Complement vs Adjunct – Difference and Comparison

What is Complement?

A complement refers to a word or phrase that takes the meaning of a verb or adjective to completion. There are two main types of complements: direct objects and indirect objects. A direct object complements a verb by identifying the person or thing that is directly affected by the action of the verb. For example, in the sentence “He kicked the ball,” the direct object is “ball,” which tells us what he kicked.

An indirect object complements a verb by identifying the person or thing for whom or for which the action of the verb is performed. For example, in the sentence “She gave her sister a gift,” the indirect object is “her sister,” which tells us to whom she gave the gift. The direct object in this sentence is “gift,” which tells us what she gave

In addition to direct and indirect objects, other types of complements can be used to add more information about the verb or adjective. For example, subject complements tell us more about the subject, and object complements tell us more about the object. This can be in the form of an adjective, noun, or clause. An example is the sentence “The teacher was strict” “strict” is a subject complement that tells us more about the subject “teacher.”

What is an Adjunct?

In grammar, an adjunct is a word or phrase that is not necessary to complete the meaning of a given sentence but is used to add additional information. Adjuncts provide information about the time, location, or manner of the action described in the sentence. For example, in the sentence “I will eat breakfast at 8 o’clock,” the phrase “at 8 o’clock” is an adjunct because it tells us when the action of eating breakfast will occur. However, the sentence “I will eat breakfast” is still meaningful without the adjunct of time, “at 8 o’clock.”

Adjuncts can be further classified into different types, such as temporal, causal, and manner adjuncts. As the name suggests, Temporal adjuncts provide information about the time when an action occurs. Both causal and method adjuncts convey information about the motivation or cause of the action, as well as the manner in which the action is carried out. For example, in the sentence “He walked to school because he missed the bus,” “because he missed the bus” is a causal adjunct. It gives information about why he walked to school.

Adjuncts can also be divided into adverbial adjuncts and adjectival adjuncts. Adverbial adjuncts modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, whereas adjectival adjuncts modify nouns. Adjectival adjuncts can appear in different forms, like the prepositional phrase, infinitive phrase, or participle phrase. For example, in the sentence “The boy with the blue shirt was walking on the street,” “with the blue shirt” is an adjectival adjunct modifying the noun “boy.”

Difference Between Complement and Adjunct

• Complements are required to fully convey the meaning of a verb or an adjective., whereas adjuncts add additional information that is not necessary to complete a sentence.
• Complements describe a verb’s direct or indirect object, whereas adjuncts provide information about the action’s time, location, or manner.
• The absence of a complement will make a sentence ungrammatical, whereas the absence of an adjunct will not affect the grammaticality of a sentence.
• Complements add information about the subject and object, whereas adjuncts provide information about time, cause, manner, place, and so on.
• In a sentence, a complement is always in relation to the verb or adjective, whereas an adjunct can be placed in different positions in a sentence without affecting its grammaticality of it.

Comparison Table Between Complement and Adjunct

References

1. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ling.1984.22.4.507/html
2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4178946