sentence adverb

The traditional definition of an adverb is that it is a word that modifies the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, as in, for example, he shook his head sadly. However, another important function of some adverbs is to comment on a whole sentence. For example, in the sentence sadly, he is rather overbearing, sadly expresses the speaker’s attitude to what is being stated. Traditionalists take the view that the use of sentence adverbs is inherently suspect and that they should always be paraphrased, using wording such as it is sad that he is rather overbearing. A particular objection is raised to the sentence adverbs hopefully and thankfully, since they cannot be paraphrased in the usual way (see hopefully (usage) and thankfully (usage)). However, there is overwhelming evidence that such usages are well established and widely accepted in everyday speech and writing.