Problem with adverbials

[Marilyn12]

Hello, I'm second grade student of English, I've just started the course of descriptive grammar and I really like it. But during our analysis of verb phrases (adjunct and sentence adverbials) I came across a problem: how to create the correct tree diagram for the sentence: "I have just arrived.". I know that adjuncts have to occur as a "sister" to verb phrase... hmm, or maybe this "just" is not an adjunct in this sentence, because when we draw a phrase marker we cannot put it as a VP's sister node... What do you think about it?

 

[Tdol]

Doesn't it show time?

 

[Marilyn12]

Yes, it does... So it is important and is not an adjunct? Could you recommend me some books to practice and find some more information?

 

[Tdol]

What definition of adjunct are you using?

 

[Marilyn12]

So, adjunct adverbials are words or groups of words which answer to question: when? how? what for? etc and describe the manner, time, place etc. They modify verb phrase. For example: they bought a house on a hill ; They will arrive soon. Am I right?

 

[Tdol]

That's one definition, and just fits the bill for that- it shows the time (very recent past) when something happened.

 

[Frank Antonson]

I would like to see the tree diagram.

Frank

 

[Marilyn12]

Yes, but my problem is with the tree diagram... As far I'm concerned and as I've learned during my classes, I know that an adjunct adverbial is the sister of verb phrase so it must be shown as an adjacent node to the verb phrase. But in this case I don't know how to draw the phrase marker to not destroy the structure of the whole phrase, because just stands between the auxiliary and the lexical verb...