Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[jays]

Can "uniquely" in the following sentence be replaced with "only"?
---------- the following ----------------
Scotland has a long history and there are many interesting aspects to its culture. Here are an introduction to Scotland and some of the things which make its people uniquely Scottish.

[bud]

No. The sentence is saying that the Scottish are interesting, in a unique way.

By replacing "uniquely" with "only," we get: "... which make its people only Scottish." But "only" is likely to be interpreted as "merely." Then it becomes an insult, as "merely Scottish" implies that they are somehow less than people from other cultures.

Since it doesn't match the first sentence, a reader might figure out the intended meaning of "only," but they might also just be left confused.