6
votes
Accepted
How to treat adverbial phrases in X-bar theory
Short answer
'[I]n the many places where I was guilty of the reprehensible and shockingly common confusion of the notions of "adverb" and "adverbial"; these defects, for which I ...
- 3,593
4
votes
Accepted
What's the name of the elements used to extend otherwise basic clauses?
As you correctly figured out, at nightand for his girlfriend start with a preposition followed by a noun phrase. This is called a prepositional phrase (= PP): The head (= the element which determines ...
- 6,333
3
votes
Adjunct vs disjunct
As is, your question has no answer, since you haven't mentioned what theory or whose classification you were interested in. Here's what Hilde Hasselgård writes on this:
"A striking feature of ...
- 8,576
2
votes
What is the difference between complements and adjuncts?
Adjuncts and complements are different. An adjunct is not necessary, and adds extra information. A complement is necessary in order to complete the meaning:
[S]He [V]put [O]some salt [C]in the soup.
...
2
votes
A Question About Complement and Adjunct
Complements are arguments, in the sense of logic. Your example is a nominalization of the sentence "Latin influence(d) English strongly." In the sentence, "Latin" and "English" are subject and ...
- 12.3k
2
votes
Accepted
Which word is the head of the phrase "somewhere there"?
Somewhere there is a crime happening.
In the sentence above from the Robocop films the word somewhere is functioning as a Locative Adjunct. Notice that it can appear either at the beginning or end of ...
- 3,593
2
votes
Does the relative clause (which suggests...) here function as an adjunct of the whole clause in front of it?
The high notes returned to his compositions towards the end of his
life, [which suggests he was hearing the works that were taking shape
in his imagination].
Yes, it is an adjunct, more ...
- 831
2
votes
Does the relative clause (which suggests...) here function as an adjunct of the whole clause in front of it?
I think you're right, and iirc this is what McCawley argues in Syntactic Phenomena of English. The antecedent of "which" in the appositive relative clause is the S "The high notes ... his life". ...
- 12.3k
2
votes
complement vs adjunct
Prepositional phrases are always tricky and depend on the semantic frame dictated by the verb and related participants.
You can use FrameNet for example to see the set of known frames for a given ...
- 21
1
vote
Accepted
Can adjuncts modify nouns?
The common meaning of "adjunct" on its own is as "adverbial adjunct".
So the Wikipedia page spends most of its time talking about adverbial adjuncts and even acknowledges this:
...
- 993
1
vote
Semantic arguments of nouns
Actually, "alcohol" is an argument of the verb "ban" (not the noun "ban"). Note the interpretation of "sudden" as adverbial in "a sudden alcohol ban". The NP is a nominalization of a sentence whose ...
- 12.3k
1
vote
"He kept a black book in his desk." Is "in his desk" an adjunct or a complement?
[1] He kept it handy.
[2] He kept it in the drawer.
Briefly, Huddleston & Pullum in CGEL pp. 257-8, note that there is a structural similarity between the predicative complement in [1] and ...
- 831
1
vote
Does an adjunct really "modify" something?
Adjuncts do modify verbs: how was the action done - well or poorly?
The bigger problem is with complements: "The waiter treated me well." differs from "The doctor treated me [well]." in that the ...
- 636
1
vote
Which word is the head of the phrase "somewhere there"?
Edit: As Araucaria pointed out, OP (and consequently I) misinterpreted the sentence for Somwhere there a crime is happening/Somehwere there, there is a crime happening, which, however, is not what the ...
- 6,333
1
vote
Accepted
Classification of adjuncts in preposition phrases
It's an adverb, using McCawley's definition of adverb as "a modifier of something other than a noun". (I don't think your term "adjunct" conveys anything useful.)
IIRC, Joseph Emonds characterized "...
- 12.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible