Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Definition and Examples of Compound Adverbs

Definition and Examples of Compound Adverbs In English grammar, a compound adverb is a construction in which one adverb is paired with another adverb (or sometimes with another part of speech). Together these words are used to modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or an entire clause. Also called a compound modifiers, compound adverbs are sometimes written as one word (e.g., somewhere), sometimes as one hyphenated word (self-consciously), and sometimes as two words (inside out). Multi-word adverbs are commonly called adverbial phrases. In the Oxford Modern English Grammar (2011), Bas Aarts notes that English allows a great variety of compounds and not everyone agrees exactly on how to delimit the class of compounds. Examples I came every day to see him, neglecting my other students and therefore my livelihood.(Bernard Malamud, The German Refugee. The Saturday Evening Post, 1964)Therefore is a compound adverb that has the largest number of occurrences in the Helsinki Corpus... Along with therefore, thereupon is the only other compound adverb that emerges in Middle English but continues into [​Modern English] and up to the present day. (Aune Osterman, There Compounds in the History of English.Grammaticalization at Work, ed. by Matti Rissanen et al. Walter de Gruyter, 1997)Instead of ordering an immediate pursuit of the Confederate forces, McClellan waited overnight, and then timidly headed west to South Mountain, still believing that Lees dirty, hungry, and tired army heavily outnumbered his Union force. (Ed Okonowicz, The Big Book of Maryland Ghost Stories. Stackpole, 2010)Emerson made no distinction between honest and dishonest methods of getting the bicycle. Sometimes he would discuss plans for d eceiving the owner of the hardware store, who would somehow be maneuvered into sending it to him by mistake, and sometimes it was to be his reward for a deed of heroism.  Sometimes  he spoke of a glass-cutter. (Elizabeth Bishop, The Farmers Children.  Harpers Bazaar, 1949) Each of the career military pilots  was a graduate of his respective test pilot school, while the NASA pilots  were trained  in-house. (Milton O. Thompson,  At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program.  Smithsonian, 2013)Billy  spoke off-line, then came back on. Leslie will meet you with one at the airplane. (Tom Wilson, Final Thunder. Signet, 1996)There was a time, however, and not too many years ago, when the average plastic worm fisherman wasnt so all-fired certain that a sudden move was the best move. (Art Reid,  Fishing Southern Illinois. Southern Illinois University Press, 1986)[Paul Nitze] tried to halt the Korean War and then helped stop it from spreading. He tried, early on, to extricate the United States from Vietnam. (Nicholas Thompson, The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War. Henry Holt, 2009)We went to a restaurant, and I behaved very well, but I couldnt eat, and then we went to the train and people looked at us, but I couldnt smile. (Harold Brodkey, Verona: A Young Woman Speaks. Esquire, 1978) The worst of it was it got so hot. That was a bad time for me I tell you. I got pretty thirsty. I dont know how I kept on that piece of board but I did, for three days. I got sunburnt, I tell you, pretty badly. The last day I dont remember anything. (William Carlos Williams, White Mule, 1937)I amused Emily; I almost always made her smile. (Alice Adams, Roses, Rhododendron. The New Yorker, 1976)He addressed a small statue of a saint which stood upside down on the washstand, propped in this uncomfortable position between tooth mug and soap dish. (Lyle Saxon, Fabulous New Orleans, 1939)He seemed to have a lot of luck- but why not, sometimes you did have luck, and he had felt all along that this leave was going to be wonderful. (Martha Gellhorn, Miami-New York. The Atlantic Monthly, 1948)Cato was calling out, over and over, Now the ship is sinking inch by inch! Now the ship is sinking inch by inch! (Elizabeth Bishop, The Farmers Children. Harpers Bazaar, 1949)Quite instructively, Menno K amminga has made the important point that the European system has performed quite poorly when faced with situations of egregious violations of human rights. (Obiora Chinedu Okafor, The African Human Rights System, Activist Forces and International Institutions. Cambridge University Press, 2007) Formal Compounds Several compound adverbs that can be classed in (iii) [i.e., temporal ordering subsequent to a given time reference] are found only in certain formal varieties of contemporary English: henceforth, henceforward, hereupon, thenceforward, thereafter, thereupon, whereupon. (Randolph Quirk et al., A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, 2nd ed. Longman, 1985) A Minor Category [C]ompound adverbs are not very numerous in Present-day English. Some of them are morphologically opaque historical relics, such as the negative operator NOT, which goes back to the Old English noun phrase NAWHIT. It is questionable whether compounding with WHERE, THERE and HERE is still productive today. Many compound adverbs have become polyfunctional as a result of secondary grammaticalization. Many have also reduced their functional load in the course of time, including the conjuncts HOWEVER and THEREFORE... (Matti Rissanen, Introduction. Grammaticalization at Work, ed. by Matti Rissanen, Merja Kytà ¶, and Kirsi Heikkonen. Walter de Gruyter, 1997)

Monday, March 2, 2020

Battle of Ia Drang in the Vietnam War

Battle of Ia Drang in the Vietnam War The Battle of Ia Drang was fought November 14-18, 1965, during the Vietnam War (1955-1975) and was the first major engagement between the US Army and the Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN). After a North Vietnamese strike against the Special Forces camp at Plei Me, American forces deployed in an effort to destroy the attackers. This saw elements of the air mobile 1st Cavalry Division move into South Vietnams Central Highlands. Encountering the enemy, the battle was primarily fought at two separate landing zones. While the Americans won a tactical victory at one, they took heavy losses at the other. The fighting in the Ia Drang Valley sent the tone for much of the conflict to come with the Americans relying on air mobility, air power, and artillery while the North Vietnamese sought to fight at close quarters to negate these advantages. Fast Facts: Battle of Ia Drang Conflict: Vietnam War (1955-1975)Dates: November 14-18, 1965Armies Commanders:United StatesColonel Thomas BrownLieutenant Colonel Harold G. MooreLieutenant Colonel Robert McDadeapprox. 1,000 menNorth VietnamLieutenant Colonel Nguyen Huu Anapprox. 2,000 menCasualties:United States: 96 killed and 121 wounded at X-Ray and 155 killed and 124 wounded at AlbanyNorth Vietnam: Approximately 800 killed at X-Ray and minimum of 403 killed at Albany Background In 1965, General William Westmoreland, commander of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, began utilizing American troops for combat operations in Vietnam rather than solely relying on the forces of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. With National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) and Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces operating in the Central Highlands northeast of Saigon, Westmoreland elected to debut the new air mobile 1st Cavalry Division as he believed its helicopters would allow it to overcome the regions rugged terrain. Ia Drang - Vietnam. US Department of Defense Following a failed North Vietnamese attack on the Special Forces camp at Plei Me in October, the commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Colonel Thomas Brown, was instructed to move from Pleiku to seek and destroy the enemy. Arriving in the area, the 3rd Brigade was unable to find the attackers. Encouraged by Westmoreland to press towards the Cambodian border, Brown soon learned of an enemy concentration near Chu Pong Mountain. Acting on this intelligence, he directed the 1st Battalion/7th Cavalry, led by Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore, to conduct a reconnaissance in force in the area of Chu Pong. Arriving at X-Ray Assessing several landing zones, Moore chose LZ X-Ray near the base of the Chu Pong Massif. Roughly the size of a football field, X-Ray was surrounded by low trees and bordered by a dry creek bed to the west. Due to the relatively small size of the LZ, the transport of the 1st/7ths four companies would have to be conducted in several lifts. The first of these touched down at 10:48 AM on November 14 and consisted of Captain John Herrens Bravo Company and Moores command group. Departing, the helicopters began shuttling the rest of the battalion to X-Ray with each trip taking around 30 minutes. Soldiers of the U.S. Amry 1/7th Cavalry disembark from a Bell UH-1D Huey at LZ X-Ray during the battle of Ia Drang. US Army Day 1 Initially holding his forces in the LZ, Moore soon began sending out patrols while waiting for more men to arrive. At 12:15 PM, the enemy was first encountered northwest of the creek bed. Shortly thereafter, Herren ordered his 1st and 2nd Platoons to advance in that direction. Encountering heavy enemy resistance, the 1st was halted though the 2nd pushed on and pursued an enemy squad. In the process, the platoon, led by Lieutenant Henry Herrick, became separated and was soon surrounded by North Vietnamese forces. In the firefight that ensued, Herrick was killed and effective command devolved to Sergeant Ernie Savage. As the day progressed, Moores men successfully defended the creek bed as well as repelled assaults from the south while awaiting the arrival of the remainder of the battalion. By 3:20 PM, the last of the battalion arrived and Moore established a 360-degree perimeter around X-Ray. Eager to rescue the lost platoon, Moore sent forward Alpha and Bravo Companies at 3:45 PM. This effort succeeded in advancing around 75 yards from the creek bed before enemy fire brought it to a halt. In the attack, Lieutenant Walter Marm earned the Medal of Honor when he single-handedly captured an enemy machine gun position (Map). Day 2 Around 5:00 PM, Moore was reinforced by the lead elements of Bravo Company/2nd/7th. While the Americans dug in for the night, the North Vietnamese probed their lines and conducted three assaults against the lost platoon. Though under heavy pressure, Savages men turned these back. At 6:20 AM on November 15, the North Vietnamese mounted a major attack against Charlie Companys section of the perimeter. Calling in fire support, the hard-pressed Americans turned back the attack but took significant losses in the process. At 7:45 AM, the enemy began a three-pronged assault on Moores position. With the fighting intensifying and Charlie Companys line wavering, heavy air support was called in to halt the North Vietnamese advance. As it arrived over the field, it inflicted major losses on the enemy, though a friendly fire incident led to some napalm striking the American lines. At 9:10 AM, additional reinforcements arrived from the 2nd/7th and began reinforcing Charlie Companys lines. By 10:00 AM the North Vietnamese began withdrawing. With fighting raging at X-Ray, Brown dispatched Lieutenant Colonel Bob Tullys 2nd/5th to LZ Victor approximately 2.2 miles east-southeast. Moving overland, they reached X-Ray at 12:05 PM, augmenting Moores force. Pushing out of the perimeter, Moore and Tully succeeded in rescuing the lost platoon that afternoon. That night North Vietnamese forces harassed the American lines and then launched a major assault around 4:00 AM. With the aid of well-directed artillery, four assaults were repelled as the morning progressed. By mid-morning, the remainder of the 2nd/7th and 2nd/5th arrived at X-Ray. With the Americans on the field in strength and having taken massive losses, the North Vietnamese began withdrawing. Ambush at Albany That afternoon Moores command departed the field. Hearing reports of enemy units moving into the area and seeing that little more could be done at X-Ray, Brown wished to withdraw the remainder of his men. This was vetoed by Westmoreland who wished to avoid the appearance of a retreat. As a result, Tully was instructed to march the 2nd/5th northeast to LZ Columbus while Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDade was to take the 2nd/7th north-northeast to LZ Albany. As they departed, a flight of B-52 Stratofortresses was assigned to strike the Chu Pong Massif. While Tullys men had an uneventful march to Columbus, McDades troops began encountering elements of the 33rd and 66th PAVN Regiments. These actions culminated with a devastating ambush in the vicinity of Albany which saw PAVN troops attack and split McDades men into smaller groups. Under heavy pressure and taking major losses, McDades command was soon aided by air support and elements of the 2nd/5th which marched in from Columbus. Beginning late that afternoon, additional reinforcements were flown in and the American position was appearance during the night. The next morning, the enemy had largely pulled back. After policing the area for casualties and dead, the Americans departed for LZ Crooks the next day. Aftermath The first major battle that involved US ground forces, Ia Drang saw them suffer 96 killed and 121 wounded at X-Ray and 155 killed and 124 wounded at Albany. Estimates for North Vietnamese losses are around 800 killed at X-Ray and minimum of 403 killed at Albany. For his actions in leading the defense of X-Ray, Moore was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Pilots Major Bruce Crandall and Captain Ed Freeman were later (2007) awarded the Medal of Honor for making volunteer flights under heavy fire to and from X-Ray. During these flights, they delivered much-needed supplies while evacuating wounded soldiers. The fighting at Ia Drang set the tone for the conflict as American forces continued to rely on air mobility and heavy fire support to achieve victory. Conversely, the North Vietnamese learned that the latter could be neutralized by quickly closing with the enemy and fighting at close range.