Adjunct elements are many and varied in terms of the forms they take and of the
type of information they bring to a clause. They basically describe the
circumstances
(see A6) that attach to the process related by the clause and for that reason they can
often be removed without affecting the grammaticality of the clause as a whole. Here
is an example of a clause with an SPAAAA pattern. Try to sort out the four Adjuncts
it contains by asking the test questions: ‘how?’ ‘where?’ ‘when?’ and ‘why?’:
(10) Mary awoke suddenly in her hotel room one morning because of a knock
on the door.
What the forgoing discussion illustrates is that, strictly speaking, neither the Subject,
Complement nor Adjunct elements are essential components of clause structure. The
situation regarding the Predicator element is not quite so clear-cut, however, and
there has been much debate among grammarians about the status of ‘P-less’ struc-
tures. Impacting on this is the fact that much of our everyday language use involves
a type of grammatical abbreviation known as
ellipsis
. For instance, if A asks ‘Where
are the keys?’ and B answers ‘In your pocket!’, then B’s response, while lacking a
Predicator, still implicitly retains part of the structure of the earlier question. In other
words, even though B’s elliptical reply amounts to no more than a simple preposi-
tional phrase, it still presupposes the elements of a full-blown clause. The term
minor
clause
is conventionally used to describe structures, like this one, which lack a
Predicator element. It is important to acknowledge minor clauses not only because
these elliptical structures play an important role in much spoken interaction but also
because, as the other units in this thread will argue, they form an important locus
for stylistic experimentation. Finally, as a general rule of thumb, when analysing
elements which
are
present in a text, there can only be one Subject element and one
Predicator element of structure in any given clause. There may however be up to two
Complement elements and any number of Adjunct elements.
Quite how clause structure and other types of grammatical patterning function as
markers of style will be the focus of attention across the remainder of this strand,
and indeed for part of unit C4 also. Next up in this introductory section of the book
is the topic of sound and rhythm as it intersects with style in language. The following
unit introduces therefore some key concepts used by stylisticians in their investiga-
tions of phonology and metrical patterning.
RHYTHM AND METRE
Literature is, by definition, written language. This truism might suggest then that
literature is not a medium especially well suited to exploration either at the linguistic
level of phonology or in terms of its phonetic substance. However, sound patterning
plays a pivotal role in literary discourse in general, and in poetry in particular.
14
I N T R O D U C T I O N
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