The Syntactic Distribution Of Adjuncts

An adjunct refers to the categories adjoining to XP. It is the modifier that modifies a sentence, a predicate or a noun phrase. The syntactic distribution of adjuncts has been a hot topic in the literature of generative linguistics for the latest thirty years. Most of the generative linguists discuss this language phenomenon from the perspective of semantics and functional projection, and at the same time they follow a series of redundant theories in the generative grammar such as X-bar theory, VP-internal Subject Hypothesis, VP-shell Analysis and so on. In order to bridge the gaps in the previous studies of the syntactic distribution of adjuncts, this research will give up the redundant theories related to adjuncts, adopt the way of putting aside the semantic considerations, infer by using syntactic principles and logic, and then go back to explain semantics. The goal of the study is to construct a theory of the syntactic distribution of adjuncts which has a strong explanatory power. This thesis will also put forward a new tree diagram which shows a system from the phenomenon to the essence, from linearity to hierarchy. This diagram will be verified through the analysis of the cross-linguistic data and it will prove to be able to correctly precdict the possible positions of all potential adjuncts of a sentence in mechanism. Based on the scope theory related to semantic requirement of adjuncts, the study will also make a reasonable explanation on the merge of adjuncts in syntax.This thesis consists of the following five chapters:Chapter One serves as a general introduction to the study. It includes the motivation, scope and purpose of the study, methodology, and layout of the thesis.Chapter Two reviews the previous studies on the adjunct distribution from the perspective of semantics and functional projection. Efforts especially go to the discussion of the gaps found in the previous researches.Chapter Three focuses on discussing a series of demerits about adjuncts, complement, specifier and intermediate projection based on the limitations of the previous studies and the invalidity of the X-bar schema, and forms a new theory of the adjunct distribution in the phrase structure on the basis of the XP+ schema theory.Chapter Four includes a new hypothesis, analysis and discussion. Firstly, a new tree diagram of the syntactic distribution of adjuncts is presented; secondly, the hypothesis is verified through the analysis of the cross-linguistic data; lastly, the merge of adjuncts in syntax is discussed and analyzed.Chapter Five draws a conclusion and lists the contributions of the thesis as follows:1. Enlarging the researching range of adjuncts from adverbial adjuncts to attributive adjuncts and appositive adjuncts.2. Putting forward the new theory of adjunct distribution and the tree diagram on the background of sweeping away the redundant part of Chomsky's theory related to adjuncts, verifying the hypothesis and discussing the merge of adjuncts.3. Adopting more individual languages as supporting data to analyze and demonstrate the new theory and hypothesis.4. Putting aside the semantic considerations first and applying syntactic principles and logic reasoning to studying the syntactic distribution of adjuncts.At the end of this thesis both limitations and suggestions are discussed in terms of the present study.