ingly

Ingly is not a standalone word in English; rather, it refers to the adverbial suffix -ingly, a productive morpheme used to form adverbs from adjectives that end in -ing (present participles). The -ingly suffix is added to the -ing adjective to describe the manner in which an action is performed, often with a descriptive or evaluative tone.

Morphology and formation

- The typical pattern is adjective ending in -ing plus -ly, yielding an adverb such as interesting + ly = interestingly, alarming + ly = alarmingly, or engaging + ly = engagingly.

- The process can be illustrated through the generation chain from a verb: interest (verb) → interesting (adjective) → interestingly (adverb). Similar chains exist for other -ing adjectives, producing a wide range of -ingly adverbs.

Usage and nuance

- -ingly adverbs describe how something is done, often emphasizing the manner or degree in a way that foregrounds the speaker’s evaluation or descriptive emphasis.

- Not all -ing adjectives form adverbs with -ingly, and some adverbs related to -ing adjectives may use other forms of -ly (for example, surprisingly, which is derived from surprising). In some cases, the spelling aligns with standard -ly adverbs, while the internal sequence -ingl- is preserved.

Examples

- interesting → interestingly

- engaging → engagingly

- disturbing → disturbingly

- astonishing → astonishingly

- surprising → surprisingly

Historical and linguistic note

- The suffix -ing is part of the participial family that forms adjectives from verbs, while -ly is a general adverbial suffix. The combination -ingly is a common pathway to create adverbs that highlight the manner of action for -ing adjectives.

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