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在英语里，有一些句子随着副词放在不同的位置，会产生截然不同的涵义。例如在上面例句中，happily放在句首，它修饰后面整个句子，表示“幸而，幸好”(fortunately)的涵义；如把它放在句末They did not die happily. 它修饰谓语动词did not die，其涵义就大不相同，变为：他们死得不幸，happily表示“幸福地”“幸运地”。
下面请看例句：
Naturally, they are behaving well.
当然，他们现在表现得不错。
They are behaving naturally.
他们现在的举止很正常。
Practically, we have solved all these problems.
事实上，我们已把这些问题全部解决了。
We have solved practically all these problems.
这些问题我们差不多已全部解决了。
We have solved all these problems practically.
我们以实际可行的办法把全部问题解决了。
Frankly, you should, first of all, admit your mistake.
直率地说，你应该首先承认错误。
You should, first of all, admit your mistake frankly.
你应该首先坦率地承认错误。
You stupidly answered his questions.
你真笨，你竟然回答了他的问题。
You answered his questions stupidly.
你笨嘴笨舌地回答了他的问题。
有些西方学者，在分析Happily they did not die.和They did not die happily.的句型时，把放在句首修饰其后整个句子以表示说话人态度的副词，称之为disjunct（外加语）。有时候，外加语也可以放在句末，前面用逗号撇开。（如：They looked up, happily. 幸好他们抬头起来看。）如该副词修饰句中的谓语动词，则称之为adjunct（附加语）。附加语也可以分为两类：1) subject adjunct 2)manner adjunct。现以You stupidly answered his questions.和You answered his questions stupidly. 为例说明这个问题。在前句中，stupidly是subject adjunct，因为它相当于It was stupid of you to answer his questions. 或 You were stupid to answer his questions. 在后句中，stupidly是manner adjunct，因为它相当于You answered his questions in that stupid way.
请注意，在下列句子中，由于把副词only放在不同的位置，句子的涵义也随着变化：
We heard only of it this morning.
今天早上我们只听见这件事。（并没有听说其他事情）
We only heard of it this morning.
我们今天早上知识听说这件事。（并没有目睹这件事情）
We heard of it only this morning. (or this morning only)
我们只是在今天早上才听说这件事。（以前并没有听说过。）
通过上面一些例子，我们可以见到，像only一类词在句中不能随意安放或使用，否则会引起语义不明，例如：
Mr Chou’s disease can only be alleviated by a surgical operation.
这个句子既可以理解为: Only a surgical operation can alleviate his disease (it cannot be alleviated in any other way), 也可以理解为：A surgical operation can only alleviate his disease. (it cannot cure it)。遇到这种情况，我们将原句改写一下，不再使用这个句型，以免引起误解。
上述例子告诉我们，当我们遇到或使用带有only, happily, practically, frankly, stupidly等一类副词的句型时，要倍加小心，以免误用或误解。
所以此句的翻译为：幸而他们没死。
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