TransWikia.com

Is 'strongly used' possible in the sense 'used a lot', 'used intensively'?

English Language & Usage Asked by Jevere on January 19, 2021

Is ‘strongly used’/’used strongly’ standardly acceptable in the sense ‘used intensively’?
My intuition is that it is not, but I can’t find a grammatical justification for my intuition.
I want to stay in the passive sense for this example, as it’s the sense I’m not sure about – to me it’s clear that

‘I strongly advise this’ is fine;

*’I strongly use this’ doesn’t work (that is, in the sense ‘intensely, decidedly’, that kind of thing)

(Will happily change my opinion on these if my intuition has led me astray.)
But ‘this technique is used strongly for such purposes’ is at least semantically fairly clear to me, enough for functionality, even though it doesn’t ‘ring right’ to my ear.

Current best guess is that ‘use’ is part of some semantic class of verbs that doesn’t select for this sense of ‘strongly’, while ‘advise’, ‘suggest’ etc. can.

So, a) Is ‘this is strongly used for X’ fine? b) If not, why not: is it to do with the adverb’s characteristics, the verb’s characteristics, or some combination of both?

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question

Get help from others!

© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP