CONJUNCTS VERSUS DISJUNCTS: WHAT EXACTLY DISTINGUISHES THE TWO?
CONJUNCTS VERSUS DISJUNCTS: WHAT EXACTLY DISTINGUISHES THE TWO?

Summary/Abstract: Based on Quirk et al.’s terminology and classification (1985), we can distinguish between four grammatical functions adverbials perform within a sentence: ‘adjuncts’, ‘subjuncts’, ‘conjuncts’, and ‘disjuncts’. The main purpose of the present paper is to look into the latter two in considerable detail, and debate differences as well as possible similarities that may exist between these two functions. For better illustration and a profound understanding of the issue, the above classification is compared with several labels applied in other linguistic sources, namely in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language by Huddleston and Pullum (2002) and Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English by Biber et al. (1999). The key question arising here is what exactly it is that makes ‘conjuncts’ conjunctive and ‘disjuncts’ disjunctive.

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