2.2.2. Other grammatical functions: arguments vs. adjuncts
Until now we have seen the properties of the arguments of the verb (subjects and objects), which are obligatory. In this section we focus on the difference between verb arguments and adjuncts, which are optional, regarding its distribution in a sentence.
Arguments of the verb in LSC have a stricter distribution in comparison to adjuncts. In the examples below, the subject is by default placed in sentence initial position, whereas the object appears in principle preverbally, after the subject. It may be placed in final position as well, due to other additional factors that trigger deviations from the basic word order (like information structure factors), which are discussed in more detail in the following section [SYNTAX 2.3].
a) raquel croquettes like.
‘Raquel like croquettes.’
b) raquel like croquettes.
‘Raquel like croquettes.’
When it comes to locative arguments, they may be found either before the verb (b, d) or after the verb (a, c), the latter being the preferred position [SYNTAX 2.2.1.1].
a) jordi go girona.
‘Jordi is going to Girona.’
b) jordi girona go.
‘Jordi is going to Girona.’
c) ix1 live london.
‘I live in London.’
d) ix1 london live.
‘I live in London.’
Locative arguments may also be topicalized, in which case they are fronted and articulated with raised eyebrows.
re
a) girona jordi go.
‘To Girona, Jordi is going.’
re
b) london ix1 live.
‘In London, I live.’
Contrary to arguments, adjuncts are syntactically and semantically optional in the clause. In the examples below, the verb work is an intransitive verb that only requires one argument, namely the subject (gemma). The adjuncts university and hard are optional, and it seems that their distribution in the sentence is less constrained than that of an argument. In the examples below we can observe that university may be placed i) in initial position in the clause (a) (which is the less marked order for locatives), ii) after the subject (b), and ii) in final position accompanied by the locative pointing ix (c). The adverb hard, though, shows a more restricted distribution, being placed always after the verb it modifies (work). It is only possible for this adverb to move to initial position in cases like (d) where the non-manual marker ‘furrowed eyebrows’ takes scope over the whole sentence giving emphasis to the meaning of the adverb over the rest of the elements in the clause.
a) university gemma work hard.
‘Gemma works hard at the university.’
b) gemma university work hard.
‘Gemma works hard at the university.’
c) gemma work hard ix university .
‘Gemma works hard (there) at the university.’
fe
d) hard university gemma work.
‘Gemma works very hard at the university.’
As we saw in the previous examples, adverbial phrases seem to have a more restricted distribution pattern. Consider the examples below (a-c), in which the adjunct sofa has a less restricted distribution than the adjunct comfortable. The adjunct comfortable must appear in a position next to the verb it modifies, while the adjunct sofa can appear in more positions than the other elements in the sentence.
re /agusto/
a) sofa pedro sleep comfortable.
‘Pedro was sleeping comfortably in the sofa.’
re /agusto/
b) pedro sofa sleep comfortable.
‘Pedro was sleeping comfortably in the sofa.’
re /agusto/ re
c) pedro comfortable sleep ix sofa.
‘Pedro was comfortably sleeping, there, in the sofa.’
In sum, adjuncts that are manner adverbials that modify only the verb do not have such a free distribution, since the change of position slightly modifies the meaning of the sentence. Instead, adjuncts that are locative phrases seem to behave freely with respect to their position in the sentence, since the change of position does not trigger a different meaning of the utterance. Nevertheless, locative adjuncts also show preferential or less marked patterns that need to be taken into account, as we mentioned before. In the next section [SYNTAX 2.2.3] we describe different types of adjuncts and their distribution in a more thorough way.