I was asked last week if ‘just’ was acting as a determiner in this
sentence and was therefore part of the noun phrase: But they were just
ordinary puddles with nothing in them.
We
use adverbials for many different reasons and we typically start off explaining
their use to primary children as indicating ‘how’, ‘where’ or ‘when’, perhaps
moving on to ‘why’ by upper KS2. However, use of adverbials in English is far
more complicated than that. For example,
we use them to provide viewpoint, focus on a part of a sentence and intensify/emphasize
information.
In
the sentence above, ‘just’ is acting as an adverbial which focuses the reader
on what ‘they’ were: ordinary puddles. Focusing
adverbials can add information or limit information; in our sentence, ‘just’ is
limiting what has been said. ‘They’ and
nothing else are ordinary puddles.
One
flexible feature of adverbials is that they can often be placed in different
positions within a sentence. Invariably
some positions ‘sound’ better than others; they flow more naturally because
that is the position in which they usually occur. Sometimes we alter the positions to create
effect for the reader. In our sentence, it is
perhaps possible that we could say ‘But they just were ordinary puddles …’
although I have to say I prefer the first construction.
Other
focusing adverbs which act as limiters and could be used in this sentence are:
- merely
- only
- purely
- simply
Another
feature of focusing adverbs is that they cannot be modified by another adverb,
so we couldn’t have ‘very just’ or ‘very only’.
Of
course, ‘just’ can be used in other ways as well and the key thing is to look
at its role in each individual sentence.
I’ve
just realised what you said. (Time adverbial – at this moment)
He
had just arrived. (Time adverbial – at that
moment)
He
was a just man. (Adjective – describing the
man)
Context is everything!
