***** NOT A TEACHER *****
Hello, fellow members of the "really" fan club.
I have good news and bad news.
Good news
I found an expert who agrees with Esgaleth.
Professor John Flowerdew [what a nice name!] wrote a book entitled
Studies in Specialized Discourse. I was able to read parts of it on Google "books."
He did a survey of the uses of the word "really." He found that in his survey, 54% percent of the examples involved "really" relating [modifying?] a verb.
He gives this example:
"It
really is a substantial contract."
The professor says that "really" is an "adjunct" [adverb?] to the verb "be."
Bad news
Some writing experts tell us that we should close the "really" fan club.
One of these experts says that using "really" in
speech can give emphasis, but it loses its "effectiveness" in
writing.
Those unkind experts say we should avoid using words like
really / truly / genuinely / fairly / absolutely / and
--
above all --
very.
They cruelly call those words "meek," "vague," "flabby." They say that words such as "really" say nothing!