In the punctuation of the Russian language, there are many rules that are not easy to understand. After all, punctuation marks not only define the boundaries of phrases and sentences, but also help convey the feelings and emotions of people reproducing them. Is it worth highlighting with commas “predominantly” or not, we’ll talk in this article.
Meaning of the word
To understand whether commas are needed to highlight the word “predominantly”, it is necessary to determine its meaning and grammatical characteristics.
“Predominantly”, that is, prevailing over others. For example, “He chooses mainly teddy bears,” that is, when choosing from a variety of toys, he chooses bears, and not something else.
From the point of view of morphology, it can be noted that the word "predominantly" is an adverb formed from the adjective "predominant" in a suffix way.
This adverb is similar to words such as: certainly true, which, in addition to one of the members of the sentence, can be introductory words.
“His leadership in our team is unconditional.” Leadership (what?) Is unconditional. In this sentence, the analyzed word is part of a compound nominal predicate expressed by a short adjective of the middle gender.
“Of course, he is the leader of our team.” In this sentence, the analyzed word does not answer the question, therefore, it is not one of the members of the sentence, it is used to indicate confidence, it is easily omitted without changing the meaning. Maybe it should be "predominantly" separated by commas?
Introductory words
Introductory words are expressions used to give the phrase additional meaning. They are not members of the proposal; they are isolated on the letter, standing out on both sides with commas. They can be expressed in words of various parts of speech, phrases that are both stable and changing.
Introductory words are used in several cases:
When designing the train of thought (first, on the one hand, therefore).
When expressing emotions, confidence, insecurity (fortunately, unfortunately, of course, no doubt).
When pointing to the source of speaking (in words, in a message, in other words).
In case of attracting attention (imagine, you see, you know).
When indicating a measure (at least the largest, without exaggeration).
The word we are analyzing does not have any of the above meanings; therefore, it is not necessary to highlight “predominantly” with commas in the letter. It cannot be an opening word.
Exception Words
It is true not to isolate “predominantly” with commas, just as in the case of other exception words, such as: “resolutely”, “approximately”, “exclusively”.
She wanted a mostly warm relationship.
His actions were emphatically rejected.
About five apples are needed to make the pie.
He does this solely for her safety.
Clarifying circumstances
“Predominantly” is an adverb, therefore, in a sentence, as a rule, it acts as a circumstance. In some cases, circumstances tend to isolate themselves.
Is it possible to stand out “predominantly” with commas following this paragraph?
Circumstances are isolated in two cases:
Defining the additional meaning of time: “Today, at nine o’clock in the evening, my favorite film will be shown on TV.” Will the film be shown when? Today. And when exactly? At nine p.m.
Defining the additional meaning of the place: "Tomorrow I am going to the village, to my parents." I'm going to where? To the village. But where exactly? To parents.
Thus, isolated circumstances have the precise meaning of place and time. Each subsequent one will answer the question “when exactly”, “where exactly”.
The word that interests us is not a circumstance of time or place, and therefore cannot be isolated.