Adjuncts can be classified according to their syntactic category. In DGS, adverbial phrases [Syntax 6], noun phrases [Syntax 4], and adverbial clauses [Syntax 3.5] can function as adjuncts. Manner adverbs describe how an event unfolds and can either be manual signs (beautiful in (a)) or non-manual markers that accompany the predicate(s) (b).
a. woman beautiful write
‘The woman writes beautifully.‘
worried
b. m-a-x wait pam2
‘Max is worriedly waiting for you.’
Further, temporal and locative sentence adverbials take the form of adverb or noun phrases. In the (a) example below, yesterday forms an adverb phrase, while next week in (b) is a noun phrase.
a. yesterday t-i-m milk buy
‘Tim bought milk yesterday.’
b. next week m-a-r-i-e book read
‘Marie will read a book next week.’
Lastly, adverbial clauses can provide additional information on how, why, when, or under which conditions the event described by the main clause predicate takes place. In the a) example below, the event of Max receiving a new car is conditional upon his winning the competition. The antecedent clause of the conditional is therefore an adjunct. In the b) example, the clause introduced by reason provides the cause for the event of Tim cursing.
re hn
a. m-a-x competition win ix3 car new receive
‘If Max wins the competition, he will receive a new car.’
b. t-i-m curse reason bet lose
‘Tim is cursing because he has lost the bet.