Especialmente (Specially x Especially)

So glad I could find some explanation on these words! Many thanks!!!

No, Henry, I don't! Please tell us more about them!!!

Hey pessoal, eu tbm tinha dúvida sobre essas duas palavras, como disse tinha!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Anne.

Complementos são sempre bem-vindos, Márcio. Obrigada!

Um trecho que me chamou a atenção recentemente:

"Winfrey is quite familiar with Calvin Mitchell, 35, especially since she attempted to help him and his familiy when he was a kid."

Na minha cabeça de nativa de língua portuguesa: Winfrey é bastante familiar com Calvin, mais especificamente desde quando...

Eu teria usado specifically, e não especially

Pra mim têm significados diferentes.

O que acham?

I doubt many people really make any distinction. Do you know that there is especial and special?
Regards

From the Freeonlinedictionary.com:

"Especial and especially have a more limited use than special and specially. Special is always used in preference to especial when the sense is one of being out of the ordinary: a special lesson; he has been specially trained. Special is also used when something is referred to as being for a particular purpose: the word was specially underlined for you. Where an idea of pre-eminence or individuality is involved, either especial or special may be used: he is my especial (or special) friend; he is especially (or specially) good at his job. In informal English, however, special is usually preferred in all contexts"

There are other English words spelled with or without an initial "e". In esquire and squire, for instance, the noun meanings largely overlap. In estate and state, as nouns they diverge significantly. It seems to me (and I'm no expert in the matter), modern English has simply adopted whatever it needed in order to fill various semantic fields -- and even kept duplicates around, probably just to torment English learners...

Perfeito, Flavia. Só para ilustrar, o advérbio especially aparece, isolado ou em conjunto, em muitos verbetes do Webster's, como neste exemplo:

11 b (3) : to get by drawing or painting or especially by photography : make or execute a picture of : represent or portray in any artistic form; especially : to make a photograph of : PHOTOGRAPH

com o sentido que você já deu.

Discursa sobre um e outro Michael Swan, em seu guia Practical English Usage, Ed. Oxford:

Segundo ele mesmo, podemos:

1. empregar um pelo outro... (e)specially cold.
2. empregar especially com o significado de "acima de tudo":
   We play a lot of tennis, especially on Sundays.
   The children behave noisily, especially when we have visitors.
   Juquinha likes all kinds of fruit, especially mangoes. (... em especial de manga)
3. intercalar um especially, com o mesmo sentido, como neste exemplo:
   All my family like music. My father, especially, goes to as many concerts as he can. (NOT ... Especially my father goes ...)
4. colocar um especially antes das preposições e das conjunções:
   We go skiing quite a lot, especially in February.
   I drink a lot of coffee, especially at work.
5. usar specially com particípios passados com o significado de "para um propósito em especial":
   We made these shoes specially for you.
   A song specially written for someone's birthday.