The Syntax of Adjuncts

This book proposes a theory of the distribution of adverbial adjuncts in a Principles and Parameters framework, claiming that there are few syntactic principles specific to adverbials; rather, for the most part, adverbials adjoin freely to any projection. A wide range of adverbial types is analyzed; predicational adverbs (such as manner, and modal adverbs), domain expressions such as financially, temporal, frequency, duration, and focusing adverbials; participant PP's (e.g. locatives and benefactives); resultative and conditional clauses, and others, taken primarily from English, Chinese, French, and Italian, with occasional reference to others (such as German and Japanese).

Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. The semantics of predicational adverbs; 3. The scopal basis of adverb licensing; 4. Arguments for right-adjunction; 5. Noncanonical orders and the structure of VP; 6. Event-internal adjuncts; 7. Adjunct licensing in the auxrange; 8. Adjuncts in clause-initial projections; 9. Conclusions and prospects; Notes; References; Indexes.