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Literary notes about adjunct (AI summary)

The word “adjunct” in literature often denotes an element that, while not central, adds a complementary or enhancing quality to the main subject. In some texts, it is used to highlight how secondary components support or complete an act or idea, as when Shakespeare linked death as an adjunct to action [1] or when a boat is depicted as an essential appendage to an expedition [2]. In philosopho-logical and academic discussions the term appears to signal a supplementary part that clarifies or extends a concept, much like in Lewis Carroll’s work where adjuncts help structure logical arguments [3][4]. Whether referring to tangible additions—as in the case of the telephone serving business needs [5]—or abstract embellishments that enrich a narrative or philosophy, adjuncts are portrayed as indispensable complements that, although secondary, assume a vital supportive role [6][7].
  1. So well that what you bid me undertake, Though that my death were adjunct to my act, By heaven, I would do it.
    — from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
  2. A boat is an important adjunct to every sledge expedition which hopes to venture far from its base of operations.
    — from My Attainment of the Pole Being the Record of the Expedition That First Reached the Boreal Center, 1907-1909. With the Final Summary of the Polar Controversy by Frederick Albert Cook
  3. Q. Adjunct for North-East Quarter, Outer Portion?
    — from Symbolic Logic by Lewis Carroll
  4. Any Attribute, or any Set of Attributes, may be called an ‘ Adjunct .’
    — from Symbolic Logic by Lewis Carroll
  5. The telephone has become an important adjunct to the transaction of business of all sorts.
    — from How it Works by Archibald Williams
  6. "There should, in very truth, be this adjunct to make it thoroughly explicit!"
    — from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao
  7. Their apparent disagreement may only have been a theatrical adjunct to the tragedy which Baron von Bissing had staged with consummate care.
    — from A Noble Woman: The Life-Story of Edith Cavell by Ernest Protheroe

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