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在英語里，有一些句子隨著副詞放在不同的位置，會產生截然不同的涵義。例如在上面例句中，happily放在句首，它修飾后面整個句子，表示“幸而，幸好”(fortunately)的涵義；如把它放在句末They did not die happily. 它修飾謂語動詞did not die，其涵義就大不相同，變為：他們死得不幸，happily表示“幸福地”“幸運地”。
下面請看例句：
Naturally, they are behaving well.
當然，他們現在表現得不錯。
They are behaving naturally.
他們現在的舉止很正常。
Practically, we have solved all these problems.
事實上，我們已把這些問題全部解決了。
We have solved practically all these problems.
這些問題我們差不多已全部解決了。
We have solved all these problems practically.
我們以實際可行的辦法把全部問題解決了。
Frankly, you should, first of all, admit your mistake.
直率地說，你應該首先承認錯誤。
You should, first of all, admit your mistake frankly.
你應該首先坦率地承認錯誤。
You stupidly answered his questions.
你真笨，你竟然回答了他的問題。
You answered his questions stupidly.
你笨嘴笨舌地回答了他的問題。
有些西方學者，在分析Happily they did not die.和They did not die happily.的句型時，把放在句首修飾其后整個句子以表示說話人態度的副詞，稱之為disjunct（外加語）。有時候，外加語也可以放在句末，前面用逗號撇開。（如：They looked up, happily. 幸好他們抬頭起來看。）如該副詞修飾句中的謂語動詞，則稱之為adjunct（附加語）。附加語也可以分為兩類：1) subject adjunct 2)manner adjunct。現以You stupidly answered his questions.和You answered his questions stupidly. 為例說明這個問題。在前句中，stupidly是subject adjunct，因為它相當于It was stupid of you to answer his questions. 或 You were stupid to answer his questions. 在后句中，stupidly是manner adjunct，因為它相當于You answered his questions in that stupid way.
請注意，在下列句子中，由于把副詞only放在不同的位置，句子的涵義也隨著變化：
We heard only of it this morning.
今天早上我們只聽見這件事。（并沒有聽說其他事情）
We only heard of it this morning.
我們今天早上知識聽說這件事。（并沒有目睹這件事情）
We heard of it only this morning. (or this morning only)
我們只是在今天早上才聽說這件事。（以前并沒有聽說過。）
通過上面一些例子，我們可以見到，像only一類詞在句中不能隨意安放或使用，否則會引起語義不明，例如：
Mr Chou’s disease can only be alleviated by a surgical operation.
這個句子既可以理解為: Only a surgical operation can alleviate his disease (it cannot be alleviated in any other way), 也可以理解為：A surgical operation can only alleviate his disease. (it cannot cure it)。遇到這種情況，我們將原句改寫一下，不再使用這個句型，以免引起誤解。
上述例子告訴我們，當我們遇到或使用帶有only, happily, practically, frankly, stupidly等一類副詞的句型時，要倍加小心，以免誤用或誤解。
所以此句的翻譯為：幸而他們沒死。
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