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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Adverbial complement or adjunct?

I have these sentences and I'm not sure whether they are Adverbial Complement or Adverbial Adjunct:

The plane will have landed BY THEN.
The astronauts will be sleeping AT 4 A.M.
The house is being painted AT THE MOMENT.

And please, tell me how you realised which is which, I want to understand it.

Thanks in advance!
  

Top answer

My understanding of this is that an adjunct can be omitted, and the sentence will still be grammatical, whereas a complement cannot be omitted and leave a grammatical sentence. In the three sentences you listed, the bolded words can clearly be omitted from the third sentence, leaving a grammatical sentence, so the third is an adjunct. In the first two, however, if the bolded words are omitted, the sentences don't seem able to stand alone without them, so the first two are apparently complements.

— An0nymous

  • My understanding of this is that an adjunct can be omitted, and the sentence will still be grammatical, whereas a complement cannot be omitted and leave a grammatical sentence.
  • In the three sentences you listed, the bolded words can clearly be omitted from the third sentence, leaving a grammatical sentence, so the third is an adjunct.
  • In the first two, however, if the bolded words are omitted, the sentences don't seem able to stand alone without them, so the first two are apparently complements.
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1 Answers
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My understanding of this is that an adjunct can be omitted, and the sentence will still be grammatical, whereas a complement cannot be omitted and leave a grammatical sentence. In the three sentences you listed, the bolded words can clearly be omitted from the third sentence, leaving a grammatical sentence, so the third is an adjunct. In the first two, however, if the bolded words are omitted, t
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