badly beaten up

[navi tasan]

1-The policeman was badly beaten up.
2-The policeman was beaten up badly.


Is there a difference in the meanings of "1" and "2"?
Does "1" describe a state? Could it be depicting an action (He got beaten up badly/).
Does "2" depict an action? Could it depict a state (he was in a badly beaten up state).


3-The policeman seemed badly beaten up.
4-The policeman seemed beaten up badly.

Are "3" and "4" both correct? He seemed to have been beaten up badly.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[emsr2d2]

Neither 3 nor 4 sound very natural but only because it sounds strange to me to say that someone "seemed" beaten up. I might say that he "looks as if he has been beaten up".

With 1 and 2, it's one of those constructions that you can always argue is ambiguous but common sense has to prevail. You will hear both "He has been badly beaten [up]" and "He has been beaten [up] [very] badly". Some will argue that both could suggest that the person doing the beating did a very poor job and probably missed with many of his/her kicks and punches and therefore the victim is actually not in a bad way. However, we have to consider the likelihood of someone actually saying that about an attacker. It is far more likely with both sentences 1 and 2 that what the speaker means is that the victim has suffered a severe beating.

 

[Rover_KE]

With 1 and 2, it's one of those constructions that you can always argue is ambiguous but common sense has to prevail.

That's right.

Compare: 'My hair needs cutting badly' and 'My hair badly needs cutting'.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I have no problem with any of them. In the first two, the extent of the beating was stated as fact. In the second two, the observer lacks confirmation. A bloody nose, for example may look worse than it is because of the amount of blood.