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The textbook "The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language", page 216:

We distinguish between core and non-core complements. Prototypically core complements have the form of NPs, non-core complements that of PPs.

The textbook "The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language", page 59:

Manner expressions, for example, are mostly adjuncts, but there are a few verbs that take manner complements: in "They treated us badly", the dependent "badly" counts as a complement by virtue of being obligatory (for "They treated us" involves a different sense of "treat").

Is the adverb "badly" in "They treat us badly" a core or non-core complement?

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    This question is similar to: How to tell if something is a core complement or a non-core complement?. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem.
    – user405662
    Commented Nov 27 at 8:55
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    @Loviii I think you're not aware that that's the automatic comment created when someone votes to close a question as a duplicate. They didn't "comment only for the sake of being comments".
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    Commented Nov 27 at 18:37
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    I guarantee that's the canned comment. They might have retracted their vote, it doesn't automatically remove the comment.
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    I guess it's SE's fault. Complain in Meta Stack Exchange.
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    Let us continue this discussion in chat.
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    Commented Nov 28 at 0:09

1 Answer 1

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Non-core.

Huddleston & Pullum don't quite say this outright, but from the section "Five canonical constructions" (p. 218) it's clear that only subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, and predicative complements count as "core complements." Certainly in their coverage of different types of core complement (pp. 216-219) never includes complements of any other kind in that category.

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