An Ancillary participant accompanies another participant in the context of the event. The Ancillary’s participation is presented as similar to/in accordance with—but of secondary importance to—that of the other participant.

Sometimes called comitative.

Prototypical prepositions are with, without, along_with, together_with, and together:

• Could you walk with/along_with/together_with me to the store? 001

• Can you go to the store without me? 002

• Can we go to the store together? 003

A participant may be considered surplus/secondary for just the function or also at the scene level. Ancillary is the function for adpositions like with that signal asymmetric togetherness or co-participation. More specific spatial and configurational (possession, part-whole, membership, etc.) relations take precedence at the scene level:

• The girl is standing next_to her mother. (Locus) 004

• The girl is standing with her mother. (Locus↝Ancillary) 005

• The girl is by the pigeon. (Locus) 006

• The girl is with the pigeon. (presumably, close to and interacting with it or paying special attention to it) (Locus↝Ancillary) 007

• Put the fork with the knives. (Goal↝Ancillary) 008

• I work with Steve. (SocialRel↝Ancillary) 009

• I am with Grunnings. (Org↝Ancillary) 010

• people with Grunnings (= Grunnings employees) (Org↝Ancillary) 011

Some predicates have a role of primary semantic importance expressed via a with-PP.¹ In such cases, Ancillary should be the function only. However, for many predicates it may be difficult to decide whether Ancillary should also be the scene role. As a diagnostic, we test whether together_with can be used—if not, there is another role of primary importance to the scene.²

Pure Ancillary (scene and function)#

These license together-insertion:

• I am admiring the paintings (together) with my friend
  [we probably infer that “friend” is paired with “I”, and thus also admiring or at least viewing the paintings, but this requires pragmatics] 012

• I am admiring the paintings (together) with the statues (= I am admiring the paintings, and the statues as well)
  [we infer that “statues” is paired with “paintings”, and thus also being admired, but this requires pragmatics] 013

• (Together) with the president, the prime minister signed the declaration
  [explicit: president is together with somebody in the context of signing; inferred: president is together with the prime minister, and they probably both signed] 014

• I was traveling (together) with my friend/infant 015

• my travels (together) with my friend 016

• I fought (together) with her to cure cancer. (= we fought on the same side) 017

Ancillary function only, predicate-licensed scene role#

These resist together-insertion:

• Agent↝Ancillary:

  • Why don’t you talk (*together) with your friend? 018

  • I fought (*together) with her for a week. (= we argued opposite sides) 019

  • Please trade places (*together) with John. 020

• I’ll have to check (*together) with my supervisor. (Recipient↝Ancillary) 021

• He was not ready to share a house (*together) with her. (Possessor↝Ancillary) 022

• I agree (*together) with John. (= we share the same opinion) (Experiencer↝Ancillary) 023

• Don’t compare me (*together) with my sister! (ComparisonRef↝Ancillary) 024

• Why do people associate bats (*together) with death? (Theme↝Ancillary) 025

See further examples at Theme.

Item in one’s possession#

If the object denotes an item that the governor has on hand in their possession, then the construal Possession↝Ancillary is used:

• I walked in with an umbrella. (Possession↝Ancillary) 026

X_i bring/take/... Y with PRON_i#

This construction involves a with-PP that is coreferent with the subject. The most basic meanings of these argument structures bundle motion, possession, location, and accompaniment. In such cases, the with is analyzed as Locus↝Ancillary:³

• I brought my backpack/friend with me. (Locus↝Ancillary)
  [emphasizes that the backpack/friend is located with the speaker] 027

  • I brought my backpack/friend.

When the verb in this construction bears an extended meaning of stative or abstract accompaniment, with may be more appropriately analyzed as Ensemble↝Ancillary:

• The new year brings with it many challenges. (Ensemble↝Ancillary) [cf. Ensemble#003] 031

Together#

The word together, when not followed by with, can denote reciprocal accompaniment and is analyzed like with each other:

• We were sitting/eating/working together. 028

• The duck and the chick are together. (Locus↝Ancillary) 029

• John and Mary are together (= a couple). (SocialRel↝Ancillary) 030

Versus Ensemble#

Ancillary descibes a relation of an entity to an event/situation, whereas Ensemble is used for a relation directly between entities.

See also: Instrument, Manner