Is there a term for the linguistic phenomenon where a word in a sentence describes the sentence itself instead of just the elements in the sentence?

Question

I'm thinking specifically of they way words like "frankly" are sometimes used in modern English. Take the sentence: "His speech was uninhibited, unprepared, and *frankly* insulting to half of his audience." Now it could be read that here "frankly" is describing the way that the speech was insulting, saying the speech was openly and obviously insulting. However it seems another reading could be made where "frankly" is describing the tone of the sentence itself, reading almost like: "His speech was uninhibited, unprepared, and *frankly* (I am going to be frank about this) insulting to half of his audience." Is this interpretation of the sentence valid? If so, is there a term for this linguistic phenomenon? How exactly does the word "frankly" fit into this sentence (such as if you were to diagram it)?

Answer 1

The term you're looking for is "sentential adverb". The meaning of your example sentence is indeed ambiguous; both interpretations are valid. Prescriptivists will insist that you avoid sentential adverbs in formal writing, but in regular speech they occur frequently and are effortlessly understood. From a linguist's perspective, that is what makes them fully grammatical.

Perhaps the most controversial sentential adverb is "hopefully". A proofreader may insist that sentences like, "Hopefully, I will get an A," or "I'll hopefully get an A" are incorrect because (according to the proofreader) the adverb "hopefully" must be modifying the verb "get". Unless you literally mean "I will receive, in a hopeful manner, an A," the proofreader may insist that you change it to "I hope that I get an A." However, in everyday speech and informal writing the interpretation of "hopefully" as a sentential adverb (not just a verb modifier) is very common.

You may also see sentential adverbs referred to as "sentence adverbials" or as a type of disjunct.

In formal linguistics, a sentential adverb would be an AdvP, but I've never come across any literature that theorizes about how they would fit into a syntax tree diagram.

Thank you for a great question!

Elizabeth

Answer 2

Hi there,

Let's break it down a bit. "His speech was uninhibited, unprepared, and frankly insulting to half of his audience." So let's boil it down. The speaker says other person's speech was uninhibited. It was unprepared. Then comes the idea we are focusing on: It was frankly insulting. For the purpose of answering your question, the rest is unimportant. I always find it helpful to remove the extra information when dissecting a descriptive sentence like this. Now we can see that his "speech" is what's being described as "frankly insulting." So we have the adverb "frankly" describing the verb "insulting" with no commas around the word "frankly" to stop it from describing our verb. Your first interpretation is correct! Good job.

Now for the alternative interpretation you present. If I were the writer and had intended to express my opinion that the speech itself was insulting, I may add a comma after the word "and" as well as the word "frankly". This would be to show that the speaker was stating that he was being frank about what is said next. Remember, this sentence is being spoken so rules of grammar will be bent a little. Of course, that's not the only way you could express that the speaker of the sentence was being frank. You could reword the sentence to make it a bit clearer, or the person the speaker is talking to could ask for further clarification. But, like I said, it's spoken English, and who of us sticks to the rules when we speak, right?

As for a linguistic term for describing the sentence itself, I am unaware of one. The word "sentence" is a noun and any word describing a noun is considered an adjective. However, try researching it online, or perhaps another tutor may be aware of such a grammatical term. Otherwise, the word "frankly" in the original sentence is simply an adverb describing "insulting".

Thanks for posting your question! And remember, when deciphering the mean of what someone is saying in a long or really descriptive sentence, try to boil it down to the basics like I did above. I know it helps me!!

Answer 3

Words like, "frankly" are considered discourse markers in the field of Pragmatics (an area of linguistics which deals with not just the words we use but what we are doing with our speech when we use certain words). When we use "frankly," we are warning the hearer that we are about to say something that might be perceived as rude or cutting. Or, we might just be apologizing in advance for what we are about to say.