Determining objects, adjuncts and complements in English

Abstract

Traditional criteria for determining objects (extensive complements), circumstantial adjuncts, and (intensive) complements are very diverse. Although objects, adjuncts and complements are functional elements of structure rather than formal units, the criterion of the functional role of an element in the syntax is, in practice, given restricted prominence and can often be seen to be competing with other criteria, such as grammatical class, optionality, omissibility, and inherent roles. Thus, for example, Jane in ‘I gave Jane the book’ is classified as an object because it is a noun phrase, whereas to Jane in gave the book to Jane’ can be found as an adjunct because it is a prepositional phrase, even though the phrases Jane and to Jane both represent recipients and both answer the question ‘Who did you give the book to?’ The article gives a critical examination of several existing approaches and proposes a scheme for the analysis of objects, circumstantial adjuncts, and complements based primarily on functional criteria. This reduces the significance of formal class membership and dispenses with questions of optionality and inherent roles.