word order - "have basically been doing something" or "have been basically doing something"





Position of the adverb “of course”
Should an adverb go before or after a verb?



I was wondering what position of an adverb relative to more than one auxiliary verbs are generally? For example, "have basically been doing something" or "have been basically doing something"? Thanks!



Answer



To pick a more concrete example,



  1. I basically have been practicing violin.

  2. I have been basically practicing violin.


The first says that other things have happened, I may have other occupations, but I'm mostly practicing violin.


The second says that what I'm doing is, essentially, not playing randomly or performing, but practicing violin.


These are generalizations; either sentence can carry the other sense depending on context, but that is how I'd compare the two.


EDIT: Changed the 1st example a bit to move the adverb out away from the main verb to show that it tends more to modify the auxiliary ("have been", which could be replaced by "am in the habit of" or "tend to") when not next to the main verb. That, I realize, is what I was driving at. And this would only hold true if the adverb can potentially modify either the auxiliary or the main verb, with different results.


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