raewon
Joined: 16 Jun 2009
|
 Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 3:34 am Post subject: Most important VS. Most importantly (Question) |
 |
|
Is "Most important" correct in the following sentence? I think it is, but I'm not sure.
Most important, though, our brain is what makes us human.
Thanks for any help with this one.
--------------------------------------------------------
I found this on an Oxford site:
| Quote: |
| When speakers are trying to impress audiences with their rhetoric, they often seem to feel that the extra syllable in �importantly� lends weight to their remarks: �and more importantly, I have an abiding love for the American people.� However, these pompous speakers are wrong. It is rarely correct to use this form of the phrase because it is seldom adverbial in intention. Say �more important� instead. The same applies to �most importantly�; it should be �most important.� |
Then I just stumbled across this: (http://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/)
| Quote: |
Apparently sentential adverbs are a secret. An open secret, of course, which explains why almost everyone knows about them and uses them regularly. Everyone, of course, except prescriptivists. I already talked about this regarding prescriptivists� insistence that hopefully can�t be used as a sentential adverb, but now I�ve come across it again in the belief that most importantly can�t be used as a sentential adverb, as in (1a), and that instead most important should be employed (1b):
(1a) Most importantly, you want to intrigue students [...]
(1b) Most important, you want to intrigue students.
When I read that, I thought they were putting me on. (1b) sounds awfully awkward to me. If were editing someone and they came to me with this sentence, I would immediately suggest that most importantly was surely what they meant. If they insisted on using the adjectival form, I�d want something stronger than a comma to separate it from the rest of the sentence; I think I�d want to use a colon.
So why do people disagree with my exquisite punctuative tastes? What�s their argument for the adjective? It�s an intriguing one: the sentential modifying most important is said to derive from what is most important, as in sentence (2):
(2) �His color is very good, and what is most important, he is himself, just as much himself in color as he was in pen and ink. |
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
