In natural language processing, identifying a verbs argument structure is important for many
tasks including parsing, text simpli?cation, and semantic role labeling. However, while most
formal theories of grammar generally agree that there is a distinction between constituents
that are arguments and those that are adjuncts, linguists do not yet agree on how to define
what it means to be an argument or an adjunct. Nevertheless, these efforts have been fruitful
in gaining a general understanding of some of the characteristics of arguments and adjuncts.
This paper will explore the distinct approaches taken by the linguistics community, focusing
on verb argument and adjunct distinctions. This paper explores the reasons behind why this
distinction is such a dif?cult issue in both the semantic and syntactic community.
Jena D. Hwang is a PhD student in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She can be reached at: Hwangd@Colorado.EDU.