Adjuncts
Adjuncts in linguistics are elements that are optional in a sentence and provide additional information without being essential to the sentence's structure. They can include adverbs, prepositional phrases, or clauses, and they typically modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Adjuncts can add detail, such as time, manner, place, or reason, to a sentence without changing its core meaning.
3 Key excerpts on "Adjuncts"
eBook - ePub- Bas Aarts, April McMahon, Lars Hinrichs, Bas Aarts, April McMahon, Lars Hinrichs(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
...These are, typically, the complements. Anything beyond that is additional, circumstantial information (where, how, when?) and can usually be considered as an optional adjunct. Again, we see that the verb ultimately decides what is a complement in a given sentence and what is an adjunct. We may now broadly summarize the two approaches by Quirk et al. (1985) and Huddleston (2002) in Table 9.1. Table 9.1 clearly shows that the approaches of the two major grammars of English show indeed some overlap, but that they are also incompatible and contradictory in other places. Concepts such as “obligatory predication adjunct” cause a lot of confusion here. For this reason, the following section will offer a basically compatible and yet different viewpoint, namely that of linguistic gradience or fuzziness. The analysis of linguistic fuzziness and gradience often begins with the criteria outlined in traditional grammars, but rather than treating these as binary black or white factors, fuzziness also allows for some grey middle ground between the two extremes or prototypes. Table 9.1 Complements and Adjuncts in Quirk et al. (1985) and Huddleston (2002). Adjuncts Complements Quirk et al. (1985) Adverbials only (obligatory and optional) Only obligatory subject and object complements (noun phrases and adjective phrases) in “copular” structures Huddleston (2002) Always optional More flexible Need to be licensed by the verb Sometimes optional Irrespective of phrase type category “Do so too” test Syntactically more fixed Prototypically arguments 9.4 Linguistic Fuzziness and a Constructional Perspective The aforementioned analyses and tests are obviously not without problems, and sometimes even contradictory. It is not without reason that the complement–adjunct distinction has provoked so much controversy in contemporary linguistics. In the following sections, I will first present an analysis that brings linguistic fuzziness or gradience into the picture...
eBook - ePubAnalysing Sentences
An Introduction to English Syntax
- Noel Burton-Roberts(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...5 Adverbials and other matters DOI: 10.4324/9781003118916-6 Adjunct adverbials (VP-adverbials) We’ve been looking at basic VPs – VPs containing just a lexical V plus its (sister) complements. Here I look at modifiers in VP and the distinction between complements and modifiers. We’ve already met PPs functioning as modifiers in VP. Examples are: [1] Old Sam sunbathed [2] Max spotted those wildcats These PPs are optional and can occur with almost any verb, regardless of the sub-category of the verb. As modifiers, they give additional, not grammatically essential, information. When a constituent functions in a VP like the PPs in [1] and [2], it is said to function as an adjunct adverbial (or simply adjunct). [1] and [2], then, are examples of intransitive and transitive sentences with adjunct adverbials. Some further examples of adjunct PPs – in intensive [3] and [4], transitive [5], ditransitive [6], and complex transitive [7] VPs: [3] Nicholas became so successful by sheer cunning. [4] Oscar was in the engine room during the whole voyage. [5] Ed spent money like a maniac. [6] William gave Millie some bleach on her birthday. [7] Liza kept the wine under the bed as a precaution. As you can see, Adjuncts express a wide range of ideas, including manner, means, purpose, reason, place and time (including duration and frequency). They answer questions like Where? Why? When? How? What for? How long? How often? How many times? Since adjunct is a type of ADVERBIAL function, you won’t be surprised to hear that adverb phrases can also function as adjunct adverbials. Even so, take care not to confuse the term ADVERBIAL – this denotes a FUNCTION (not included in phrase markers) – with ADVERB (Adv) and ADVERB PHRASE (AdvP), which are CATEGORY labels and do figure in phrase markers. Not all AdvPs function as adverbials: we’ve seen they can modify adjectives, within APs...
eBook - ePubAmerican English Grammar
An Introduction
- Seth R. Katz(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Subjuncts are the least common type of adverbial. For a better model of an approach to adverbials, Haussamen quotes Shuan-Fan Huang’s 1975 A Study of Adverbs : “[A]dverbs may be described as the principal ways in which the language user characterizes the conditions and circumstances[,] the hows and wherefores of actions and events.” 27 Haussamen concludes that: Such a definition replaces the traditional statement about syntax [that adverbs only modify other parts of speech] with a pragmatic and rhetorical characterization. It describes the role that adverbs play in communication by describing the kind of information they convey. … It avoids exaggeration of the adverb’s relation to the verb; instead, by referring to “actions and events,” it connects the adverb to the whole clause without eliminating the verb as a focal point. 28 In Chapter 12, this characterization of adverbs, and adverbials more generally, will help in discussing the roles they play in relation to non-finite verb phrases. Key Points Nominals are phrases and clauses that (1) perform nominal functions (S UBJ, A GENT, PC OMP, DO, SC, IO, OC) and (2) provide noun-like information (telling who or what). When it is performing a nominal function, a complete nominal can be identified by the pronoun replacement test. Adjectivals are phrases and clauses that (1) perform adjectival functions (M OD OF N, SC, OC, A DJ C L :M OD OF C LAUSE, N OMINATIVE A BSOLUTE :M OD OF C LAUSE) and (2) provide adjective-like information (telling which or what kind of)...
