In linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

, an adjunct is an optional, or structurally dispensable, part of a sentence that, when removed, will not affect the remainder of the sentence except to discard from it some auxiliary information. A more detailed definition of an adjunct is its attribute as a modifying form, word, or phrase which depends on another form, word, or phrase, being an element of clause structure with adverbial function.

A simple example of this is as follows:

Take the sentence John killed Bill in Central Park on Sunday. In this sentence:

1. John is the Subject
2. killed is the Predicator
3. Bill is the Object
4. in Central Park is the first Adjunct
5. on Sunday is the second Adjunct

An adverbial adjunct is a sentence element that usually establishes the circumstances in which the action or state expressed by the verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

 take place.

The following sentence uses adjuncts of time and place:

Yesterday, Lorna saw the dog in the garden.

Notice that this example is ambiguous between whether the adjunct "in the garden" modifies the verb "saw" (in which case it is Lorna who saw the dog while she was in the garden) or the noun "the dog" (in which case it is the dog who is in the garden).

This definition can be extended to include adjuncts that modify noun

Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...

s or other parts of speech (see noun adjunct

Noun adjunct

In grammar, a noun adjunct or attributive noun or noun premodifier is a noun that modifies another noun and is optional — meaning that it can be removed without changing the grammar of the sentence; it is a noun functioning as an adjective. For example, in the phrase "chicken soup" the noun adjunct...

):

The large dog in the garden is very friendly.

Adjuncts are always extranuclear; that is, removing an adjunct leaves a grammatically well-formed sentence. It is for this reason that "is very friendly" in the sentence above is not an adjunct; though it is adjectival, it acts as the predicate

Predicate (grammar)

There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus...

 and its removal would render the sentence meaningless. However, optional complements are also often removable, so not all removable elements are adjuncts. They are contrasted with complements

Complement (linguistics)

In grammar the term complement is used with different meanings. The primary meaning is a word, phrase or clause that is necessary in a sentence to complete its meaning. We find complements that function as an argument and complements that exist within arguments.Both complements and modifiers add...

, which are elements directly selected by another element.

Forms

An adjunct can be a single word, a phrase

Phrase

In everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words which form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a clause....

, or a clause

Clause

In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...

.

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 part of a sentence, which can be classified as the following:

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. (frequency)

Locative : Locative adjuncts establish where, to where or from where a state or action happened or existed.

She sat on the table. (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.

Conditional : Conditional adjuncts establish the condition in which a 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)

See also

• Adverbial
  Adverbial
  In grammar an adverbial is a word or a group of words that modifies or tells us something about the sentence or the verb. The word adverbial is also used as an adjective, meaning 'having the same function as an adverb'...
  
  
• Conjunct
  Conjunct
  In linguistics, the term conjunct has three distinct uses:*A conjunct is an adjunct that adds information to the sentence that is not considered part of the propositional content but which connects the sentence with previous parts of the discourse...
  
  
• Disjunct
  Disjunct (linguistics)
  In linguistics, a disjunct is a type of adverbial adjunct that expresses information that is not considered essential to the sentence it appears in, but which is considered to be the speaker's or writer's attitude towards, or descriptive statement of, the propositional content of the sentence...
  
  
• Noun adjunct
  Noun adjunct
  In grammar, a noun adjunct or attributive noun or noun premodifier is a noun that modifies another noun and is optional — meaning that it can be removed without changing the grammar of the sentence; it is a noun functioning as an adjective. For example, in the phrase "chicken soup" the noun adjunct...
  
  
• Attributive
  Attributive
  In grammar, an attributive is a word or phrase within a noun phrase that modifies the head noun. It may be an:* attributive adjective* attributive noun* attributive verbor other part of speech....