As outlined in chapter 3, medial position is defined as any position between the subject and a postverbal obligatory element, thus covering both medial and initial-end position as defined by Quirk et al. (1985: 491, 499). Three variants of medial are recognised: M1 between the subject and the (first part of the) verb phrase, as in (1), M2 after an auxiliary, but before the main verb, as in (2), and M3 between the verb phrase and some other obligatory element, viz. an object, a predicative, or an obligatory adverbial, as in (3).

1. (1) He eventually finds Heslop <S2A-002>

2. (2) Anyway you may soon be rid of me. <W1B-003>

3. (3) Patience suddenly realised from the expressions of the others that she would have to explain further. <W2F-007>

Syntactic and semantic properties of adjuncts in medial position

The distribution of semantic types

As shown in section 3.7, the medial positions are relatively restrictive as regards the adverbial meanings that are commonly expressed there, with M3 allowing a slightly greater variety than M1 and M2. Table 5.1 gives a more detailed picture. As shown by table 5.1 nearly two-thirds of the adjuncts found in medial position are time adjuncts, which far outnumber any other semantic category. Next in order of frequency are manner adjuncts, with 46 occurrences (10% of the adjuncts in medial position), followed by focus and degree adjuncts. Space adjuncts, on the other hand, are particularly infrequent in medial position, as are contingency and situation adjuncts.