietnamese equivalents’ The objective of this survey is to find out common errors in learning English adverbs in general and English adverbs as modifiers in particular Your assistance in completing the following exercises is highly appreciated You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data  Exercise 1: Underline the most suitable words/ phrases: We all went home (late/ lately) It will (certain/ certainly) be a hard job Are you going out? – (Possibly/ Certainly) I don’t know yet The exam was (really/ too) difficult I couldn’t any of it She greeted us (friendly/ in a friendly way) Exercise 2: Put the adverbs provided in the correct place by giving a tick: A tiger jumped out of a tree (suddenly) Thank you for the invitation I can’t come (unfortunately) I got out of bed and went to make a cup of tea (downstairs) She checked in her luggage She went to have a cup of coffee (then) There’s a programme on TV tonight that I’m interested in (very) Exercise 3: Translate the following sentences into Vietnamese: Tôi thích ch-ơng trình TV Đó mét tin rÊt tut vêi Ch¾c ch¾n có mặt ở ng-ời ta không cho phép đỗ xe Có lẽ chiều m-a Căn hộ tầng vừa bị đột nhËp II Appendix II A survey result In this study, the survey exercises are focused totally on the semantic and syntactic features as well as the positions of English adverbs as modifiers Most of the common errors found is now presented in the three tables below No Adverbs – Adjectives Right Ration of used Common errors correct answers late-lately 16/24 67% Confusing adjectives and adverbs certain-certainly 13/24 54% Confusing adjectives and adverbs possibly-certainly 23/24 96% Failure to understand semantic meaning really-too 8/24 33% Failure to understand syntactic structure No friendly-in a friendly 11/24 46% way Table 1: Errors in word choice Adverbs used Right Over-using –ly suffix Ration of Common errors wrong answers suddenly 20/24 17% Sentence adverbs in Medial position unfortunately 22/24 8% Sentence adverbs in Final position downstairs 24/24 0% No then 24/24 0% No very 22/24 8% An intensifier put before a noun Table 2: Errors in positions No Incorrect translation Ration of correct Common errors Translation 7/24 71% Semantic errors 14/24 42% Confusing gradable – upgradeable adjectives 16/24 33% Modal adverbs in Initial position 9/24 62,5% 14/24 42% Direct translation 23/24 4% Wrong order of noun modifier Adverbs of place in Initial position Table 3: Errors in translation III Appendix III Suggested types of exercises Following are some exercises and an activity suggested for students’ practice on using adverbs of some types correctly and suitably These exercises were selected from different course books, ranging from simplicity to difficulty, chiefly oriented to pre-intermediate students who have already mastered the basic grammatical rules Type 1: Complete the sentences with the adverb in the correct place: A tiger jumped out of a tree (suddenly) Thank you for the invitation I can’t come (unfortunately) I got out of bed and went to make a cup of tea (downstairs) She checked in her luggage She went to have a cup of coffee (then) They have a son called Simon, and we have a son called Simon (too) There’s a programme on TV tonight that I’m interested in (very) I worked all last week (hard) I was sitting at home when something very strange happened (last Thursday evening)] Type 2: Choose a suitable adverb and put it in the correct place in the sentence: Have you finished writing your essay? (yet/ ever) Are there any letters for me? I’ve seen the postman (ago/ just) We went to a restaurant (ever/ yesterday) Put on your coat It’s cold (outside/ out) How old are you? – I’m eight It’s my birthday next week (nearly/ just) It was cold to go out so we decided to stay at home (rather/ too) Do you come here? (rarely/ often) They left the building when they heard the fire alarm ring (quickly/ soon) Type 3: Underline the correct adverbs: Are you going out? – (Possibly/ Certainly) I don’t know yet The exam was (really/ too) difficult I couldn’t any of it IV I used to speak French (easily/ fluently), but I’ve forgotten it now I traveled a lot in my job, (commonly/ mainly) to Europe I have (exactly/ definitely) $4.50 to last until the end of the week Type 4: Complete the sentences with suitable adverbs: still/ nearly/ only/ of course/ together/ at last/ exactly/ too/ especially/ just Do you love me? - I I adore you I called Tom at 10.00 in the morning, but he was in bed It’s our anniversary today We’ve been .for fifteen years Kate is very fussy about food She eats pasta and crisps She was very ill and .died, but fortunately, she got better I like all Russian novelists, Tolstoy I hate ironing – Me, It’s so boring Are you telling me that we have no money - .Not a penny Type 5: Put the adjective in brackets in the correct place When necessary, change the adjective to an adverb: We had a holiday in Spain, but unfortunately we had weather (terrible) I haven’t seen him.(late) When I saw the accident, I phoned the police.(immediate) We all passed the exam.(easy) It will be a hard job (certain) Type 6: (A teacher has to prepare a tape) Listen to a man describing what happened to him in the middle of the night Number the adverbs in the order you hear them .quickly carefully immediately quietly suddenly really slowly fortunately ... Morphonology of Vietnamese adverbs I.3 Classification of adverbs I.3.1 Syntactic classification of English adverbs I.3.2 Syntactic classification of Vietnamese adverbs I.3.3 Semantic classification... Linguistics (1992), Jack Richard defines an adverbial as ? ?a word (an adverb) or a group of words (an adverbial phrase or an adverbial clause) that functions in the same way as an adverb‛ As such, it modifies... Implications to learning and teaching adverbs as modifiers So far, we have examined the English adverbs as well as the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese adverbs as modifiers