Indicating likelihood
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Using adverbials to indicate likelihood | page 5 of 5 |
Some key features
Because adverbials are an important means by which speakers can indicate modal meanings 
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learners need to be aware of the main ways in which they are used.
Adverbials are often used in spoken English as politeness markers to soften or "hedge" what one is saying:
Now looking the other way towards the organization, erm, I mean presumably you spend quite a lot of time just wandering around and chatting to people and seeing how things are going on. (Bank of English)
The speaker is saying here, "I think it is very likely that you spend a lot of your time as manager talking to your staff." The unspoken message underlying this use of the adverbial is, "… and if you don't spend a lot of your time doing that, please forgive me." Note how the hesitation "erm" and the use of the empty filler I mean further soften the tone.
In most cases, adverbs do not convey all the modal meaning by themselves, but are used together with modal verbs and other forms of modality; for example, an adverbial such as actually can be used to reinforce the tentativeness created by the other forms of modality, as in this excerpt:
It may very well be that many of these sources are unnecessary at any given time, and may or may not actually be in use ...
It is interesting to note that writers are able to use adverbs such as clearly to suggest that what is being suggested is so obvious that the reader will surely agree:
So it is clearly right to argue, as Dahrendorf does, that the emergence of an underclass is a potent condition of rising crime. (Microconcord Corpus B)
This is a device often used by writers (and speakers) when they are attempting to be persuasive. It can be very effective in persuading the reader - even if what is being suggested is not clear, as seems to be the case with global warming according to the following extracts:
Clearly, global warming is a problem that's here to stay. (Bank of English)
Compare this with the following:
The discovery of an 8-million-year-old glacier in Antarctica could prove global warming will not be as devastating as once thought, University of Edinburgh glaciologist David Sugden claims. (Bank of English)
Introduction
Some key features
