Is there any difference between the two phrases ?
- There are numerous health benefits of drinking water on an empty stomach in the early morning.
- There are numerous health benefits of drinking water on an empty stomach early in the morning.
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Not much difference that I can think of.– BarmarCommented Jan 23, 2017 at 16:51
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1In your context there is little or no difference but there are differences which show in other contexts. For example I would tend to say "I got up early in the morning yesterday" because it refers to a specific occasion and time in the morning; but I would be more likely to say "I like walking in the woods in the early morning" as that refers to repeated activity which can take place at different times depending on the time of year. This doesn't mean that the terms are never used in the opposite context, just that there is a strong tendency to use them in the way I suggest.– BoldBenCommented Apr 30, 2017 at 23:23
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1I'd say "early in the morning" is a little more flexible based on your schedule. "in the early morning" -> I should get up at 5 just to drink some water. "early in the morning" -> I should drink some water shortly after I get up at 10:30.– KevinCommented Jun 29, 2017 at 21:55
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1I will note that there's a difference between "in the early morning rain" and "early in the morning rain".– Hot LicksCommented Aug 29, 2017 at 3:32
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1In #1, you first determine the period called "early morning" and do something then. In #2, you determine the period called "morning", and do something in the "early" part of that period.– LawrenceCommented Oct 28, 2017 at 3:40
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2 Answers
In context, there is very little in the way of practical differences in semantic meaning here.
Linguistically, this demonstrates an interesting phenomenon, which might be underlying your intuition that there is a difference between these two sentences (if indeed you get this intuition). This is an example of the difference in modifier scope (a term borrowed from logical quantification). Essentially, what this means is that the modifier early is taking scope over two different parts (or constituents) of the sentence. Notice that in (1) the relevant string is early morning, where early is acting as an adjective modifier to the noun morning. However, in (2), the relevant string is early in the morning where early is acting as a temporal adverbial modifying the temporal phrase in the morning.
What does this mean, though, in more concrete terms? If, for instance, you consider early morning to be the time between 5 am and 7 am. Under the reading offered in (1), where you are to drink water in early morning, you are following this advice if you drink water between 5 am and 7 am. However, the reading in (2) makes no such restriction. As long as you drink water early sometime within the morning, say 8 am (if that is sufficiently early enough), you are following the advice given in the two sentences.
May we assume the common bits make no difference and you're actually asking for a comparison of 'in the early morning' and 'early in the morning'?
No. There is no significant difference.
answered Apr 30, 2017 at 17:29