Question about Spanish adverbs

[laepelba]

I am reading a chapter about Spanish adverbs. I will copy the following directly from the text:

Some Spanish adverbs ending in -mente have a narrower meaning than their corresponding adjectives in English:

Les hablé fríamente. <--> I spoke to them coldly.
Discutimos el tema acaloradamente. <--> We discussed the subject hotly.
El público aplaudió calurosamente. <--> The public applauded warmly.

I understand how the Spanish sentences and the English sentences are equivalent. But I don't understand what they mean by the "narrower meaning" in Spanish than in English. Can someone expound on that for me, please? Thanks!!

[JPablo]

Mmmmh...
Good question. Out of context, it seems that the English adverbs may have a lot of different connotations, while the Spanish ones are much more specific and/or "univalent", ie., more narrow in terms of its meaning. (That is just my guess...)

Probably it's a matter of checking the meaning of each adverb in the examples in Spanish and in English and see the semantic field of these terms equivalents... and then you can extrapolate... Like 2+2 may be 6 in one type of Math, while 2+2 may be 3 in some other "universe"... thus, being a bit narrower. (Being a bit facetious here, but it happens that 2 words with "3 meanings" each in one language may be 2 words with 2 and 1 meaning respectively in another language...)

As I say, just my supposition...

[Don José]

Originally Posted by laepelba

But I don't understand what they mean by the "narrower meaning" in Spanish than in English.

Neither do I, looking at the examples.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

If that's all explanation you're given, it doesn't actually make much sense... but I kind of agree with Pablo. Perhaps if you give examples of many cases where you'd use these adjectives, we can compare with the equivalents in Spanish and then make up some justification for it.

[laepelba]

JPablo - I know the idea of a "narrower meaning", but I simply didn't understand how they apply here. In fact, I thought that their examples proved the opposite.

For example, I would use "coldly" as temperature or as lacking emotion. But, as an adverb, that's all I can think of, even with a dictionary in front of me. The rest of the uses of "cold" as an adjective wouldn't work as adverbs.

An odd statement. I'm glad that I'm not the only one to find it so....

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by laepelba

An odd statement. I'm glad that I'm not the only one to find it so....

My fairly exhaustive Spanish grammar book does not indicate any "narrower meaning" in Spanish adverbs, and I find the expression meaningless. It does say that the adverbs ending in -mente are often avoided with phrases used instead. This might mean that the Spanish -mente adverbs are less used that equivalent -ly English ones, but I don´t see how that leads to a "narrower meaning"

[laepelba]

Yes, the book spends very few pages on "-mente" adverbs and many pages on adverbial phrases. I believe I remember reading something at some point in time previously that "-mente" verbs are not as widely used when there is an equivalent phrase......

[Glen]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Yes, the book spends very few pages on "-mente" adverbs and many pages on adverbial phrases. I believe I remember reading something at some point in time previously that "-mente" verbs are not as widely used when there is an equivalent phrase......

Good, I'm glad to hear it's not just me. Is the phenomenon a sort of carry-over from English? I hear it mostly from people who already know English well and maybe adopt the pattern without thinking.
What brought me to this thread (two years later now) is a recent doubt that teoricamente is as good as en teoría for "theoretically."
Not to mention humanamente posible for "humanly possible," and so many other examples.
Anyway, right or wrong as a beginner I try to avoid bringing English habits over into Spanish - it just doesn't sound as authentic!

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

"Teóricamente" is the same as "en teoría", yes... it is true that there are many adverbial expressions that have a -mente equivalent in Spanish.
We do tend to avoid several -mente adverbs in the same sentence or paragraph (we don't like repetition in many language features), but I'm not sure about the fact that we use them less. Do you have any examples where you find this would be the case?

[Glen]

One example that strikes me is Personalmente,.... . since it sounds so much like a too-direct borrowing from "Personally,... ." Would something else such as En lo personal,... sound more castizo or am I just barking up the wrong tree? Call me a purist but I only want to avoid mixing language patterns, in an effort to sound like someone whose Spanish has not been contaminated by English.

[JPablo]

Personalmente, no tengo ningún problema en usar "personalmente". He visto que amigos y traductores mexicanos usan "en lo personal"... pero para mí, son ganas de "no sonar literal" o "no sonar americano"... o lo que sea.

Desde mi humilde punto de vista "en lo personal" me suena bastante "rebuscado"... menos natural...

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Hmm... I'm not sure that it's the preference of -mente adverbs, but their different use in Spanish.

- Personally, I don't find this funny. -> Pues a mí no me parece chistoso.
- Normally, I wake up at six. -> Casi siempre me levanto a las seis.
- This is usually not the case. -> Este no es el caso común. / Rara vez es así. / Es raro que esta sea la situación.
- I rarely eat mushrooms. -> Casi no como hongos.
- His hands barely touch the keyboard. -> Sus manos apenas tocan el teclado.
- I felt deeply sorry. -> Me sentí muy apenado. (Although "profundamente" would sound natural as well)
- This is easily done. -> Esto es muy fácil de hacer. / Esto se hace fácilmente. (Equally natural, I think)

But we do use -mente adverbs a lot, and maybe more in written language:
- Me atacó cobardemente.
- Normalmente no encuentro los ejemplos correctos, tal vez hoy sí.
- Estuvimos bailando alegremente hasta el amanecer.
- Esto es lo que comemos regularmente.
- Abrió la puerta rápidamente para que pudiéramos entrar.
- No te tomes todo tan seriamente.

[JPablo]

Muy buenos ejemplos, Angélica... Evitamos los problemas mentales... o de la -mente...