Adj or adv

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Teo

#135968 Sat, 10 Sep 05 04:40 PM

1. He went away sad.

2. He went away sadly.

3. He went away happy.

4. He went away happily.

In my opinion, I think sentences #2 and #4 are correct.

Could any native speaker tell me which of the above sentences are acceptable?

Thank you very much for your reply.

Teo

Joined on Tue, Sep 28 2004

Taiwan

Contributing Member (1,631)

Thank you very much for your reply.

CalifJim

#135987 Sat, 10 Sep 05 05:39 PM

In the right context all are acceptable.
1. He was sad when he went away.
2. He went away [in a sad manner / looking sad].
3. He was happy when he went away.
4. He went away [in a happy manner / looking happy].

2. and 4. could be rephrased very slightly -- with a comma, or by preposing the adverb -- to yield a different meaning. Of the two, preposing the adverb is the more idiomatic and less ambiguous turn of phrase.

He went away, sadly.
Sadly, he went away.
It was [sad / unfortunate] that he went away.

He went away, happily.
Happily, he went away.
[It was fortunate / We were lucky] that he went away. Thank goodness he went away.

CJ

PS. My instinct tells me you want to say 1 and 3.

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (18,317)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Verbs, Adverbs, Commas

Anonymous

#152297 Fri, 28 Oct 05 01:10 AM

yea ur rite.

Anonymous

Teo

#152494 Fri, 28 Oct 05 06:38 PM

1. She was dancing happy.

2. She was dancing happily.

3. She danced happy.

4. She danced happily.

Which of the above sentences are not acceptable?

Thanks a lot for your reply.

Teo

pieanne

#152498 Fri, 28 Oct 05 06:44 PM

To me, 1 & 3 are not correct unless you put a comma before "happy"

pieanne

Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005

South of France ...But I'm Belgian!

Veteran Member (7,512)

I'm glad to help, but I'm not a native! And please excuse my typos...

Commas

Teo

#152656 Sat, 29 Oct 05 05:01 AM

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/student/viewtopic.php?p=44820#44820

1. She danced happy.
2. She danced happily.
3. He went away happy.
4. He went away happily.
Sentence 1 is not so common, but it certainly could be used (in informal conversation) to mean "She was in a happy mood while dancing."
Sentence 2 also has the word order "She happily danced," and means "She was happy to dance (when she was asked to dance)."
Sentence 3 means "He was in a happy mood when he went away."
And Sentence 4 means "He wanted to go away, so he was happy that he was able to go away."

Teo

Conversations, Word Order

paco2004

#152670 Sat, 29 Oct 05 06:24 AM

Hello Teo

The problem you are raising is tough to discuss. The constructions <S V C> and <S V O C> where C is an adjective depicting the subject's state are called "subject-related depictive construct" or "subject-related secondary predicate". The last term indicates that the sentences comprises of two parts : <S V O> and <S is/was C>. The constructions are still under study to be established as grammatical constructions. One restriction is that <S is/was C> must be so strongly related to the event described by <S V O> that the listener can easily understand the relation. From the learners' view, it would be better to look upon them as a kind of idiomatic expression. That means, we learners should be careful not to generalize this sort of construction.

     1) She danced happy.
     2) She danced happily.
It is not difficult to guess #1's relation between "She danced" and "She was happy", i.e., "She was happy when she danced" or "She danced because she was happy". Nevertheless, the use of this sentence is rather rare. The sentence #2 says "She looked happy when she danced" (Nobody knows whether she was really happy or no

      3) They went away happy.
      4) They went away happily.
As for this pair, #3 is more commonly used than #4. The sentence #3 would mean "they were happy when they went away" as Dave Shaffer explained. I take the sentence #4 to mean "They look happy when they went away".

      5) They went away, happily.
      6) Happily, they went away.
"Happily" in these two sentences works as a sentential adverb (an adverb that modifies the whole predicate), and they mean "It was a happy thing (for them) that they went away", as CJ already mentioned.

paco

paco2004

Joined on Wed, Nov 17 2004

Senior Member (4,095)

In Japan today even dogs are learning how to bow-wow in English.

Verbs, Constructions, Adverbs, Predicates, Expressions

MrPedantic

#152995 Sun, 30 Oct 05 12:55 AM

Sentence 2 also has the word order "She happily danced," and means "She was happy to dance (when she was asked to dance)."

This doesn't strike me as the default interpretation for "she danced happily". If the sentence is intended to be from her point of view, it means "she was happy while dancing"; if it's from someone else's point of view, it means "she appeared to be happy while dancing".

Sentence 3 means "He was in a happy mood when he went away."

This is slightly misleading. You say "go away happy" in this kind of context:

MrQ discovers a black beetle in a packet of salad. He goes back to the supermarket and complains. The supermarket give him $50 in compensation. MrQ goes away happy.

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Wed, Oct 13 2004

Veteran Member (12,231)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Word Order

Anonymous

#506130 Sun, 27 Apr 08 02:42 PM

Teo

1. She was dancing happy.

2. She was dancing happily.

3. She danced happy.

4. She danced happily.

Which of the above sentences are not acceptable?

Thanks a lot for your reply.

1-3

Anonymous

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