-ly forms

[irmamar]

The book that I'm reading now says:

... people manage to communicate extremely effectively and relatively unproblematically...

I don't like so many consecutive '-ly forms', but that's just my opinion . What do you think when reading a sentence like this? I would have tried to avoid such a quantity of adverbs following one another. Do you think that it's common in English?

Thanks.

[poli]

Originally Posted by irmamar

The book that I'm reading now says:

... people manage to communicate extremely effectively and relatively unproblematically...

I don't like so many consecutive '-ly forms', but that's just my opinion . What do you think when reading a sentence like this? I would have tried to avoid such a quantity of adverbs following one another. Do you think that it's common in English?

Thanks.

Como sabes -ly iguala -amente en español. Estoy de acuerdo contigo
que el estilo de la persona que escribió las frase es un poquito(pocón) pesado.
El uso de extremely y relatively en esta oración es relativiamente y damasiadamente
en exceso.

[irmamar]

Thanks, poli. Ya me parecía, pero...

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by irmamar

The book that I'm reading now says:

... people manage to communicate extremely effectively and relatively unproblematically...

I don't like so many consecutive '-ly forms', but that's just my opinion . What do you think when reading a sentence like this? I would have tried to avoid such a quantity of adverbs following one another. Do you think that it's common in English?

Thanks.

I agree that it does not read well, but to me it does not stick out as being particularly bad either. I would have written

... people manage to communicate extremely effectively and with relatively few problems ...

just to reduce to -ly forms. These days, I'm glad to see somebody has not forgotten about adverbs, they seem to be dying out.

[poli]

Originally Posted by Perikles

I agree that it does not read well, but to me it does not stick out as being particularly bad either. I would have written

... people manage to communicate extremely effectively and with relatively few problems ...

just to reduce to -ly forms. These days, I'm glad to see somebody has not forgotten about adverbs, they seem to be dying out.

....but not a moment too soon when they are overused.

[JPablo]

Well, I agree with you. (La ley del péndulo aristotélico).
Irma, you reminded my an article I read probably in Encarta Encyclopedia, where Gabriel García Márquez got interviewed and talked about the Spanish adverbs in "-mente". (I did a search in Google, and didn't find the exact one I remember, but one that is close enough.) I give you the link and quote a short section. I personally don't have anything against "-mente", but I tend to restrain myself of overuse... I had an old friend who, while colloquially speaking, would throw at least, 3 or 4 "-mente" in his sentence: "Porque verdaderamente, los militares de la Academia de Zaragoza son obviamente los más capacitados para dirigir esta andadura, honestamente creo que son los que han sido formados más concienzudamente". (I invented this example from what I remember, but his way of saying it was way more clumsy than my attempt here...)

http://www.ciudadseva.com/textos/teoria/opin/ggm1.htm

«La raíz de esta falsa polémica es que somos los escritores, y no los gramáticos y lingüistas, quienes tenemos el oficio feliz de enfrentarnos y embarrarnos con el lenguaje todos los días de nuestras vidas. Somos los que sufrimos con sus camisas de fuerza y cinturones de castidad. A veces nos asfixiamos, y nos salimos por la tangente con algo que parece arbitrario, o apelamos a la sabiduría callejera».
«Por ejemplo: he dicho en mi discurso que la palabra condoliente no existe. Existen el verbo condoler y el sustantivo doliente, que es el que recibe las condolencias. Pero los que las dan no tienen nombre. Yo lo resolví para mí en El General en su laberinto con una palabra sin inventar: condolientes. Se me ha reprochado también que en tres libros he usado la palabra átimo, que es italiana derivada del latín, pero que no pasó al castellano. Además, en mis últimos seis libros no he usado un sólo adverbio de modo terminado en mente, porque me parecen feos, largos y fáciles, y casi siempre que se eluden se encuentran formas bellas y originales»

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by irmamar

What do you think when reading a sentence like this?

Me parece una frase regular. Si lo hubiera encontrado en su contexto, dudo que me habría llamado la atención.

[irmamar]

OK, thanks everybody.

Pjt: "dudo que me hubiese (o hubiera)..." (dudar que rige subjuntivo). O, simplemente, "no me habría llamado la atención".

[pjt33]

Vale, gracias. (Y no quería mostrarme tan cierto )

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by irmamar

The book that I'm reading now says:

... people manage to communicate extremely effectively and relatively unproblematically...

I don't like so many consecutive '-ly forms', but that's just my opinion . What do you think when reading a sentence like this? I would have tried to avoid such a quantity of adverbs following one another. Do you think that it's common in English?

Thanks.

I agree. It's not necessarily *wrong*, but I think that there are better ways to word the sentence. Like Perikles' option....

Originally Posted by Perikles

I agree that it does not read well, but to me it does not stick out as being particularly bad either. I would have written

... people manage to communicate extremely effectively and with relatively few problems ...

just to reduce to -ly forms. These days, I'm glad to see somebody has not forgotten about adverbs, they seem to be dying out.

You have opinions about the frequency of use of adverbs? Really?