Definition and Examples of Disjuncts in English Grammar

In English grammar, a disjunct is a type of sentence adverb that comments on the content or manner of what is being said or written. Put another way, a disjunct is a word or phrase that explicitly expresses the stance of a speaker or writer. Also called a sentence adjunct or sentence modifier. Unlike adjuncts, which are  integrated into the structure of a sentence or clause, disjuncts stand outside the syntactic structure of the text they are commenting on. In effect, says David Crystal, disjuncts look down from above on a clause, making a judgment about what it is saying or how it is phrased (Making Sense of Grammar, 2004). As explained below, the two basic types of disjuncts are content disjuncts (also known as attitudinal disjuncts) and style disjuncts.   The term disjunct is sometimes also applied to any of  two or more items connected by the disjunctive conjunction or. Etymology: From the Latin, to separate Examples and Observations Without a doubt, one of the  most popular and influential television shows  from the 1960s is the original  Star Trek  series, created by Gene Roddenberry.(Kenneth Bachor, Five  Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the Original  Star Trek. Time,  September 8, 2016)Strangely enough, they have a mind to till the soil, and the love of possessions is a disease in them.(Sitting Bull, Powder River Council Speech, 1875)â€Å"As weve discussed, the information you brought us has been, shall we say, a bit thin.  To be perfectly candid, my government feels as if were being played.†(Jeffrey S. Stephens, Targets of Opportunity, 2006)But sadly, one of the problems with being on public radio is that people tend to think youre being sincere all the time.(Ira Glass, quoted by Ana Marie Cox and Joanna Dionis in Mother Jones, September-October, 1998)Regrettably, the book is no longer in print, but copies can be found in libraries and secondhand bookshops.â€Å"Well, cou ld you sleep? the Count asked the next night upon his arrival in the cage.â€Å"Quite honestly, no, Westley replied in his normal voice.(William Goldman, The Princess Bride, 1973)Hopefully, the book will inspire readers to a wider interest in weather, atmospheric science, and earth science in general.(Keay Davidson, Twister. Pocket Books, 1996)Hopefully--and Other Commentary Disjuncts- Its time to admit that hopefully has joined that class of introductory words (like fortunately, frankly, happily, honestly, sadly, seriously, and others) that we use not to describe a verb, which is what adverbs usually do, but to describe our attitude toward the statement that follows. . . . But be aware that some sticklers still take a narrow view of hopefully. Will they ever join the crowd? One can only hope.(Patricia T. OConner, Woe Is I: The Grammarphobes Guide to Better English in Plain English, rev. ed. Riverhead Books, 2003)- Long before the controversial use of hopefully came along, it was p ossible to marshal words like happily, fortunately, foolishly, cleverly, in dual roles, as manner adverbs or disjuncts: He spent all his money foolishly or Foolishly, he spent all his money; He landed fortunately in a haystack or He landed in a haystack, fortunately; She did not weave all of the tapestry cleverly, Cleverly, she did not weave all of the tapestry. All the howling about hopefully, all the moralizing and execration, ignored the fact that a pattern of usage already existed, and that the hated word was merely taking up an available position. Other words of the same kind are currently being treated in the same way. One of them is regretfully, which is now being used as a commentary disjunct with the meaning It is to be regretted that . . . (Regretfully, we cannot serve early morning tea). This usage might be criticized on the grounds that we already have a perfectly adequate commentary disjunct in regrettably, and that there can be no good reason for pressing an impostor i nto service. Users, however, are stubbornly unanswerable to the gods of good reason.(Walter Nash, An Uncommon Tongue: The Uses and Resources of English. Routledge, 1992)Style Disjuncts and Content DisjunctsThere are two kinds of disjuncts: style disjuncts and content disjuncts. Style disjuncts express comments by speakers on the style or manner in which they are speaking: frankly as in Frankly, you have no chance of winning ( I am telling you this frankly); personally in Personally, Id have nothing to do with them; with respect in With respect, it is not up to you to decide; if I may say so in They are rather rude, if I may say so; because she told me so in She wont be there, because she told me so ( I know that because she told me so). Content disjuncts comment on the content of what is being said. The most common express degrees of certainty and doubt as to what is being said: perhaps in Perhaps you can help me; undoubtedly in Undoubtedly, she is the winner; obviously in Obviously , she has no wish to help us.(Sidney Greenbaum, Adverbial. The Oxford Companion to the English Language, ed. Tom McArthur, Oxford University Press, 1992)