Two follow-up notes:
The United States’ greatest writer didn’t like adverbs:
“Both Mary and Liza like different shades of pink, so at their wedding, they chose carnations that were Mary’s pink and roses that were Liza’s.”
Daniel
The OP was misstated.
Big players make big plays in big games.
And now, the most famous use of the word “effete”
Except that “Pink” isn’t playing the role of an adjective in this sentence. “Franklin’s Pink” is a noun.
I’ve always thought that Spiro himself didn’t actually know the real meaning of the word, although his speechwriters might have.
No it’s not (especially not if you look in the second example sentence, with Mary and Liza): it’s a predicate adjective. If the sentence said, “The roses are pink,” clearly “pink” is an adjective, not a noun. When “pink” is modified by “Franklin’s,” its part of speech does not change.
Daniel
Hmm. I think your confusion may stem from the fact that in the first sentence Franklin’s Pink is a noun, just like in the sentence, “Pink is my favorite color,” “Pink” is a noun. Its part of speech changes in the second sentence.
Daniel
[QUOTE=RickJay]
Bullshit. Lots of Canadians say “real good”
[QUOTE]
Including Winnipeg native Burton Cummings, whose Sweet Sweet album includes a song titled Real Good. Incidentally, the tune playing on that second site is She’s Come Undone, which was performed by the Guess Who when Cummings was with that band.
Then when is it appropriate to use adverbs, if ever? Why are they still around?
*Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, get your adverbs here.
Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, got some adverbs here.
Come on down to Lolly’s, get the
adverbs here
You’re going to need
If you write or read,
Or even think about it.
…
Indubitably.*
They definitely have a place, but often they can just sorta lie around uselessly, cluttering up a sentence with their rather annoyingly useless presence.
Compare to:
They’ve got a place, but they can clutter up a sentence with their presence.
In my opinion, the latter sentence is stronger due to the lack of adverbs.
Now, they’re not always bad. In the previous sentence, removing “always” drastically changes the meaning of the sentence; in this sentence, “drastically” plays an important role.
But overuse of adverbs can give the impression that the author is not confident in her ideas, that she insists on qualifying everything instead of letting it stand on its own merits.
Daniel
Bravo! Well put, LHoD. Stated a little differently, a famous dictum in editing is “When in doubt, cut it out.”
In defense of adverbs, they also contribute pacing and/or timber (in the music sense) to a sentence. But, as you say, if overused have the opposite effect.
BTW, the last three words of the spare sentence also could have been cut.
It took me a minute to figure out which sentence was spare (I looked for the one in place of a flat sentence), but you’re right.
Daniel