What part of speech is “all” in this sentence? She signaled frantically with her arms all akimbo.

Question

I'm not sure what "all" is modifying.

Answer 1

She signaled frantically with her arms all akimbo.

Akimbo is an adjective modifying arms.

Adjectives modify nouns.

What kind of arms? Akimbo arms.

All is an adverb modifying akimbo.

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

How (to what extent) akimbo?

Substitute all with mostly, almost or nearly, which are adverbs.

She signaled frantically with her arms mostly akimbo.

She signaled frantically with her arms almost akimbo.

She signaled frantcially with her arms nearly akimbo.

Answer 2

Hi Bob E.,

When in doubt, substitute something similar. So for arms "all akimbo" (which forms a unit, like the parts of "notwithstanding"), substitute "vertical arms". Now you should be able to figure out what beast it is. It is just a perculiarity of expression that it trails the noun it modifies, in this usage, and is split into two words.

Note that the classification would change if you said, "All of her arms were akimbo".

-- Cheers, -- Mr. d.