Realizations of the Circumstantial Adjunct:

summary

Circumstantial adjuncts are realized by a wide variety of units:

1. She called me yesterday.                                             Adverb

2. She called me too late.                                                AdvG

3. She called me from the office.                                     PP

4. She called me this morning.                                        NG

5. She called me while I was out.                                     Finite clause

6. She called to tell me the news.                                     Non-fin. to-inf.cl

7. She called me, using her mobile.                                  Non-fin.-ing cl.

8. She called me, scared out of her wits.                           Non-fin.-en cl.

9. Afraid to leave the house, she called me.                      Verbless clause

While non-finite -ing, -en and verbless clauses undoubtedly give background information, syntactically it is more problematic to analyze them as adjuncts. They are more loosely integrated into the clause and can’t be made the focus of a cleft (*It was scared out of her wits that she called me) as can other circumstantials, including to infinitive clauses (It was to tell me the news that she called me).

Units that are set off from the main clause by a comma or a pause are called supplementives. The -ing and -en types, as well as verbless clauses such as afraid to leave the house fall into this category. Semantically, they may be understood as reduced clauses of means or reason with an adjunctive function. Here, Afraid to leave the house not only lacks a main verb and a subject but is related to the predicate. (She was afraid to leave the house.) Such ‘detached predicatives’ are used in written genres, where they economically add information, typically in initial position as part of Theme.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم بين الحرمين ينفّذ أعمال غسل الساحة الوسطية والطرق المؤدية إليها

جمعية العميد تصدر كتابًا علميًّا عن الكليَّات القرآنيَّة

لإحياء التراث الإسلامي.. قسم شؤون المعارف يقيم دوراتٍ وندواتٍ تخصصية في تحقيق المخطوطات

قسم الحزام الأخضر يباشر زراعة نحو 2000 شتلة في واحاته

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

ما هي أفضل العصائر لصحة القلب وتقوية المناعة والنوم العميق؟

الأطعمة الغنية بالبروتينات النباتية تقلل خطر الأمراض المزمنة

وجع الأوتار قد يخفي خطرا صحيا مرتبطا بالقلب

أزمة "السفينة الموبوءة"..الأرجنتين تحقق في مصدر تفشي "هانتا"

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

باحثون يحددون تأثير القهوة على الميكروبيوم والمزاج

روسيا.. ابتكار تقنية لمعالجة سبائك التيتانيوم لحماية الطائرات والسيارات

بكين وواشنطن تدرسان إطلاق محادثات رسمية حول الذكاء الاصطناعي

لأول مرة في الولايات المتحدة.. تشغيل مفاعل مصغر نووي يغذي الذكاء الاصطناعي بالطاقة

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Circumstantials functioning as central clause elements

Circumstantial Adjuncts

MAIN CLASSES OF ADJUNCTS

THE PREDICATOR (P)

BASIC SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES OF THE CLAUSE

CRITERIA FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF CLAUSE ELEMENTS Realizations of clausal elements

CRITERIA FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF CLAUSE ELEMENTS Ability to become the subject

CRITERIA FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF CLAUSE ELEMENTS Determination by the verb

SYNTACTIC ELEMENTS AND STRUCTURES OF THE CLAUSE SUMMARY

NO-NEGATION VS NOT-NEGATION + ANY

Interrogative clauses

CLAUSAL NEGATION