15: expression of manner, means and instrument

SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
01. EXPRESSION OF MANNER.
02. EXPRESSION OF MEANS AND INSTRUMENT.
03. THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN MANNER, MEANS AND INSTRUMENT.

INTRODUCTION.

If you want to specify ‘how’ an action is performed or ‘how’ an event takes place, you
can use an adverbial of Manner, Means, or Instrument.

A/ ‘how did he write the letter?’

B/ ‘he wrote it …
… hurriedly (MANNER)
… by hand (MEANS)
… with a ball-point pen (INSTRUMENT)

You can ask a more specific question about the instrument with which an action is
performed as follows:

What did he write it with? <informal>

With what did he write it? <formal>

01. EXPRESSION OF MANNER.

The FOUR chief ways of expressing manner are:

A/ Adverbs phrases expressing manner: open-class adverbs: -ly and also -wise, -
like, -fashion, -style.
B/ Prepositional phrases expressing manner: with, in ... manner, like; distinction
between expression with like (manner)/ as (resemblance).
C/ Noun phrases expressing manner: (in) the way, the manner, the style.
D/ Clauses expressing manner: as/ as if/ (exactly) as/ (just) as/ how (often in
substandard English).

Most adjectives have matching ‘-ly’ adverbs, and many adjectives have matching
abstract nouns. Thus there may be three ways of expressing the same idea:

He spoke …
a/ confidently
b/ in a confident manner/ way
c/ with confidence

01.1. ADVERB PHRASES EXPRESSING MANNER.

An adverb of manner can usually be paraphrased by ‘in a … manner’ or ‘in a … way’

with its adjective base in the vacant position. Where an adverb form exists, it is
usually preferred over a corresponding prepositional phrase with ‘manner’ or ‘way’.
Hence, ‘he always writes carelessly’ is more usual than ‘he always writes in a
careless manner/way’.

Adverbs as heads of a manner phrase are an open class. The main method of
forming manner adverbs is by adding a ‘-ly’ suffix to an adjective. Examples:

the mother crooned softly to the child

lift that box carefully
you have done this job extremely well
Mary always dresses elegantly
they have furnished their house rather vulgarly
you have been treated badly

Three minor methods are by adding ‘-wise’, ‘-style’, or ‘-fashion’ to a noun; eg:
‘snake-wise’, ‘cowboy-style’, ‘peasant-fashion’. With these forms the prepositional
paraphrase would include postmodification: ‘in the manner of a snake’, ‘in the style of
cowboys’, in the fashion of peasants’.

01.2. PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES EXPRESSING MANNER.

MANNER: with, in … manner, like.

we were received with the utmost courtesy

the task was done in a workmanlike manner
the army swept through the city like a pestilence

Note that ‘like’ with intensive verbs, ‘as’ in ‘Life is like a dream’, refers not to manner
but to resemblance.

NOTE: as distinct from ‘like’, prepositional ‘as’ refers to actual role:

he spoke …
like a lawyer (after the manner of …)
as a lawyer (in the capacity of …)

01.3. NOUN PHRASES AND CLAUSES EXPRESING MANNER.

Clauses of Manner indicate how an action is done. They are introduced by as/ as if/
(exactly) as/ (just) as/ how (often used to introduce clauses of manner in
substandard English): please do it (exactly) as I instructed (=in the way that ...)/ he does just as he likes/
he talks as if he owned the place/ please do it exactly as I instructed.

Some manner clauses involve comparison: they hunted him as a tiger stalks his prey (=in a
manner similar to).

If an as-clause is placed initially, the correlative form so, in formal literary English,
may introduce the main clause: (Just) as a moth is attracted by a light, (so) he was fascinated by her/
as the tiger stalks his prey, (so) they hunted him.

Like is sometimes used to replace as in clauses of manner, or as if in clauses of

comparison: it turned out just like he said. This is considered rather substandard.
Noun phrases with ‘way’, ‘manner’, and ‘style’ as head lend to have the definite
article:

she cooks chicken …

the way I like
in the/a way I like

notice that ‘in’ can be omitted before ‘way’ in certain <informal> constructions:

she cooks turkey …

the way I like
the same way as I do/ as me
a number of different ways

01.4. MANNER PHRASES EXPRESSING COMPARISON.

A manner phrase sometimes expresses comparison:

she sings like a professional (ie, ‘in the manner of a professional, as well as a
professional’)

Manner clauses introduced by ‘as’ can be used in a similar way:

she cooks turkey …

like my mother
as my mother did
in the way my mother did <formal>
the way my mother did <informal>

they hunted him as a tiger stalks his prey <informal>

Comparisons with unreal situations can be expressed by a clause beginning as if/ as

though.

she treats me as if/as though I were a stranger

02. EXPRESSION OF MEANS AND INSTRUMENT.

02.1. ‘by’ AND ‘with’.

1) Means and instrument are commonly by prepositional phrases and answer the
question How...?,

2) Means is expressed by a prepositional phrase introduced by ‘by’:

I usually go to work by bus

the thief must have entered by the back door
we managed to sell the house by advertising it in the paper
3) Instrument is expressed by a prepositional phrase introduced by ‘with’:

he caught the ball with his left hand

someone killed him with an arrow

There is a correspondence of sentences of this kind with human subject & a direct
object and sentences with the verb use:

he used his left hand to catch the ball

someone used an arrow to kill him

There is also an alternative construction in which the noun phrase denoting the
instrument becomes the subject:

his left hand caught the ball

an arrow killed him

For most senses of ‘with’, including that of instrument, ‘without’ expressed the
equivalent negative meaning:

I drew it without a ruler (ie, I did not draw it with a ruler)

4) Phrases or means and instrument answer the question ‘how …?’:

how did he do it? – by working hard

5) We sometimes prefer to replace a phrase of means by a different type of

prepositional phrase (eg place):

how did he get it? – he came through the window (more usual than by the window)
how did you hear the news? – I heard it on the radio (compare: they sent the
message by radio)

6) The article is omitted in phrases with ‘by’ denoting communication: ‘by car’, ‘by
train’, ‘by letter’, ‘by post’, ‘by radio’.

02.2. ADVERB PHRASES AS MEANS INSTRUMENT.

A) Adverb phrases with a derived adverb in ‘-ly’ as head may (not very commonly)
function as ‘means’, denoting by what means the event referred to by the predicator
takes place.

he tried to express his feelings musically (by means of music)

identical twins often communicate telepathically
the scene of the crime was recorded photographically
sounds can be produced electronically

B) Adverb phrases with a derived adverb in ‘-ly’ as head occasionally function as

instrument, denoting with the aid of what instrument/tool, … the event referred to, by
the predicator, takes place.
 that was the first time light was analysed spectoscopically

03. THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN MANNER, MEANS AND INSTRUMENT.

Consider the following sentences:

the student was politely [A1] assessed by the teacher [A2], impressionistically [A3]
by means of an interview [A4]
the patient was carefully [A1] treated by the nurse [A2] medically [A3] with a well-
tried drug [A4]

In each sentence, [A1] is manner, [A2] an agent, [A3] means and [A4] instrument.
But although the distinction may seem especially close only between means and
instrument, it should be noted that manner is not necessarily always distinguished
clearly from them. In principle, the distinction is clear enough: manner is relatively
subjective and hence gradable: quite politely, very carefully, means and instrumente
are objective and hence nongradable: *very surgically. But consider the following
sentence:

the teacher assessed the student impressionistically

Here we may be unsure whether the adverbial means ‘in a quite impressionistic
manner’, ‘subjectively’, or ‘by means of an impression-forming technique’. And even
if the means sense seemed to be endorsed by co-occurrence with an ‘instrument’
adverbial, cooccurrence with a manner adverbial like ‘casually’ would interact
semantically so as to make ‘impressionistically’ equivocal between means and
manner:

he causally [A1] assessed the student impressionistically [A2] by interviewing him

[A3]

Again, we are very dependent on the wider context in interpreting a sentence such
as:

she did it legally

The adverbial here may be manner (quite legally, not illegally), means (by invoking
the law), instrument (with legal arguments).

In short, most of the adverbs that can realize means and instrument can also
function as manner; in consequence, there is some danger of misunderstanding.