Concept: circumstantial meaning

Definition

Circumstantial meaning is a cover term for a °temporal circumstance, a °spatial circumstance, a °contingency circumstance, or a °manner circumstance.

Comments

"Circumstants" were introduced to grammatical terminology by Tesnière (1959), as opposed to "actants" (= arguments). The term was used for a syntactic function by Tesnière, corresponding to "adjunct". Here it is used for a set of semantic notions that are not necessarily coherent but are very often treated together by linguists.

Wikipedia

(no direct counterpart)

Quotation

“Les circonstants expriment les circonstances de temps, lieu, manière, etc ... dans lesquelles se déroule le procès. Ainsi dans la phrase _Alfred fourre toujours son nez partout_, il y a deux circonstants, un de temps (toujours) et un de lieu (partout). Les circonstants sont toujours des adverbes (de temps, de lieu, de manière, etc.) ou des équivalents d’adverbes. Inversement les adverbes assument en principe toujours dans la phrase la fonction de circonstants.” (Tesnière 1959: 102-103) ❡ "In the interpretation of a given sentence one distinguishes (i) those entities which are seen as participating in an event or state of affairs expressed by the sentence, and (ii) circumstances surrounding or accompanying the state of affairs such as its time of occurrence, its general spatial setting, aspects of manner, the participants’ intentions, and the like." (Fillmore 2004: 1117)

Sources

Tesnière 1959; Fillmore 2004