close vs closely

[Kanadian]

I am struggling with the difference between close and closely as adverbs. How can I differentiate between their meanings or find the correct usage. Ex "He held her close" vs "He held her closely." Is it a copular verb thing "they live close to the school" Please help.

[Casiopea]

Welcome, Kanadian.

On its own like that, close is short for close to. The to-part is often omitted. Like this:

Ellipsis: He held her close (to his heart).

Otherwise, closely modifies the verb:

He held her closely.

All the best.

[Humble]

Hi,
Too humble to contradict Her Highness Cas, but still... He held her closely looks odd to me.
A.S. Hornby:
close -adv in a close manner; near together; tightly.

To me, closely looks natural in its abstract meaning:
follow/consider/listen/resemble closely

[Casiopea]

Hi,
Too humble to contradict Her Highness Cas,...

Discussion is important.

[svartnik]

I am struggling with the difference between close and closely as adverbs. How can I differentiate between their meanings or find the correct usage. Ex "He held her close" vs "He held her closely." Is it a copular verb thing "they live close to the school" Please help.

Two forms used in the same way:
cheap/cheaply, clean/cleanly, clear/clearly, close/closely, fair/fairly, fine/finely, firm/firmly, first/firstly, loud/loudly, quick/quickly, quiet/quietly, slow/slowly, thin/thinly.

Two forms used in different ways:
deep/deeply, direct/directly, easy/easily, flat/flatly, free/freely, full/fully, hard/hardly, high/highly, just/justly, last/lastly, late/lately, near/nearly, pretty/prettily, real/really, rough/roughly, sharp/sharply, short/shortly, strong/strongly, sure/surely, wide/widely.

I held her close -- close is an adjectival object complement
or
I held her closely -- SVOA

[Humble]

Sorry, what is SVOA?

[BobK]

I'd hazard a guess at Subject-Verb-Object-Adverb. There must be a web-site somewhere [probably posted already, before I hit the Submit button] that lists the other possible syntaxes for an English sentence (seven in all, I think).

b

[Casiopea]

Here are just a sample of examples from on-line literature sites:

Ex: Again he held her closely in his arms. "And I've sure got you, Dede."
Ex: He held her closely and rocked her from side to side in his arms,....
Ex: His arm held her closely, fear vanished,....
Ex: He lifted her weak, trembling body to a sitting position and held her closely, tightly, not really as lovers, but soothingly as if to welcome calm back to....
Ex: Herbert Greyson, who, pale with concentrated rage, held her closely and...

All the best.

[Humble]

Tnx, Cas,
That's convincing.

[Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim]

Here are just a sample of examples from on-line literature sites:
Ex: Again he held her closely in his arms. "And I've sure got you, Dede."
Ex: He held her closely and rocked her from side to side in his arms,....
Ex: His arm held her closely, fear vanished,....
Ex: He lifted her weak, trembling body to a sitting position and held her closely, tightly, not really as lovers, but soothingly as if to welcome calm back to....
Ex: Herbert Greyson, who, pale with concentrated rage, held her closely and...
All the best.

It is interesting Casi to see all the examples you quoted are:
"He held her" and NOT "she held him"

But maybe I was made a bit too sensitive to sexist language because of "Gender Studies" a branch of linguistics I am interested in.