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I have come across many sentences that appear to use 'intact' as an adverb. For example,

Suppose that both segments arrive intact at B.

However, in the dictionary, 'intact' is listed as an adjective rather than an adverb; 'intactly' is the corresponding adverb.

Why does the author not use 'intactly' here?

Suppose that both segments arrive intactly at B.

Edwin Ashworth
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Danny_Kim
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    The segments are intact. The arriving is not. – choster Aug 21 '16 at 13:09
  • @choster Sorry, I do not understand what you are saying. Can you explain more in detail? – Danny_Kim Aug 21 '16 at 13:11
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    @choster is saying that intact is an adjective that modifies the word segments, and not an adverb that modifies the word arrive. – Peter Shor Aug 21 '16 at 13:23
  • @PeterShor Aha, thank you. Can I ask you one more? Why not using "intact segments arrive at B" instead of "segments arrive intact at B"? What is the category of grammar in this case? noun + verb + adjective of noun. It makes me feel very weird. – Danny_Kim Aug 21 '16 at 13:32
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    Note that you didn't say It makes me feel very weirdly. You used noun + verb + adjective modifying noun there, too. It's the case that lots of verbs can use this construction in special situations, not just the standard list of "linking verbs". – Peter Shor Aug 21 '16 at 13:36
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    It is a subject-orient[at]ed depictive construction, as in 'She walked around naked'. 'She walked around nakedly' might be argued to be correct, as an adverb would be used to tell us something about her performance, but would never be used; 'She walked around naked' is the acceptable version, where the adjective [partly] specifies 'her' state as she was walking around. See this Wikipedia article (and look up 'depictive' + 'resultative' here). – Edwin Ashworth Aug 21 '16 at 13:43
  • Thank you for many comments. Thanks to you, I understood why the author write like that. If so, is it okay if I consider that "both intact segments arrive at B." = "both segments arrive intact at B." = "both segments arrive at B with intactness" = etc.? – Danny_Kim Aug 21 '16 at 13:53
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    It's not the same. The last option "with intactness" is an odd construction. The first option assumes that the segments are intact and goes on to specify that the arrive. The emphasis is on the question of whether or not they arrive, and the answer that the do. With "arrive intact" the emphasis is more on the question of whether or not they are intact. – bdsl Aug 21 '16 at 14:03
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    It is a predicative adjunct describing the noun phrase both segments. That is why it is an adjective, not an adverb. We don't usually use 'adverbs to describe nouns :) – Araucaria - Him Aug 21 '16 at 14:14
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    @EdwinAshworth Wow, your correction is very helpful for me even though it is not concerned with my question. I really hope to learn some formal English (surely want to improve English speaking skills as well). Thank you. – Danny_Kim Aug 21 '16 at 14:21
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    The adverb-or-adjective debate is still ongoing. Some analysts would consider 'Shearer shot wide' to be an example of an adverbial usage (the shooting is being described; 'wide' may be a flat (ly-less when one might expect 'widely') adverb. Some would consider 'wide' an adjective here, describing the resulting geometry. Some would say it's indeterminate (could be either). I'd say it's not helpful to start off by first deciding what POS wide, intact etc are, but by acknowledging that adverbials say more about the verb's action/stativeness whereas adjectivals say more about the noun's ... – Edwin Ashworth Aug 21 '16 at 14:34
  • referent's initial / enduring / final / desired (She wished him dead) state. Then I'd recommend recognising which verbs are used with depictives and resultatives (eg the rose blushed pink), and whether new ones are being added to the list. Then, I'd check for examples in grammars (Collins Cobuild gives decent lists of these usages). But I'd bear in mind that grey areas still exist, papers are still being published in this area. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 21 '16 at 14:36
  • It has to be an adjective because it is describing the condition of the packages when they arrived, not the manner in which they were delivered. We understand that the packages were intact, i.e. not damaged. It is called a predicative adjunct: predicative because it relates to the predicand "both segments" and adjunct because it is an optional item in clause structure. – BillJ Aug 21 '16 at 19:04

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