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A man like [Andrew] Lloyd Webber who has been much reviled for his conservative politics ... The Guardian

Can we replace it with a lot of?


Also it will be great if you could describe the below:

What is part of speech of much? and What is the function (Clause Element) of this word in the sentence?

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  • Here link.
    – Ľubomír Masarovič
    Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 12:13
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    Short answer: no, because a lot of only goes with nouns, and reviled is a participle. I'm looking for a good reference for the grammar, but I haven't found one yet.
    – stangdon
    Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 12:25
  • I think it's adverb here, it is described the participle "revield". but I'm not sure
    – Shannak
    Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 12:35
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    You can say "been reviled a lot for", but not "a lot of", which as @stangdon said applies to nouns.
    – MorganFR
    Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 13:34

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As stangdon points out, in this sentence "reviled" is a participle and requires the adverb "much". If you change the sentence to use a similar noun, then it would be possible to use either:

... Andrew Lloyd Webber who has received (much / a lot of) vilification for his conservative politics, ...

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