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Does the placement of an adverb affect its meaning or application? Does each paired sentence here mean the same as the other?

1.1 Mobile technology progress has largely been consumer-driven rather than enterprise-driven.
1.2 Mobile technology progress has been largely consumer-driven rather than enterprise-driven.

2.1 Mobile technology progress has largely been shaped by consumers.
2.2 Mobile technology progress has been largely shaped by consumers.

Mari-Lou A
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Bob
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    What makes you think either version is or is not correct? What steps have you taken to try to answer the question before asking here? These are both essential things to include in your question; otherwise, it will likely be closed as off-topic proofreading. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jul 21 '14 at 14:55
  • They're both fine. The one with largely immediately before consumer-driven raises the question of whether it's sposta modify the baseline clause of the comparative as well as the comparative clause. But it's not clear what that would mean, since the comparison is performed by rather and largely is what is being measured. It's probly safer to keep largely modifying the whole verb phrase, as in 1.1. – John Lawler Jul 21 '14 at 15:23

2 Answers2

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Both variations you give are grammatical, but their meanings are slightly different.

In both cases, you have a complex verbal form, a perfect passive, which consists of three verbal forms:

  1. A finite auxiliary have (here in the third singular present, has), marking the perfect;
  2. A past participle of the auxiliary be, marking the passive in conjunction with –
  3. A past participle of the main verb (driven and shaped, respectively).

(A similar structure has a plain adjective in 3., in which case the sense is not passive, but simply describes with an adjective a state or situation that has been ongoing up until now.)

The adverb largely (meaning ‘most of the time’ or ‘in most cases’ here) modifies different things depending on where it is put. If placed between 1. and 2., it modifies the perfective, temporal aspect of the verb (basically, it modifies 1. and 2. taken together); if placed between 2. and 3., it modifies 3. only.

In plainer terms:

Mobile technology progress has largely been consumer-driven rather than enterprise-driven.
Mobile technology progress has largely been shaped by consumers.

These sentences mean that mobile technology progress has been driven by consumers most of the time, but sometimes by enterprises, and that it has been shaped by consumers most of the time, but not all the time. It is the aspect of has been that is being modified: sometimes this, sometimes that.

Mobile technology progress has been largely consumer-driven rather than enterprise-driven.
Mobile technology progress has been largely shaped by consumers.

These sentence state that the progress-driving and progress-shaping have been single entities (not sometimes-this-sometimes-that), and within those entities, consumers have made up a larger portion than enterprises.

It is difficult to verbalise this latter distinction, so I will instead provide a clearer example:

Imagine a substitute teacher who has taught someone else’s class for a month. After that month is up, the regular teacher asks the substitute teacher how the children in the class have behaved during that time.

The children have largely been well-behaved.

– would indicate that most of the time, all the children were well-behaved; though of course some of the time, they weren’t.

The children have been largely well-behaved.

– would indicate that the majority of the children’s behaviour was in the category of ‘well-behaved’. This might mean that most of the children were well-behaved all the time, while a few of them were naughty nearly all the time; but if you take the entire amount of behaviour together as one, ‘well-behaved’ is the majority of it.

 

Note also that in many, many cases, this slight nuance is almost impossible to describe, since either version ends up meaning the same practical thing. And even when there is an actual difference, it is so small that it is rarely significant or really matters.

Janus Bahs Jacquet
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To me your "has been largely" versions sound better (non native), making a guess on the intended meaning.

Pam
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    The question has been altered to make it more on-topic, but you may feel the edit has invalidated this answer. – Andrew Leach Jul 21 '14 at 15:11
  • Right Andrew. Thank you. Now it would be the second group :-) – Pam Jul 21 '14 at 15:27
  • My comment was a gentle hint that this answer says which sounds better to you. But that was never the question; and certainly the answer doesn't address the current question of whether the placement of an adverb affects its meaning. – Andrew Leach Jul 21 '14 at 18:28
  • You are right. He changed the question. In fact the first comment starts with "What makes you think either version is or is not correct". It was natural to me to address his first concern. Surely now the focus has changed and therefore it's obviously true what you now observe. – Pam Jul 21 '14 at 21:16