Adjuncts in Phrases
The term "Complement" is not simply another word for the "post-Head string" -- post-Head strings are not always Complements. This is because the post-Head string is not always required to complete the meaning of the Head. Consider:
[NP My sister, who will be twenty next week,] has got a new job.
Here the relative clause who will be twenty next week is certainly a post-Head string, but it is not a Complement. Notice that it contributes additional but optional information about the Head sister. In this example, the post-Head string is an ADJUNCT. Like the other Adjuncts we looked at earlier, it contributes additional, optional information.
Adjuncts can occur in all the phrase types, and they may occur both before and after the Head. The following table shows examples of each type:
Phrase Type Head Typical Adjuncts Examples
Noun Phrase (NP) noun PP
AP
clause the books on the shelf
the old lady
cocoa, which is made from cacao beans
Verb Phrase (VP) verb AdvP
PP she rapidly lost interest
he stood on the patio
Adjective Phrase (AP) adjective AdvP it was terribly difficult
Prepositional Phrase (PP) preposition AdvP completely out of control
Complements and Adjuncts Compared
Complements differ from Adjuncts in two important respects:
1. Complements immediately follow the Head
In most phrases, the Complement must immediately follow the Head:
David [VP plays [Complement the piano] [Adjunct beautifully ]]
In contrast, the reverse order is not possible:
*David [VP plays [Adjunct beautifully] [Complement the piano]]
Similarly:
fond [Complement of biscuits] [Adjunct with coffee]
~*fond [Adjunct with coffee] [Complement of biscuits]
Complements, then, bear a much closer relationship to the Head than Adjuncts do.
2. Adjuncts are "stackable"
In theory at least, we can "stack" an indefinite number of Adjuncts, one after another, within a phrase. For example, consider the NP:
Adjunct Adjunct Adjunct Adjunct
the book on the shelf by Dickens with the red cover that you gave me...
In contrast with this, phrases are limited in the number of Complements that they can take. In fact, they usually have only one Complement. Ditransitive verb phrases are an exception to this. Recall that they take two Complements:
We [VP gave [Complement James] [Complement a present]]
In the following NP we have bracketed two strings.
the use [of computers] [in schools]
Decide whether each string is a Complement or an Adjunct
of computers Complement
Adjunct
in schools Complement
Adjunct