Language Peeves - Don't Feel Badly for Linking Verbs

A reader recently asked me to write about one of her language peeves. This reader can't stand it when a person says he or she is "feeling badly." This statement makes her think that the person has a problem with the sensitivity of his or her fingertips and therefore cannot feel things properly. Indeed, semantically, that is what "feeling badly" implies. The proper way for a person to express the feeling of being physically unwell is to use the statement "I 'feel bad'."

How can this be when feel is a verb and badly is an adverb and adverbs modify verbs?

The answer is that adverbs modify action verbs and feel is what is known as a linking verb. Semantically, linking verbs behave differently than action verbs. Here is a good example: another linking verb is am and that is why, when responding to the question "how are you," the response is "I am good" not "I am goodly."