My "-ly" Tale

Back in high school, I distinctly remember the multitude of instances in which my teacher Mrs. Lobo would actively and routinely go out of her way to correct our entire class on our usage of adverbs, or lack thereof. Every time a student had a question, her initial response would be that of criticism met with a patronizing “correction” prior to answering the inquiry itself. Every time a student was presenting their project, she would immediately cut in if an adverb could have been applied. This inherent mockery of the “non-standard”, especially in front of the whole class, certainly instilled a good sense of apprehension in me for adverbs. Ever since, I have always been under the impression that adverbs were an absolute necessity when describing the predicate of a sentence, I tended to implement them whenever appropriate and even became bothered myself if they were absent when applicable; so far I have used five adverbs in this piece, and there’s probably more to come (six now). I suppose that it was befitting of a language teacher to be so anal with the “accurate”, despite that language being Spanish and not the English she was correcting us on. However, after being presented with a new perspective on language variation in this class, I began to really question the true necessity of emphasizing the suffix “-ly”.

Adverbs by definition are designed to enhance a verb, adjective, or noun in question, to literally add to the description of a subject’s action, state or occurrence. That being said, there exist linguistic ideologies stating such an amplification does not a substitution make for communicative clarity. For example, to say “I’m so sorry for being late, I came as quick as I could” effectively communicates the circumstance of delay. However, this could also be said as “ I came as quickly as I could”, the incorporation of the “-ly” added for supposed “correctness” as the former is not considered grammatically accurate. This subtle nuance does modify the example, but its inclusion certainly feels less than substantial. The original sentence itself still manages to properly convey the situation at hand, an individual explaining to have arrived in the most timely manner is collectively received and understood, with the addition of “-ly” only simply providing more of an impact to the claim. There also exist ideologies that opt for the altering of syntax to outright avoid the usage of an adverb. For example, to say “read the contract carefully before signing” is a perfectly reasonable way of conveying apprehension prior to signing. Saying “read the contract with caution before signing” could be just as easy to reasonably comprehend with no appropriate opening for an adverb. This divergence solidly illustrates how adverbs are not a necessity at every given instance when other similar avenues of communication are feasible. These linguistic ideologies excellently dismantle adverbs as nothing more than unremarkable modifications as opposed to significant enhancements in language.

I find these various linguistic ideologies all to be genuine eye-openers for me, never facilitating the idea that adverbs are always a necessity whenever appropriate or even strengthening one’s words. Again, the existence of adverbs is to modify a verb, adjective or noun for the purposes of magnifying the declaration in question, but the message in absence of this application still manages to get the point across just fine, and the communicative effectiveness of an individual. There are certainly instances in which the use of an adverb inherently sounds the most correct, but so long as the information is delivered with efficiency and clarity, it is really unnecessary to insist on its trivial addition. Adverbs can certainly help spice up a sentence but in no way are they intrinsic to include for one to communicate effectively.

Taking into consideration what I have learned in this course thus far, I have to say Mrs. Lobo was rather intolerant when it came to her condemnation on student’s usages of adverbs or lack thereof. Their messages were always clear in their content be it through questioning or demonstrating, the simple addition of an “-ly” to their predicates would merely elevate their statements rather than acting as a force for clarification; for Mrs. Lobo to focus so intently on something so superficial about language is nothing short of linguistic gaslighting in my eyes now. If this piece is any indication, my usage and acknowledgement of adverbs will not slow down anytime soon due to what was embedded so long ago, but I can say with certainty that their absence will no longer bother me the same way it did for my high school teacher.