adjunct

a constituent not selected by a head.

adjunct rule

one of the three rules of X-bar theory, a recursive rule of the form

Xn → Xn, Y/YP

This rule states that an adjunct can be adjoined to the head, the intermediate projection or the maximal projection. Heads can be adjoined to heads, phrases can be adjoined to the intermediate or maximal projection.

The constituent an adjunct is adjoined to is doubled. The comma in the rule indicates that the order of the two constituents is not fixed.

adjunction

a type of movement where a new position is formed as a result of the movement creating an adjunction structure, like the (simplified) movement of the PP in the following tree structure representation where the S node is doubled:

constituent

a linguistic expression that functions as a unit in grammatical structure. A group of words that undergo syntactic processes together.

immediate constituent

the immediate constituent of a node is the node that is lower than the given constituent and is connected to it by a single branch. It is the constituent directly below the node it is the immediate constituent of.

phrase

a group of words that can undergo syntactic operations (e.g. movement) as a unit.

recursive rule

a rule where the definition refers to what is being defined, e.g. the adjunct rule. The same symbol appears on the left and on the right of the rewrite rule, so the rule can be applied indefinitely. The application of such a rule is optional for this reason.

rewrite rule

a phrase structure rule defining what the immediate constituents of e.g. a phrase are. On the left of the rule we find the phrase-type being defined followed by an arrow. On the right side of the arrow we can find the immediate constituents of the given phrase, which may be further rewritten. Bracketed constituents indicate optionality, the presence of a comma means that the order of the constituents is not restricted to the order found in the rule. See also adjunct rule, specifier rule, complement rule.

specifier position

a position defined by X-bar Theory. The specifier is sister to X', daughter of XP. It is a phrasal position, the nature of the phrase depends on what it is the specifier of. E.g. the specifier of IP is the subject, the specifier of DP is the possessor in possessive structures.

specifier rule

one of the three rules of X-bar Theory of the following form:

XP ® YP X'

where the specifier is the phrase-sized constituent preceding the intermediate projection. The order of YP and X' is fixed.

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Basic English Syntax with Exercises

3.1.5 Adjuncts

It is now time to turn to the third rule in (1), which we repeat here:

(30)Xn → Xn, Y/YP

This is different from the previous two rules in a number of ways. First, the previous rules specified the possible constituents of the various specific projections of the head: complements are immediate constituents of X' and specifiers are immediate constituents of XP. The adjunction rule in (30) is more general as it states the possible constituents of an Xn, that is, an X with any number of bars. In other words, Xn stands for XP (=X''), X' or X (=X0). The adjunct itself is defined either as a word (Y) or as a phrase (YP) and we will see that which of these is relevant depends on the status of Xn: if Xn is a word, then the adjunct is a word, if not then the adjunct is a phrase.

Note that the two elements on the right of the rewrite arrow are separated by a comma. This is missing from the complement and specifier rule. The significance of the comma is to indicate that the order between the adjunct and the Xn is not determined by the rule. We have seen that in English the complement follows the head and the specifier precedes it. Adjuncts, on the other hand, it will be seen, may precede or follow the head depending on other conditions, which we will detail when looking at specific instances of adjunction.

The final thing to note is that the adjunction rule is recursive: the same symbol appears on the left and the right of the rewrite arrow. Thus the rule tells us that an element of type Xn can be made up of two elements, one of which is an adjunct and the other is another Xn. Of course, this Xn may also contain another Xn, and so on indefinitely. In this way, any number of adjuncts may be added to a structure.

 

                 3.1.5.1 Adjunction to X-bar

                 3.1.5.2 Adjunction to phrase

                 3.1.5.3 Adjunction to head

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