ABSTRACT
The question of what adjoin means has to be considered from the perspective of the empirical properties of adjuncts. They contribute to the meaning, but they are said to be structurally optional. Yet, this cannot count as a satisfying description or definition of adjuncts. The terminology adjunct, non-argument, modifier or adverbial is not helpful either – a careful syntactic investigation is needed before one can incorporate adjuncts into the structure and implement them in a theoretical framework. This chapter discusses the characteristic properties of adjuncts on the basis of concrete data. Their optional (unselected) status, multiple occurrences, iteration, principal unboundedness, their behavior under VP-ellpsis, VP-preposing, reconstruction, binding and A-bar-movement are investigated and compared to the properties normally associated with arguments. In general, the observed dichotomy between adjuncts and arguments need to be accommodated for in any account on adjuncts. The chapter aims at presenting the empirical setting for the discussion in the following chapters of the book.
