Location, location, location: or "Watch where you stick that thing!"
I’ve been just a bit long-winded with some of my posts, so I’m going to try to keep this brief.
When you put a modifier into a sentence—adjective, adverb, or otherwise—be mindful of where you put it, because location is everything.
Let’s add the word only (which can be an adjective, adverb, or conjuction) to the sentence "Janet runs in the park after dark." We can put it in several places, and each one leads to a slightly different meaning.
"Only Janet runs in the park after dark." (This leads you to think perhaps everyone else has more sense.)
"Janet only runs in the park after dark." (Running in the park is bad enough, but taking a stroll is out of the question.)
"Janet runs only in the park after dark." (The connotation here is that other places are even more dangerous.)
"Janet runs in the park only after dark." (Why in the world does she wait until nightfall?)
The lesson: watch where you put your modifiers. Small changes in placement have a big effect on meaning.
Roy Jacobsen
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