syntactic analysis - -ly adverb at the beginning of the sentence


I once took a multiple choice exam where there was a section with all possible answers being made up of a single word, an -ly suffix adverb followed by a comma at the beginning of the sentence. According to my own judgement, I answered correctly, but for some reason I failed that portion.


What do you call this type of sentence? Are there in-depth resources about this topic so that I won't fail again when faced with the same problem?



Answer



Sentences like these use disjuncts



A specific type of disjunct is the sentence adverb (or sentence adverbial), which modifies a sentence, or a clause within a sentence, to convey the mood, attitude or sentiments of the speaker, rather than an adverb modifying a verb, an adjective or another adverb within a sentence.


Here are some examples (note: the disjuncts that follow are 'sentence adverbs'):




  • Honestly, I didn't do it. (Meaning "I'm honest when I say I didn't do it" rather than "I didn't do it in an honest way.")




  • Fortunately for you, I have it right here.




  • In my opinion, the green one is better.




  • Frankly, this whole paragraph needs work.





Source- wikipedia


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