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NOTE: I've heavily rephrased the original question in a last attempt to clarify it.

Background to the question

While studying Portuguese literature in secondary school, one learns several rhetorical devices, which include figures of speech and other devices. Within these 'other devices', one learns the 'double adverbiation' and the 'triple adverbiation' (to my knowledge, the term 'adverbiation' doesn't exist in English). These devices consist in using two / three adverbs in a row. The phrase typically includes an asyndeton and can further include a gradation. It was famously used by the Portuguese writer Eça de Queirós, in the 19th century, and it is yet to lose its rhetorical punch.

When students are requested to write short fictional or non-fictional texts, they are often encouraged (if they have a good teacher) to use at least a few rhetorical devices, whether figures or not.

Examples of the double and triple adverbiation:

John breathed deeply, voluptuosly.

Annabel smiled rigidly, frigidly, listlessly.

I personaly use adverbiation while writing in Portuguese. When I started writing in English, I found the triple adverbiation sounded odd, but kept using the double one. My beta at the time (no literature studies or knowledge of rhetorical devices besides the eventual 'comparison' and 'repetition of x') told me straight off not to use two adverbs in a row (and added the clichéd 'avoid adverbs as much as possible'). She said it would always sound wrong to have two -ly ending adverbs put together. Point taken.

Therefore, I may write...

Annabel speared the meat, fast and relentlessly.

But never...

Annabel speared the meat, quickly and relentlessly.

Another curiosity is that when I do use double adverbiation in English, the asyndeton often seems to disrupt the rhythm of the phrase, whereas it would strengthen the rhythm of a Portuguese sentence. So, again, the double adverbiation, when used in English, has different characteristics.

Question

There are plenty of non-native English speakers who try their hand at writing a novel in English. Assuming that:

  1. they have a good control over rhetorical devices as they learnt them in their native language
  2. they are fluent speakers of English (even if some idioms and some advanced vocabulary may still elude them)
  3. they consciously use rhetorical devices in their English writing

Is there at least one specific rhetorical device in any language other than Portuguese that is not (usually) used in the English language?

I am not looking for solutions, since solutions are simply to, first, be aware of the pitfall and, secondly, get an English book explaining rhetorical devices and go through each one of them analysing the examples to see how they are similar and/or different to one's native language.

What I am looking for is at least one example as the triple adverbiation from other languages that not Portuguese so that I can use them in my 'writers' group' in order to widen one's cultural horizons.

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SC for reinstatement of Monica
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it revolves more around linguistics rather than wriitng – Featherball Jan 31 '17 at 16:48
  • @DanielCann: When I first started writing in English, I had been writing in Portuguese for years. I had great control of rhetorical devices and used them... and then, from my beta's reactions I realised some of them did not work in English the same way in Portuguese. My question is not about linguistics; it's about the use of a literary resource that can have serious pitfalls for non-English natives writing in English. – SC for reinstatement of Monica Jan 31 '17 at 17:01
  • @SaraCosta - if it gets closed, give it a try on ELU. I have asked about rhetorical devices there and gotten extremely helpful results. // I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. (I understand the background as you explained it.) – aparente001 Feb 01 '17 at 05:03
  • @DanielCann I think this is fine here, and a really intriguing question. – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum Feb 01 '17 at 18:37
  • @SaraCosta : This seems to be attracting some close-votes and confused responses. I think this is an intriguing question, but perhaps phrased unclearly. I'm going to put this on-hold, so we can make sure the question is well-focused and clearly understood, and then we'll edit and re-open it. – Standback Feb 02 '17 at 09:37
  • I think what you're asking is, when writing in a non-native language, how do you learn the subtler differences between the languages -- the ones that are "minor" errors, that aren't a problem in everyday communication, but look wrong (and possibly change the tone considerably) when you're writing. You're saying it's a stumbling block for you. Did I understand you correctly? – Standback Feb 02 '17 at 09:41
  • (While I understand why you ask for a list of additional differences, Stack Exchange works very poorly with "list questions," and we try very hard to avoid them. They don't work in the format - there's no good way to make one comprehensive list, and answers are supposed to stand on their own, not be a single item in a larger list. For example, if I posted one list of differences between Spanish and English, and another of differences between Yiddish and English, one would be "ranked" above the other -- even if both lists were equally "good.") – Standback Feb 02 '17 at 09:42
  • @Standback: I see what you mean. I will try to clarify the question in the coming hours. – SC for reinstatement of Monica Feb 02 '17 at 11:00
  • To avoid the dreaded list question (which this rewrite does not) why not simply ask why triple adverbiation is seldom used in English prose, to which I would venture to to guess that the answer is that English has dozens of verbs for most common actions (borrowed from the dozen of languages that English has assimilated -- the Borg of languages) and so it prefers to express subtleties by the precise choice of verb rather than through the modification of a common verb. –  Feb 02 '17 at 13:29
  • @MarkBaker : That would be an entirely different question to what Sara is trying to ask. That being said, I'm not seeing how we can manage this as anything other than a list-question -- or possibly an extremely broad "how do I learn the nuances of another language." :-/ – Standback Feb 02 '17 at 13:45
  • @Standback, right, but "why are the nuances of one language different from the nuances of another language", whether asked broadly or narrowly for a single example, might be both answerable and useful to an ESL writer. –  Feb 02 '17 at 13:50
  • @MarkBaker: 'why triple adverbiation is seldom used' is not what I want to know. Besides I know the why and, IMHO, it's more of a cultural-linguistic aspect. Portuguese also has plenty of strong (expressive) verbs and nothing stops you from using adverbs and adverbial phrases on top of them. Anyway, if there's no cure, it'll have to be closed and that's the end of it. – SC for reinstatement of Monica Feb 02 '17 at 13:50
  • @SaraCosta, well if your question really is, "What rhetorical pitfalls await ESL writers?" Then this was always the wrong place to ask. The English Language Learners SE would be the right place to ask. I suggest you ask the mods to move it, or delete here and ask it there. –  Feb 02 '17 at 13:55
  • @MarkBaker: But if it continues to be a list-question, it'll still get closed. I guess I should look for a forum where list-questions are welcome for this particular one. – SC for reinstatement of Monica Feb 02 '17 at 13:58
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    IMHO Writers isn't the wrong place to ask; this is a writing question. It's just an incredibly broad one; literally listing all the subtle differences between two languages. Or, perhaps, a helpful guide to how one goes about identifying and learning, specifically. the nuances of a foreign language, or the nuances of writing in a foreign language. Sara- do you feel like these later options are near to your intention? "How do I learn the nuances of writing in a language that isn't my native one?" – Standback Feb 02 '17 at 14:09
  • Related: http://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/8423/how-do-i-improve-my-knowledge-of-english-well-enough-to-write-in-it , http://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/20024/acquiring-vocabulary-to-write-fiction . This feels to me like a question that's comparable to those, but for a much more advanced level -- not one of basic clarity and vocabulary, but for nuance, high control of language, and writing for sound and impact. – Standback Feb 02 '17 at 14:13
  • @Standback, well the answer to that very broad question is the one I gave below: idiomatic fluency only comes through immersion. Attentive reading and listening is the foundation of learning to write well in any language, whether it is you first, second, or third. –  Feb 02 '17 at 14:19
  • @Standback: "How do I learn the nuances of writing in a language that isn't my native one?" This is broader than my intent; it's not about the language as a whole, but solely about rhetorical devices in writing / literature. – SC for reinstatement of Monica Feb 02 '17 at 14:20
  • @Sara : my concern is, I'm not sure the two can be meaningfully seperated. The language as a whole is the toolbox for your writing and rhetoric... – Standback Feb 02 '17 at 14:37
  • OK, now I do not ask for a list of examples but whether at least one other language besides Portuguese has a named rhetorical device that does not work in English. – SC for reinstatement of Monica Feb 02 '17 at 14:51
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    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_rhetorical_terms has versions in German, French, Dutch, and Polish. A comparison of the lists in different languages should go a long way to answering that question. –  Feb 02 '17 at 15:22

1 Answers1

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English does not have an allergy to adverbs. Bad writing teachers sometimes tell their students not to use adverbs, perhaps because they are not skilled enough to teach them to use them well.

Different cultures go through different stylistic periods. These are cultural phenomena more than linguistic. It is hard to say whether the difference you perceive between English and Portuguese is a linguistic one, a stylistic one, or perhaps simply one of idiom. Very often what readers identify as clumsy constructions as simply unidiomatic. They don't point to a general rule about such construction in general, only to the principle that one should write idiomatically. Idiom is one of the hardest things to learn in a language, so writing in a second language may well be not idiomatic even when it is completely fluent in every other way.

In any case, we should be very hesitant to add to the current stock of prohibitions in the lists of advice given to English writers. Most of the stupid things said about writing are simplistic prohibitions, every one of which can be disproven by examples from great writers.

In the end, you have to gain idiomatic fluency in both the language and culture you are writing for, and no list of simplistic prohibitions is going to get you there. It is not about memorizing a list of what not to do, but about developing an innate sense of what to do. That only comes through immersion in the culture and an attentive reading of its literature.