Verb phrase modifying another verb phrase: to use or not to use 地?

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Grammar

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Hey all, I encountered the example sentence "他用力地抓住绳子", and it got me thinking - what's the difference between this and "他用力抓住绳子"? Is the second even an acceptable sentence? Is it that in the first one, 用力 is modifying the verb directly, like "he strongly grasped the rope", whereas the second sentence is more like "He used strength to grasp the rope"? Similarly, 努力 seems to usually be used directly, without 地, but I swear I've seen it with a 地 afterwards as well.

Is there a generalizable grammatical concept that can be extracted from this?

Thanks!

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baldeagle76

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Posted: 5 years ago
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