Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jizza]

Hello, grammar question here.
Please only comment if you know what you're talking about.

A student recently asked whether it was ok to combine "such as" with another adverb, when both are in effect intensifiers.

Eg. He was such a bad player. ---> He was such a very bad player.

He was such a great guy. ---> He was such a very great guy.

My response was that it may not make sense from a usage and style standpoint - meaning that one adverb-intensifier is already enough, but grammatically I saw nothing wrong with it: two adverbs, one modifying the other adverb.
eg. It was a very, very cold night.

I went on to mention that in English, one does hear this kind of construction on occasion, usually when the speaker wants to place emphasis on something.

A few days later, another English teacher (a Korean woman) told him that this was grammatically wrong and that she had never heard of such a thing even in a dictionary.

So who is right? I see nothing wrong with two adverb intensifiers.
I will leave you with an Oscar Wilde quotation:

To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up. (Oscar Wilde)

[The Cosmic Hum]

[War Eagle]

Volume 4 - Cambridgeshire Dialect Grammar
(2010)

9.3.2 Adverbs of degree and quantity as intensifiers
Many adverbs of degree and quantity function as intensifiers. [10] Intensifiers are scaling devices which have either an intensifying (amplifiers) or a weakening effect (downtoners) on the meaning of the word they modify. [11] The following discussion focuses on the intensifiers all, bloody, fairly, hardly, near(ly), pretty, proper, real(ly), (ever) so, too and very, although other intensifiers, such as tidy and rather, and the use of like as an intensifier are briefly touched upon. [12] These intensifiers are discussed mainly as modifiers of adjectives and other adverbs, the contexts in which they typically occur. However, intensifying adverbs can also modify indefinite pronouns, cardinal numbers, nouns and verbs, and these usages will also be briefly dealt with. For the use of here and there as intensifiers, see 9.3.3.

9.7 (a) They used to lay like that probably = for a month very near (Swaffham Prior EW)
(b) And drive near about six seven at time (West Wickham CC)
(c) You could very near walk and keep up to it (i.e. an old solid-tyre bus) (Swaffham Prior EW)

[Thiuda]

This is just a stab at an answer, so Caveat Emptor.

[jizza]

Thanks for the replies. I'm now very confident that using two adverb intensifiers in a row is grammatically acceptable.

Now a twist:

It was such a cold night that ...
It was such a very cold night that ...

She's such a nice person that she...
She's such a very nice person that she ...

My first reaction is that this construction sounds very awkward. My second reaction, after thinking more about it, is that it's still acceptable.

Any help is appreciated.