Modification in English





We may define a modifier as a subordinate element in an endocentric structure. This kind of structure has the sane function as one of its parts, i.e. it can be replaced by one of its parts. Examples of endocentric structures include: cat across the street, and cat which was meowing, which can be replaced by cat; reads rapidly, reads to enjoy himself, and often reads, which are replaceable by reads; and quite often, which may by replaced by often. In all these examples the replacing part is the head, namely cat, reads, and often, respectively. We should bear in mind that the replacing part may retain a determiner from the endocentric structure, as in the case of count nouns, which require a determiner in the singular, e.g. Islam bought a brand new car, which has to be replaced by Islam bought a car. As for the words and word groups other than the replacing parts in an endocentric structure, they are the modifiers.

A modifier is thus a word or word group that affects the meaning of a head / headword in the sense that it describes, limits, intensifies, and / or adds to the meaning of the head. For example, in the noun phrase the white dress, the word white describes the dress; it also delimits it by excluding dresses of any other color; and it adds to the plain meaning of dress.

Modifiers may appear either before or after the headwords they modify. Sometimes modifiers are separated from the head by intervening words, i.e. words occurring between the modifier and the head. Following are some examples of modifiers with heads:



Modifier Head Modifier



beautiful baby

that baby

baby there

baby in the cradle

baby crying loudly

baby to be fed

baby who was crying

extremely clean

reads rapidly

reads sitting

reads when she wants to enjoy herself

reads nights

reads to calm her mind

often reads

quite often



Sometimes, the position of a modifier shows the head that it modifies, as in the ----- rose, in which the adjectival slot is the position of a modifier of the following noun. This is true whether the slot is filled by an adjective, e.g. red, a noun, as in garden, or a verb, e.g. blossoming. However, at other times there is no positional clue as to what is being modified, as in a bird in the field which was flying among the trees. In this sentence we rely on meaning to realize that the word group starting with which modifies bird and not field, which the group immediately follows.

Still at other times, we have to rely on formal cues, other than position or meaning, to figure out the modification. For example, in the two noun phrases the birds in the field which were great-looking, and the birds in the field which was great-looking, we resort to the formal cues were and was to conclude that what was great-looking in the first sentence were the birds themselves, but the field itself in the second.

When neither position nor formal cues reveal the modification, and when the meaning does not help us decide we have an ambiguous phrase, as in a bird in the field which was great-looking, where great-looking may modify either bird or field.

We should bear in mind that modification is a function, and that any word or word group that performs this function is labeled a modifier. Thus a modifier belongs with the function-classes, not with the form-classes or the position-classes. In this they are like the other functions such as the subject of verb (SV), direct object (DO), indirect object (IO), subject(ive) complement (SC), object(ive) complement (OC), and object of preposition (OP).

Now we are going to examine modification in terms of sentence modifiers, prenominal and postnominal modifiers in the noun phrase, and finally one-word and word-group adverbials in the verb phrase.





A. Sentence Modifiers



A sentence modifier is an adverbial that modifies all the rest of the sentence, which is the head in this case. A sentence adverbial is often separated form the head by terminals, e.g.



1. Naturally, she behaved at the college.



In this sentence the adverbial naturally modifies she behaved at the college. This sentence contrasts with sentence 2 below:



2. She behaved naturally at the college



where naturally modifies the verb behaved alone, and consequently the meaning is different from that of sentence 1.



There are seven structures in which sentence modifiers are commonly found. These are:





1. Single–word Adverbial



Fortunately, I knew how to type.





2. Clause Adverbial



Because the gate was closed, he climbed in the hack window.





3. Prepositional Phrase



In fact, the novel is enjoyable.





4. Absolute Structure ([1])



The visitors having left, we immediately went to bed.





5. Infinitive Phrase



To keep dry in the rain, you should have an

umbrella.





6. Participial Phrase in -ing



Considering the circumstances, he was fortunate to

escape death.





7. Relative in -ever



Whenever she wants, she eats.



It is to be noted that all of the seven structures above are in initial sentence position, which is the most common one for sentence modifiers. However, we should also note that sentence modifiers may appear in medial and final positions as well. For example:



3. The novel is, in fact, enjoyable.

4. I knew how to type, luckily.



Note also that sometimes it is not possible to distinguish a sentence modifier from an identical modifier that modifies a part of the sentence. However, there is often a difference in meaning, as in:



5. Frankly, I do not want to speak.

6. I do not want to speak frankly.





B. The Noun Phrase: Prenominal Modifiers



As a reminder, the noun phrase consists of a noun head and all the modifiers that precede and / or follow it. For example, in the phrase

NH

7. All her many old school colleagues of other days

who have left the town



the word colleagues is the noun head, and all other words, before and after it, are modifiers.

Now we shall discuss those modifiers that precede the head, which are called prenominal modifiers, and constitute subclasses of the adjectival.



1. Determiner plus Noun Head



First we have the simple modification structure of determiner plus noun head, e.g.



D NH

8. the woman





2. Determiner plus Adjective(s) plus Noun Head



Between the determiner and the noun is the position for adjectives, as in



D Aj NH

9. that tall woman

10. our kind father





3. Determiner plus Noun plus Noun Head



The same position can also be occupied by noun(s) that modifies / modify the noun head, e.g.



D N NH

11. their garden roses

12. our stone wall





4. Determiner plus Adjective plus Noun plus

Noun Head



When both an adjective and a noun precede the noun head, the adjective comes first, as in



D Aj N NH

13. their low stone fence

14. this high wire barrier



Note that this pattern of D Aj N NH is sometimes ambiguous, since the adjective may modify the first noun modifier or the noun head, e.g.



15. a respectable university graduate



in which the meaning may be either "a graduate of a respectable university" or "a respectable graduate of a college."





5. Predeterminer plus Determiner plus Adjective

plus Noun plus Noun Head



English has a group of words that may precede the determiners. These are called predeterminers, and include all, both, half, and double, among others. An example of the structure in question is:



Pre D D Aj N NH

16. all our old college colleagues





6. Determiner plus Possessive plus Adjective plus

Noun Head, Etc.



The possessive referred to here is that of possessive nouns, not personal or geographical possessives. This kind of possessive occurs anywhere between the determiner and the noun head, except between the noun modifier and the noun head (with some exceptions). Examples are:



D Pos. Aj NH

17. the spring's white flowers



D Aj Pos. NH

18. the white spring's flowers



D Pos. N. NH

19. the spring's garden flowers



D Pos. Aj N NH

20. the spring's white garden flowers



D N Pos. NH

21. *the garden spring's flowers



D N Pos. NH

22. a wool woman's pullover (exception)



Note that the noun possessive sometimes causes ambiguity in the noun phrase in written English, as in



23. the early spring's flowers



which can be interpreted as "the flowers of early spring" or "the early flowers of spring."







7. Predeterminer plus Determiner plus Post-

determiner plus Adjective plus Noun plus Noun

Head



Postdeterminers are words that follow determiners and precede adjectives. They include the following: ordinal numbers, (first, second,… last), cardinal numbers (one, two, three, etc.), every, few, less, little, (quantity), many/ many a, more, most, other, same, several, single, and such / such a. It is to be noted that not all postdeterminers can follow all determiners, but each one can follow at least one determiner. There are also complicated orders of precedence which we will not discuss here.

An example of the structure of the seventh type of noun phrase is:



Pre D D Pos D Aj N NH

24. all the other yellow garden glowers





8. Restrictor plus Predeterminer plus

Determiner plus Postdeterminer plus

Adjective plus Noun plus Noun Head



Restricters are a class of prenominals. They are a very small set of words, e.g. just, only, even, especially, merely, nearly, almost, and particularly.

An example of type 8 is:



R Pre D D Pos D Aj N NH

25. only half Aya's six new cotton blouses







C. The Noun Phrase: Postnominal Modifiers



In section B above, we have pointed out that modifiers of the noun head / headword may be placed after and / or before it. We have already discussed prenominal modifiers there, and now is the turn to deal with postnominal modifiers. There are eleven forms of such modifiers in English. Following is a brief discussion of each of them:





1. Modified Adjective



An adjective modifying a noun normally occurs in the prenominal position, but an adjective modified by a qualifier occurs in the postnominal position, e.g.



26. I have never seen a baby more lovely.

27. The student, extremely happy, ran quickly.





2. Compounded Adjectives



By compounded adjectives we mean two or more adjectives. Such adjectives occur after the noun, as in



28. The policeman, tired and wet, walked in the rain.

29. A man young and tall sat in the room.





3. Uninflected Word



Nouns may be modified by some of the uninflected words that are often used as adverbials, usually with a place or time reference, as in



30. the family downstairs

31. the tennis match now





4. Adverb



An adverb may modify a noun that comes before it, e.g.



32. my intention exactly

33. the red t-shirt particularly





5. Noun Phrase Adjectival



A noun phrase may modify a noun occurring before it, as in



34. the game last month

35. our holiday next week





6. Prepositional Phrase Adjectival



A prepositional phrase, i.e. a preposition plus a following noun / noun phrase, may modify a noun, and in this case comes after it, e.g.



36. the man in the street

37. the book on the shelf





7. Participle or Participial Phrase, -ing, Adjectival



38. the child crying was taken outside.

39. The lion, spotting his prey, jumped over it.





8. Participle or Participial Phrase, -ed, Adjectival



Two examples of this form of postnominal modifiers are:



40. He refused to pay the money demanded.

41. The trees, swayed by the wind, almost fell

down.





9. Infinitive Phrase Adjectival, to-



Examples of this form are:



42. I have homework to do.

43. His mother gave him a sandwich to eat.





10. Relative Clause Adjectival



A relative clause may modify a noun, as in



44. The trees that had pests were almost dead.

45. The old man, who had been sitting for a long

time, finally stood up.

46. The partner, whom he selected, was a wealthy

man.

47. He found his child, whom he had been looking

for.

48. It was the dean to whom I sent the application.

49. The child whose hair he was cutting was afraid.

50. The old house, which had long been their

abode, was torn down.

51. The car he wants is a Hyundai.

52. The achievement that you make depends on

your effort.



Relative clauses have the following characteristics:



a. They are Introduced by a Relative.



The relatives that introduce relative clauses are that, who, whom, whose, which, and ط (i.e. zero or omitted).



b. The Relative Has a Function in its Clause.



For example, in sentences 44 and 45 above the relatives that and who are subject of the verbs had and sitting, respectively. In 46 whom is the DO of the verb selected. In sentence 43 whom is the DO of the verb selected. In sentences 47 and 48 whom is the OP of the prepositions for and to, respectively. As for sentence 49, whose is a modifier (Md). In 50 which is SV. In sentence 51 the relative is omitted. This zero relative can be replaced by that functioning as the DO or SC. In sentence 52 that is the DO of the verb make.





c. Relative Clauses Are of Two kinds.



The two kinds of relative clauses are traditionally called restrictive (R) and nonrestrictive (NR) clauses, e.g.

Restrictive:



53. She went to the department store which she

liked best.



Nonrestrictive:



54. She went to the deportment store, which was 10

kilometers away.



The clause in sentence 53 refers to one department store among many. This means that of all the department stores she went to this particular one was the store she preferred. Instead of a restrictive clause we can call it a defining clause. However, in sentence 54 there is only one department store, and as additional information we are told that it is 10 kilometers away. Instead of a nonrestrictive clause we can call it a commenting clause. In short, the restrictive clause confines the meaning to only a part of the total, whereas the nonrestrictive clause makes no such delimitation.

Note that a NR clause is set off by commas before (and sometimes after) it as in sentence 53 above, whereas in sentence 54 no such comma(s) is / are used. In the NR clause commas are used both before and after the clause when it is in the middle of the sentence, as in sentence 50 above, and as in 55 below.



55. The car, which he had long admired, was made

in Japan.



To end this section there are some practical remarks about relative clauses.



1. A clause starting with the relative that is always restrictive, as in sentences 44 and 52.

2. A clause with a zero (or omitted) relative is restrictive, as in sentence 51.

3.After a personal or a place name, e.g. Norman Stageberg or New York, the clause is usually nonrestrictive, as in:



56. Norman Stageberg, who is the author of An

Introductory English Grammar, is a

distinguished grammarian.

57. New York City, where Ayman was born, is a

cosmopolitan city.



4. Relative clauses may also begin with the words when, where, why, after, before, and similar words.

See example 57 above and example 58 below.



58. The day when we depart has not been decided.



These relatives (e.g. where in 57, and when in 58, function as adverbials within the relative clause (where Ayman was born, and when we depart).

5. Note that the relative that is a member of the structure class of relatives, which you have studied in the book An Introductory English Morphology. This relative should not be confused with that which belongs to the structure class of subordinating conjunctions. Note also that the subordinating conjunction that stands outside the sentence pattern of its clause and perform no function in it, as in "I heard that she is sick."

6. Likewise, the relatives when, where, why, after, and before should not be confused with their homophones, which are subordinating conjunctions. These conjunctions connect nominal or adverbial clauses with the rest of the sentence. In other words, they stand outside the clause and serve the function of connector, as in "Call me when you are about to leave" in which when is a subordinating conjunction in the adverbial clause when you are about to leave.





11. Appositive Adjectival



The eleventh, and last, form of postnominal modifiers in the noun phrase is the one labeled appositive adjectival. Examples of this modifier are:



59. "Al-Ahram", an Egyptian newspaper, appears

daily.

60. Nobel prizes were won by four Egyptians, a

man of letters, a politician, and two scientists.



In these sentences the expressions an Egyptian newspaper, and a man of letters, a politician, and two scientists are the appositives or the appositive adjectivals. From these sentences we can make the following remarks:



1. An appositive is a noun phrase as in the two examples. However, an appositive is frequently a single noun, as in.



61. A former Egyptian president, Al-Sadat, won a

Nobel prize.



2. An appositive comes after a noun phrase or noun, e.g. the appositive Al-Sadat follows the noun phrase a former Egyptian president in sentence 60 and the appositive an Egyptian newspaper comes after the noun "Al-Ahram" in sentence 59.



3. Occasionally an appositive occurs in a position different form that immediately after a noun or noun phrase, as in



62. That was what he bought, a new bicycle.

63. A promising student of eighteen, Islam ranked

first in his class.



In these sentences the appositives a new bicycle and Islam are separated from the nominal that in sentence 62, and from the noun phrase a promising student of eighteen in sentence 63.



4. Note also that an appositive and the noun phrase or the noun it follows have the same referent, in the cense that they refer to the same entity (person or thing).

In sentences 59 and 60 "Al-Ahram" and an Egyptian newspaper are the same thing, and so are the Egyptians and a man of letters, a politician, and two scientists.



5. As is the case with relative clause adjectivals, appositives may also be divided into two kinds, restrictive and nonrestrictive, e.g.



Restrictive:



64. Ayman visited his friend the lawyer.



Nonrestrictive:



65. Ayman visited the lawyer, a friend from college

years.



In the restrictive appositive the lawyer in 61 there is no juncture (or slight pause) between the noun phrase his friend and the appositive that follows it. In the nonrestrictive appositive a friend from college years in 62, there is a juncture, which is shown in writing by the comma.





D. The Verb Phrase: One-Word Adverbials



As we have already seen in Chapter 1, the verb phrase consists of a verb and all the modifiers and complements that cluster around it, i.e. precede and follow it. The one-word modifiers are the adverbials, which we have studied in some of their characteristic positions. (Cf. Chapter 6, section D.) All adverbials in these positions are part of the verb phrase, except those that function as sentence modifiers. We classified adverbials into those expressing time, place, and manner. Then we subdivided the time adverbials into the subclasses of adverbials of definite time, frequency, and duration, and thus we had five categories. These categories form the majority of one-word adverbials. However, there are also adverbials other than these categories. Examples are:



66. The man will perhaps drive a lorry.

67. You should not do this anyway.

68. He will not sing, but he may dance instead.



The adverbials in the sentences above are the italicized words perhaps, anyway, and instead. Other examples include:



69. The fire was very far, but we could see it and

even smell it.

70. It is very cold and it may still rain.





E. The Verb Phrase: Word-Group

Adverbials





In the verb phrase there are six kinds of word groups that modify the verb headword. Following is a discussion of each one of these kinds:



1. Prepositional Phrase Adverbials



Prepositional phrases that modify the verb headword often come immediately after the verb, in adverbial position number 4, which we discussed in Chapter 6, section D. An example is:



71. The bus went into the garage.



Two prepositional phrases may follow each other, both modifying the verb, as in



72. The bus went into the garage with its lights on.



In addition to position 4 exemplified above, positions before the verb (position 2), and within the auxiliary-verb combination (position 3) are also possible, e.g.



73. Ayman at that time was studying law. (position 2)

74. Ayman was at that time studying law. (position3)



After the direct object we may find a prepositional phrase modifying the verb head. The corresponds to position 5 discussed in 6. D. An example is:



75. He put the chair in the garden.





2. Noun Phrase Adverbials



Noun phrases may be used as modifiers in the verb phrase. In this case they modify either the verb head or the head with its auxiliary / auxiliaries, as in



76. The carpenter held the hammer that way.

77. He will pay the next time.

78. He could have paid last time.



In sentence 76 the noun phrase that way modifies the verb headword held; in sentence 77, the noun phrase the next time modifies the verb plus auxiliary will pay; and in sentence 78 the same phrase modifies the verb plus auxiliaries could have paid.



3. Clause Adverbials



Clause adverbials are also called adverbial clauses. Clause adverbials are word groups that have a subject and a predicate. They begin with such words as after, before, although, though, as, as if, as soon as, because, if, once, since, that, unless, until, when, where, in case (that), and in order that. These words are called subordinating conjunctions, and unlike the relatives, they have no function within the clause they introduce. These subordinating conjunctions express a relationship like cause, time, and condition. In their function as connectors, they make the clause a part of a larger grammatical structure. When such clauses are separated from the rest of the sentence, they are sentence modifiers as we have seen in section A of the present chapter. But when they are used in the verb phrase without a juncture, they are part of the verb or modified verb. Following are some examples:



79. The scared child ran until he was exhausted.

80. Call when you need my help.

81. I'll leave unless you leave me alone.

82. She left as soon as she could.

83. He looked at the frog as if it were poisonous.





4. Infinitive Phrase Adverbials



The infinitive phrase may be used as an adverbial modifier as well as a direct object of the verb. If is important to distinguish between these two uses. The distinction can be made by substitution, as we have already seen in the section on Adverbials in Chapter 6, Section D. Examples of both cases are:



84. He studies to succeed. (adverbial modifier)

85. He wants to succeed. (direct object of verb)



In sentence 84, to can be replaced by in order to, and hence the infinitive phrase to succeed is an adverbial modifier of the verb studies (in a Pattern 6 sentence). As for sentence 85, the same infinitive phrase can be replaced by it or that, and hence is a direct object of the transitive verb wants (in a Pattern 7 sentence).





5. and 6. Participial Phrases in –ing and –ed as

Adverbials



In sections C. 7 and 8 of this chapter we have seen that participial phrases in –ing and –ed can be used as modifiers of the noun. They have a similar function as modifiers in the verb phrase. Here are some examples:



86. The student sat eating a sandwich.

87. He came back exhausted by the effort.



In sentences 86 and 87 the participial phrases in

-ing and –ed, i.e. eating the sandwich and exhausted by the effort modify the verbs sat and came back, respectively.







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([1]) An absolute structure consists of a noun plus a present participle and / or a past participle. This structure is a sentence fragment, not a complete sentence.