CHAPTER XXXII
SENTENCE MODIFIERS
Closely allied to the independent elements discussed in the preceding chapter are certain adverbs and adverbial phrases, which seem to modify not any special part of the sentence but the whole assertion. In some cases it is difficult to decide whether it is better to call a certain expression a sentence modifier or an independent element, but this need not trouble us greatly, for it is not the name we give to an element that is the vital point; it is a clear perception of what that element does in the sentence for the communication of the author’s thought.
Classification of Sentence Modifiers.—Certain of these modifiers are so clearly distinguishable from all other sentence-elements that we may study them in the following groups.
1. Adverbs.—Most of these are modal adverbs, denoting the manner in which an assertion is made. This may be positive, doubtful, or negative, hence the adverbs surely, perhaps, and not are very common sentence modifiers.
Other adverbs make the sentence emphatic, as indeed; others denote the extent of its application, as generally; still others take the reader back in thought to some previous statement, and denote the logical relation between this previous statement and the sentence in which they occur, as moreover, however, anyhow, though.
Examples of the use of these adverbs are found in the following sentences:
(a) “Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to recommence your narrative.”—Conan Doyle.
(b) “Indeed, almost all slang is like parched corn and should be served up hot or else not at all.”—Higginson.
(c) “It served, moreover, as a council of state to assist the monarch in the transaction of public business.”—Prescott.