<p>This paper presents evidence showing that depictives are syntactic adjuncts that form temporally overlapping event groupings with matrix predicates. Focusing on Mandarin depictives in non-existential sentences—a diagnostic environment for these constructions—I argue that Mandarin depictives, like their English counterparts, are best analyzed as adjuncts. Although Mandarin depictives differ from English in syntactic size and in the nominals they are predicated of, they receive a comparable semantic interpretation in terms of event groupings. I propose that Mandarin depictives are CP adjuncts adjoined to V’, with an operator undergoing movement to the topic position. This analysis avoids the shortcomings of previous accounts by aligning more closely with independently motivated properties of Mandarin syntax. A distinctive property of Mandarin depictives—namely, their restriction to indefinite numeral phrases—reveals an interaction among syntax, semantics, and prosody. I develop a constraint-based analysis in which this restriction follows from ranking prosodic salience highly in Mandarin, an approach that also accounts for a broader class of constructions exhibiting similar restrictions.</p>