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First time poster, so please let me know if there are any rules/conventions that I have failed to follow.

Consider the following two sentences:

  1. "The needle was embedded one inch lateral to the wound edge."

  2. "The needle was embedded one inch laterally to the wound edge."

Which one is the correct choice? My intuition says 1., but I wanted to hear from some experts. If 1. is, indeed, correct, what exactly is its part of speech...a preposition?

I'm always a little mixed up when it comes to some of the finer points distinguishing adverbs from adjectives from prepositions. I know that, "The needle was laterally embedded an inch from the wound edge," is the grammatically correct adverbial usage, but this sentence actually conveys something different from the two sentences listed above.

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  • It's 2) but we don't do editing here. Adverb: How was it embedded? Answer: laterally. This question will probably be migrated to ELL. Commented Mar 13 at 19:13
  • No, that is an incorrect understanding of the sentence. The embedding orientation is not what is being described. The relative position to the wound edge is what is being described (as stated in my post's final paragraph). Sorry if I have misunderstood your comment. Commented Mar 13 at 19:14
  • "The needle was laterally embedded an inch from the wound edge" = The needle was embedded laterally an inch from the wound edge. Same thing. Commented Mar 13 at 19:24
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    I don't get how you are using 'lateral(ly)'. Does it describe how the needle is embedded, or its position relative to the wound? For example: the needle was embedded laterally one inch from the wound. Or: the needle was embedded one inch away from the wound. What exactly is the role of 'lateral(ly)'? Is it unnecessary? Commented Mar 13 at 19:31
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    It looks as though you are over-complicating and over-thinking it. Is it so significant? If I read sth like that, I would assume that you meant the needle is parallel to the wound. Commented Mar 13 at 19:49

2 Answers 2

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You can describe the position of something as lateral to something else in the medical/scientific literature.

Medical Definition

lateral (adj.)

Of or relating to the side

especially, of a body part: lying at or extending toward the right or left side: lying away from the median axis of the body

The lungs are lateral to the heart
M-W

The OED online has these citations:

1913 Lateral to the foramen ovale is the foramen spinosum.
Gray's Anatomy (ed. 18) 242

1972 Electrodes..were placed at bilaterally symmetrical points over the left and right hemispheres,..2 mm lateral to the sagittal suture and 1 mm posterior to bregma.
Nature 31 March 233/1

Examples from Google Scholar and Google Books:

These deposits are typically found within two kilometres lateral to LA12 (Figure 5).
Adam D. McArthur et al.; "Lateral, longitudinal, and temporal variation in trench-slope basin fill" (2021)

The SIP block was carried out to relieve pain from a sternal fracture and the needle was injected 2 cm lateral to the sternal edge
Yuichi Ohgoshi et al.; "In Reply: Similarities between parasternal intercostal nerve block and subpectoral interfascial plane block" (2017)

If so specified, signs having a dimension of more than 22 inches lateral to the finished design shall be of 16 gauge metal, U.S. Standard.
American Engineering Council. Committee on street traffic signs, signals and markings; Manual on Street Traffic Signs, Signals and Markings (1930)

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  • Perfect. That is what I thought. Thank you very much. Just to confirm, this is an adjectival usage of the word, yes? Commented Mar 13 at 19:45
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    @S.C. This are under lateral as an adjective, so yes; however, I believe you will also see "placed laterally to..." in the literature. It may come down to whether you are describing how something is placed (laterally to) or where is it placed (lateral to). I would search for both in Google Books for examples in the literature. Commented Mar 13 at 19:47
  • Thank you for taking the time to respond. Given your reputation score, I am going to assume you are fairly knowledgeable on the more general considerations for 'proper grammar'. Is it approximately correct to say that the answer you have provided me is not so much based on a 'rule' per se, but, rather, a byproduct of precedent / historical usage? Commented Mar 13 at 19:50
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    I was editing my comment above as you added your comment. Look up "laterally to" and "lateral to" in Google Books and Google Scholar. Let's also see what other have to say. Commented Mar 13 at 19:52
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    @Lambie Google Scholar returns 269 papers with "was inserted lateral to" and 74 with "was inserted laterally to". Or have a look at "inserted lateral to" in Google Books. You'll find both forms. The adverb describes how you are placing it; the adjective describes where. Commented Mar 13 at 23:25
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As the other answer points out, "lateral to" is a valid phrasing that means "to the side of" or "alongside".

However, I think your option 1:

The needle was embedded one inch lateral to the wound edge

while grammatical, is ambiguous. Does it mean the needle was embedded to a depth of one inch alongside the wound edge, or does it mean the needle was embedded at a distance of one inch in a sideways direction?

So (assuming that the second meaning above was intended) I would prefer something closer to your option 2. But option 2 does not read idiomatically to me, and I think it should be

The needle was embedded one inch laterally from the wound edge

in exactly the same way that we might say "vertically from", etc.

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    Note that this ambiguity is not present in the full quote (given in a comment under the question) – it’s clear there that the inch (actually centimeter) refers to distance from the wound, not depth of embedment. Commented Mar 14 at 11:46

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