The Clause: Adjuncts (Categories) — Inglês Avançado

4.1 Overview of categories

Adjuncts and complements expressing location and change of location in space are very frequent and quite varied in form and meaning. The most elementary case is that of spatial location itself, without any motion from one place to another:

1. We met under the station clock.
2. George remained at home. [(spatial) location]

We analyse the underlined elements as adjuncts or complements of spatial location, or simply location. More complex is the case where we have a change of location, or motion.

1. John ran from the attic to the kitchen. [source + goal]
2. She took her passport out of the drawer. [source]
3. Kim put the key under the mat. [goal]

Example [1] specifies two locations: John began in the attic and ended in the kitchen. From the attic indicates the starting-point, to the kitchen the endpoint; we will refer to them in the domain of space as respectively source and goal. In [2] only the source is specified (her passport was initially in the drawer), and in [3] only the goal (the key was finally under the mat).

It is also possible to specify an intermediate location (or indeed more than one), which we call path:

1. Don't travel via London if you can avoid it. [path]
2. I drove from school through the tunnel to the station. [source + path + goal]
3. John ran down the stairs into the kitchen. [path + goal]
4. She has come from London via Singapore. [source + path]

In addition, one can indicate the direction of motion:

1. We are travelling north. [direction]
2. She ran from the car towards the house. [source + direction]
3. They turned left onto the main highway. [direction + goal]

4.2 Location

Location elements can be complements or adjuncts:

COMPLEMENT ADJUNCT

1. The stew is in the oven. b. We had breakfast in the kitchen.
2. The books are stored next door. b. Next door they sell jewellery.
3. The accident occurred at the corner. b. I read the report at home.

The underlined elements in the [a] examples are part of the complementation of the verb. In some cases they are obligatory, not omissible without loss of grammaticality (though they might be replaceable by complements of a different kind). In [1], for example, the stew is is not an admissible clause on its own (leaving aside the case of ellipsis: The vegetables aren't in the oven, but the stew is). Elsewhere, as in [2/3], the complement is not strictly obligatory, but nevertheless has a strong link with the verb: it represents an integral feature of the situation expressed in the clause. The adjuncts in the [b] examples are all optional and do not depend for their admissibility on the presence of a particular class of verb. Note also the difference with respect to the do so test (Ch. 4, §1.2):

1. I read the report at home and Henry did so at the office.
2. The first accident occurred at the corner and the second did so at the roundabout.

• Location of situation or location of theme: 

1. I saw your father in London. [location of situation]
2. I saw your father at the window. [location of theme]
3. I saw your father on the bus. [ambiguous]

In the natural interpretation of [1] the adjunct in London indicates where the event as a whole took place. In [2], however, at the window is likely to be construed as saying where your father was when I saw him: I myself was elsewhere — in the road, perhaps. Example [3] can then be interpreted in either way, as saying where the event took place or where your father was. The element whose location is described in cases like [2] has the semantic role of theme (cf. Ch. 4, §2.2).

The theme may be aligned with the subject or object of the clause, and the locative can then be said to have either subject or object orientation:

SUBJECT ORIENTATION

1. The key remained in my pocket.
2. The child was on her shoulders.

OBJECT ORIENTATION

1. I found the key in my pocket.
   She carried the child on her shoulders.

It is also possible for the theme to be the object of a preposition, as in I caught a glimpse of her at the window.

• Some special cases of location elements

Contact with body-part

1. She poked him in the ribs. b. She poked his ribs.
2. He patted her on the shoulder. b. He patted her shoulder.
3. He was wounded in the foot. b. His foot was wounded.

The locatives in the [1] examples do not specify the location of either participant (or of the event as a whole), but indicate which part of the patient's body was affected. These examples with two complements in the VP are approximately equivalent to their counterparts in [2], which have just one, with the body-part noun heading the object NP.(1) Note that where the location is questioned, as in Where did he hit you?, there is no corresponding [2] version: we need something like What part of your body did he hit? (see Ch. 4, §7.4, for further discussion of the alternation in [9]).

• Temporal interpretation of locatives

1. She wrote the book in Cape Town.
2. I was ill in Calcutta.
3. In the zoo he wanted an ice-cream.

Location adjuncts can often be used to give, by implication, the time of an event. A purely spatial interpretation might apply in [1] if, for example, Cape Town is connected with the content of the book. But it can also be taken as a shorthand way of saying She wrote the book when she was in Cape Town. Such a temporal interpretation is especally common for locatives in construction with stative verbs, as in [2—3].

NOTA: 1. The qualification 'approximately' is needed because in certain cases the two constructions are not interchange. A doctor, for example, might poke your ribs as part of a medical examination, but we would not describe a situation as 'poking you in the ribs'.

• Metonymic locatives

1. I met her at Jill's 21st birthday party.
2. There may well be some unpleasantness at the meeting.

The NP complements of at here refer to events, but the association between such events and their venue yields a spatial location interpretation of the whole PP. (There is, however, some blurring of the distinction between space and time here: these examples can also be taken as giving the time of the event — cf. the discussion of [10] above.)

• Metaphorical locatives

1. Nobody would dare talk in Smith's class.
2. I read this in a book on wildflowers.
3. In our family birthdays are not celebrated.
4. In medicine you can't afford to make mistakes.

Locative phrases with in often denote some metaphorical space. In [1] Smith's class is not a physical location, but a social location. In [2] it is the book as an abstract rather than a physical location that provided the information I obtained. And so on. Physical and metaphorical locations can combine: In my dream, I was walking with Paula in Hyde Park.

• Iteration of location adjuncts and complements

1. I heard him at the Albert Hall, in London.
2. I heard him in London, at the Albert Hall.
3. In London I heard him at the Albert Hall.
4. At the Albert Hall I heard him in London.
5. He is staying in the annexe, on the top floor, in Room 201.

Location may be given by a series of phrases differing in their degree of specificity: at the Albert Hall is more specific than in London, and in Room 201 is more specific than on the top floor, which is in turn more specific than in the annexe. The examples in [1] illustrate the relative positions of the phrases: note that preposing applies to the less specific, as shown by the contrast between [2] and [3].

• Combination of location adjunct with locative complements

1. In Brisbane we keep our cats indoors at night.
2. Here lots of people go to the beach every week-end.

These examples have a location adjunct combining with a location complement in [1], and a goal in [2]. The adjunct is less specific than the complement.

• Questioning

Location dependents can generally be questioned by where:

1. Where did you have lunch today? [adjunct]
2. Where are you living these days? [complement with subject orientation]
3. Where do you keep the stickytape? [complement with object orientation]

FONTE: The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language de Rodney Huddleston e G.K. Pullum, ed. 2002, páginas 680-682.