Adjunct (grammar) - Citizendia

This article is about adjuncts in linguistics. For the term used in the brewing of beer, see Adjunct (beer). The following is about the brewing term adjunct is also a term used in linguistics. For the type of professor, see Professor. The meaning of the word professor ( Latin: professor, person who professes to be an expert in some art or science teacher of highest rank) varies

In linguistics, an adjunct is any word, phrase, or clause joined to another word or phrase to qualify or modify it. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields It could be of two kinds, adverbial, if it modifies a verb or verb phrase, or adnominal, if it modifies a noun or noun phrase.

An adverbial adjunct is a sentence element that establishes the circumstances in which the action or state expressed by the verb take place. Sentence elements are the groups of words that combine together to comprise the ‘building units’ of a well-formed sentence For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs.

The following sentence uses adjuncts of time and place:

Yesterday Lorna saw the dog in the garden.

This definition can be extended to include adjuncts that modify nouns or other parts of speech (see noun adjunct):

The large dog in the garden is very friendly. In Grammar, a noun adjunct or attributive noun or noun premodifier is a Noun that modifies another noun and is optional — meaning

Adjuncts are always extranuclear; that is, removing an adjunct leaves a grammatically well-formed sentence. They can thus be contrasted with complements. In Grammar the term complement is used with different meanings All adjuncts are adverbials. In Grammar an adverbial is a word (an Adverb) or a group of words (an adverbial Phrase or an adverbial Clause) that modifies or tells us something

1 Forms
2 Semantic function of adverbial adjuncts
3 Adverbial adjunct and adverbial complement distinguished
4 See also

Forms

An adjunct can be a single word, a phrase, or a clause. In Grammar, a phrase is a group of Words that functions as a single unit in the Syntax of a sentence. In Grammar, a clause is a word or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in some Languages and some types of

Single word: She will leave tomorrow.

Phrase: She will leave in the morning.

Clause: She will leave after she has had breakfast.

Semantic function of adverbial adjuncts

Adverbial adjuncts establish circumstances for the nuclear of a sentence, which can be classified as followings:

Temporal: Temporal adjuncts establish when, for how long or how often a state or action happened or existed.; He arrived yesterday. (time point); He stayed for two weeks. (duration); She drinks in that bar every day. (frequentive)

Locative: Locative adjuncts establish where, to where or from where a state or action happened or existed.; She sat on the table. (locative); She drove to London. (directional locative)

Modicative: Modicative adjuncts establish how the action happened or the state existed, or modifying its scope.; He ran with difficulty. (manner); He stood in silence. (state); He helped me with my homework. (limiting)

Causal: Causal adjuncts establish the reason for, or purpose of, an action or state.; The ladder collapsed because it was old. (reason); She went out to buy some bread. (purpose)

Instrumental: Instrumental adjuncts establish the instrument of the action.; Mr. Bibby wrote the letter with a pencil.

Agentive: Agentive adjuncts establish the agent of the action.; The letter was written by Mr. Bibby.

Conditional: Conditional adjuncts establish the condition in which sentence becomes true.; I would go to Paris, if I had the money.

Concessive: Concessive adjuncts establish the contrary circumstances.; Lorna went out although it was raining.

Adverbial adjunct and adverbial complement distinguished

An adjunct must always be a removable, i. e. extranuclear, element in the sentence. In the sentence below in the park can be removed and a well-formed sentence remains.

John drank a beer in the park. (locative adjunct)

In the sentence below, however, in the park is part of the nucleus of the sentence and cannot be removed. It is thus not an adjunct but an adverbial complement.

John is in the park. (locative complement)

Contents

Forms

Semantic function of adverbial adjuncts

Adverbial adjunct and adverbial complement distinguished

See also