- He stood naked.
- He stood nakedly.
A native English speaker says 1. sounds more natural, but the dictionary says "naked" is an adjective. Why is 1. better? Please explain.
Katrina
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2Certainly to this US English speaker #1 sounds better. I suspect that this is because "naked" is an adjective and hence modifies "He", while "nakedly" is an adverb and thus modifies "stood". Presumably it is "He" that is naked, not the manner of his standing. – Hot Licks Nov 06 '15 at 17:16
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3Possible duplicate of Why "ruled supreme" instead of "ruled supremely"? – Edwin Ashworth Nov 06 '15 at 19:53
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Both are grammatical, but your friend is right that 1. is much more natural.
The reason is that in "he stood nakedly", the adverb nakedly would describe how he was standing - and it's not clear to me what "to stand nakedly" means.
With the adjective naked, it applies to him, not to the verb. This construction is not available for all adjectives, but is for some words that describe temporary states, including naked, aghast, forlorn, heart-broken, defeated.
They all seem to be rather negative characteristics, which probably means something, but I don't know what.
Colin Fine
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1I agree with your answer except that I don't think the negative aspect is significant. For example: "He stood ecstatic before us" would be acceptable and (in my opinion) be better than "He stood ecstatically before us." – chasly - supports Monica Nov 06 '15 at 17:28
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Of course one could say Naked he stood..., which removes the adjective further from the verb. – WS2 Nov 06 '15 at 17:31
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Thank you @chaslyfromUK: I couldn't see any reason why it was restricted to negative emotions, but I couldn't think of a positive one which could be used in this way. They're all quite intense: I don't think He stood happy or He stood bored work. – Colin Fine Nov 06 '15 at 17:35
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Colin, would I be correct in saying that "naked" is the predicate adjective and as such further describes the subject? – michael_timofeev Nov 06 '15 at 17:36
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1"Stood" as a stative verb does not refer to the action of standing, but rather the condition of being in a standing position. As such, it takes a predicate adjective to further describe the subject, not an adverb to describe the action itself. – chepner Nov 06 '15 at 22:03
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@chepner: yes, but the selection criteria on the adjective are narrow and not obvious. Another which has occurred to me is mute; but He stood angry, for example, doesn't work for me. – Colin Fine Nov 07 '15 at 19:35
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Because naked is a modifier for he in that sentence. It has nothing to do with the verb. It's the equivalent of:
Naked, he stood.
or even (horrible, but you get the point)
He, naked, stood.
It might help to expand the sentence further so you can really see the underlying implications:
He was naked and he stood [...]
Robusto
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Agreed that it's bogus, but the intent was to make "naked" a direct adjective on "he", and it's the best I can do. – Hot Licks Nov 06 '15 at 17:21
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@HotLicks It wouldn't sound quite so awkward if you said The naked Jim Smith stood... – WS2 Nov 06 '15 at 17:33
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@WS2 - Correct. The point is that it's a bit more obvious what's being modified if you get the adjective ahead of the noun, in "canonical" sequence. – Hot Licks Nov 06 '15 at 17:35
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I mostly agree with Colin Fine's answer. I'll add a little research.
Google ngram: stood naked,stood nakedly,stand naked,stand nakedly
We can see that the adverbial form does occur but infrequently. If we investigate the links at the bottom of the ngram page we see that context makes a difference. e.g.
1. Suddenly the weakness of his character stood nakedly exposed. The Renewed Mind: Becoming the Person God Wants You to Be By Larry Christenson
In that case, the adverb 'nakedly' qualifies 'exposed' and not the verb 'stood'.
2. The clock stood nakedly on the mantelpiece. There were no envelopes tucked behind it. Ernest Buckler: Rediscovery and Reassessment By Marta Dvořák
In that example it would be odd to describe a clock as being 'naked'. That epithet is usually applied to humans. The subsequent sentence goes on to define the adverb in this specific scenario.
3. After her Man had left her for the Sixth time that year (an uncommon occurrence) she stood nakedly, nakedly against the window's cool We walk the way of the New World By Don Lee
In this example we get closer to the original sentence. However even here, there is the phrase 'nakedly against' so that the word is perhaps still not directly modifying the verb.
chasly - supports Monica
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Why would anybody downvote this answer without any comment? I am making it "even". – Nov 06 '15 at 19:24
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Words have many meanings and so do locations in a sentence.
In
He [verb] X
where X is qualifying the situation, X usually modifies the verb. In
He ran quickly
He stood quickly,
the manner of running or standing is with speed.
But X could also modify the subject.
He ran upset
He stood upset,
mean that while running or standing he was upset.
In 'he stood Y', it could be either he was Y while standing or he stood in a Y kind of manner. So 'naked' and 'nakedly' both fit.
It is a modern (?) trend in English (at least American but I'm pretty sure also British) to drop the '-ly' in a lot of adverbs. 'He talked loud' may not pass the editors at your newspaper, but it is very natural for people to say.
Also, 'naked' as a manner of standing, is semantically unintuitive.
These together may account for the slight preference for
He stood naked
He stood nakedly.
