Is “not actual” in “potential, not actual harm” an adjective phrase or an adverbial phrase?
Does comma placement affect spelling of letters?
If it’s an adjective phrase modifying harm, then I think it would be: “potential,
not actual harm” If
it’s an adverb phrase modifying potential I think it would be: “potential, not actual, harm”
What do you think about not actual as an adverbial phrase?
If a phrase could be understood as modifying an adjective or a noun, maybe for simplicity it should be seen as modifying the noun?
What are the difference between adverb and adjective and why is there a difference of meaning? I can picture teaching English teachers everywhere cringing at that suggestion… I think this is basically what I was thinking above when I suggested it might be an adverbial phrase. What would be the practical negative outcome for my students if I tried to mimic cringing English
teachers everywhere?
What
do you think about this? Adjective or adverbial statement?
What is the average price of a house in Asia?
This is an example of hypozeugma in which two phrases (here “potential” and “not actual”) are associated syntactically with one following (here “harm”). This is rhetorical shorthand for
potential harm not actual harm.
Makes actual an adjectival modifier of harm. That’s why, for an adverbial modifier for potential, you’d have to say
a not actual potential harm
which is redundant since something that’s only potential is not actual.
If the usage is contrasting and emphatic, then a single comma is appropriate. If, on the other hand, the usage is that of an aside (with the meaning of your parenthetical “and by that I mean”), then both commas are the way to go.
Is a verb as an adjective? Actual is an adjective. The word actual is a verb. A Dark, black cat walked across my porch. Which animal did it follow? In your sentence, one of the adjective is preceded by not, so it is more like (bad example, but just bear with me): The dark, not white cat walked across my porch. One comma is enough for this to be passed.
Both adjectives apply to the noun, so in your case the harm, is both potential and not actual.
