adjunctive adj : joining; forming an adjunct

English

Etymology

adjunct + -ive

Adjective

1. forming an adjunct
2. additional; neither basic nor primary: "adjunctive therapy"
3. the property of two operations x and y, such that ax(ayb) = a, and ay(axb) = a

Derived terms

• adjunctivity
• adjunctiveness
• adjunctively
• adjunctive behavior

Noun

1. a connector joining two components of the same weight, such as a coordinating conjunction
2. In the context of "manufacturing": a substance added as a supplement; often in the phrase "additives and adjunctives."

In linguistics, an adjunct is any word, phrase, or clause joined to another word or phrase to qualify or modify it. 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.

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.

Adjuncts are always extranuclear; that is, removing an adjunct leaves a grammatically well-formed sentence. They can thus be contrasted with complements. All adjuncts are adverbials.

Forms

An adjunct can be a single word, a phrase, or a clause.

Semantic function of adverbial adjuncts

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

He arrived yesterday. (time point)

He stayed for two weeks. (duration)

She drinks in that bar every day. (frequentive)

She sat on the table. (locative)

She drove to London. (directional locative)

He ran with difficulty. (manner)

He stood in silence. (state)

He helped me with my homework. (limiting)

The ladder collapsed because it was old. (reason)

She went out to buy some bread. (purpose)

Mr. Bibby wrote the letter with a pencil.

The letter was written by Mr. Bibby.

I would go to Paris, if I had the money.

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
• Conjunct
• Disjunct
• Noun adjunct