Subordinate clause as an adjunct.
"German officials — who say that the United States remains Germany’s most important international ally and an important partner whose friendship they want to maintain — feel that Trump has prioritized relations with authoritarian nations such as Saudi Arabia instead of democratic allies." (The Washington Post.)
Does "who say that the United States remains Germany’s most important international ally and an important partner whose friendship they want to maintain" function as an adjunct in the above?
Top answer
German officials — who say that the United States remains Germany’s most important international ally and an important partner whose friendship they want to maintain — feel that Trump has prioritized relations with authoritarian nations such as Saudi Arabia instead of democratic allies. No, it's not an adjunct, but a supplementary relative clause. Adjuncts are modifiers in clause structure ( The meeting ended on Sunday ) or supplements attached to clauses ( It was, on Sunday , already too late ).
- German officials — who say that the United States remains Germany’s most important international ally and an important partner whose friendship they want to maintain — feel that Trump has prioritized relations with authoritarian nations such as Saudi Arabia instead of democratic allies.
- No, it's not an adjunct, but a supplementary relative clause.
- Adjuncts are modifiers in clause structure ( The meeting ended on Sunday ) or supplements attached to clauses ( It was, on Sunday , already too late ).
- Supplementary relatives have the character of an interpolation, a separate unit of information, but they are not modifiers.
- Unlike integrated relative clauses, supplementary relatives can have a clause or various kinds of phrase as antecedent to some relativised element - in your example the relative pronoun "who", which has "German officials" as antecedent.
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German officials — who say that the United States remains Germany’s most important international ally and an important partner whose friendship they want to maintain— feel that Trump has prioritized relations with authoritarian nations such as Saudi Arabia instead of democratic allies.
No, it's not an adjunct, but a supplementary relative clause. Adjuncts are modifier
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