close vs closely

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Kanadian

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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.:oops:
 

Casiopea

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Welcome, Kanadian. :hi:

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. :-D
 

Humble

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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
 

svartnik

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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.:oops:

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:roll:
 

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BobK

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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

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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. :-D
 

Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim

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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. :-D


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.
 
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Philly

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I don't see that language as sexist. I'd venture a guess that it simply reflects search parameters that were based on the original question.
 

Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim

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I don't see that language as sexist. I'd venture a guess that it simply reflects search parameters that were based on the original question.

True but language and thought are linked which of course we are not even conscious of.
 

queenbu

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I'm sure that 'she held him closely' would refer to a mother and her son. ;-)
 

Casiopea

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What? No one bothered to even look? :lol:

Ex: Gazing on Jesus' face, knowing, in the early morning hours as she held him closely,...

Ex: Although Pearl was not very talkative with Robert, she held him closely....

Ex: She held him closely, tightly, and he could smell the faint scent of her perfume...

There are about 17,000 more. ;-)
 

BobK

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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.

To add to the potentially sexist debate, I note that in all Casi's examples there's an element of protectiveness; but a mother might hold 'her children closely to her' - which supports the closely/protective hypothesis.

;-)
 

Casiopea

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Firstly, it shouldn't be an issue at all. The first batch of examples were based on the example "He held her closely" given in post #1. If it had have been "She held him closely" I would have found examples for that one. Second, it's common for posters to disagree with a quoted example, especially if the that example looks different from the one given. Third, who cares who held who and for what reason. A huggin's a huggin'. Language is culture; Who cares who's doing the holding; being held is a good thing. Lastly, of the number of hits on Google, we can't be sure (unless we take the time to check - which I did) what percentage of all the hers refers to humans. This one is possible, right?

Ex: He held her closely. Lassie, his dog of 10 years, died in his arms that night.

Or, for that matter, what percentage of the he examples is and is not about a 'protective nature'. (Ahem, last time I checked, males can be just as protective as females. What's the last action flick you saw. :lol:) About the female side of things. Look up "she held him closely" and you'll find examples like this one. ;-)

Ex: When she was finally satiated, when the hormonal rush had subsided, she held him closely, and whispered new commands in his ear. ...

All the best. :-D
 

BobK

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... Second, it's common for posters to disagree with a quoted example, especially if the that example looks different from the one given....
Sorry if I put anyone's nose out of joint. There was a page break after your first set of examples:
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...

...so that when I replied I was referring to those. I hadn't seen your later post.

:)

b

PS
Strictly, the page-break came after post #10, which had quoted the examples.
 
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