Entraînement à la Grammaire Anglaise à Distance

An Adjunct is a syntactically optional constituent that occurs in a variety of formal realizations (NP,AdvP, a PrepP, a clause) (see Aarts 2008: 77-79). The claim that it is ‘syntactically optional' means that if it is left out the sentence is still grammatical. Needless to say, if a constituent is left out, from the point of view of meaning, the message communicated will no longer be the same. So it is important to distinguish the syntactic effect from the semantic effect that the omission of a constituent has. An Adjunct often gives information concerning the circumstances of the predication, that is (for example), where, when or why. (I met him met him on campus at 3 pm.)

Complements are the obligatory constituents that, in addition to the Subject, a verb requires depending on its intended meaning in a given context. In the sentence Tom smashed the window yesterday, the noun phrase the window is an obligatory constituent (you cannot say *Tom smashed: it is a complement of the verb, and its function is that of Direct Object). The adverb (phrase) yesterday is, however, not a complement (Tom smashed the window) but an Adjunct.

Constituents, also called phrases, are the (potentially larger) units that the combination of words create. In the sentence The big cat was running in the garden, for instance, the words the, big and cat form the larger constituent the big cat. They can be identified by using constituency tests (for more information on constituency tests, see Bas Aarts (2001), English Syntax and Argumentation, pp. 193-240). Substitution, for example, is a kind of test for constituency: noun phrases (NPs) can often be replaced by a single pronoun (the old man who lives across the street from me > ‘he'). Constituents have both a form and a function.

It is the term we use to refer to a class, or category, of words which share certain characteristics. In English, the most common parts of speech are: noun (e.g. cat), verb (e.g. learn), adverb (e.g. carefully), adjective (e.g. simple), preposition (e.g. up), determiner (e.g. the) and conjunction (e.g. and, because). Some consider the pronoun (e.g. he) to be a separate part of speech; we include it in the category noun. (The interjection (e.g. darn!) is another part of speech, but it is less important when it comes to identifying constituents and clauses.)

Although a sentence does not necessarily have complements such as Direct Object or Indirect Object, every sentence has a Subject. The Subject of a sentence can be identified by turning a declarative clause into an interrogative clause: this results in inversion, meaning that the finite verb (the auxiliary that is marked for tense and person) will occur before the Subject. The Subject of a sentence is usually an NP, but a PrepP, an AdjP, an AdvP or a clause can function as Subject as well.