Noun modification: an overview
If the area of modification is wholly new to you, you may like to
look at
the essential guide to types of modification.
This guide only concerns how we modify nouns to make more complex noun
phrases. For more
detail, see the links at the end.
Consider this phrase:
The old house
with a thatched roof
It's clear that the word house is being modified by the bits
in black and
brown. It's also pretty easy to distinguish between
pre-modification
(the old) and
post-modification (with
a thatched roof).
We can use this noun phrase as the subject or
object of the verb:
The old house
with a thatched roof stood here
I like the old house
with a thatched roof
How this is achieved in English is a key area in both producing coherent
texts and understanding texts. Here we are concerned with how
simple nouns become complex nominalisations. And it isn't always
as easy as that.
In what follows, we are looking at how the Head of a phrase may be modified by a pre-Head and a post-Head. For more, try the guide to phrase structure linked in the list of related guides at the end.
 |
A rule of thumb |
This is not an absolute rules and exceptions are noted in the guide, especially, to post-modification of nouns, linked below. However, there are two important differences between pre- and post-modification of nouns worth noting.
- Pre-modification of nouns and noun phrases is usually
non-restrictive (or non-defining) so, for example:
The gorgeous flowers
tells us something about the flowers but not which flowers we intend to single out. However,
The flowers in the vase in the kitchen
tells us nothing about the flowers themselves in terms of appearance but defines or restricts them very precisely and implies that there are other flowers with which we are not concerned.
Equally, for example:
The table in the corner
tells us precisely which table is being referred to but
A corner table
simply tells us what sort of table it is and there may be lots of corner tables in the vicinity. - Pre-modification is the structure of choice when we are
referring to a permanent quality of something or someone so, for
example:
A vegetarian meal
can also be expressed, but less naturally, as:
The meal is vegetarian
However, temporary states are usually signalled by post-modification as in, e.g.:
The meal is cooked
rather than as
*The cooked meal
There is a little more about this in the guide to adjectives, linked below.
 |
Pre-modification |
| The | fourteen | stupid | school | boys |
This is what's happening:
| The | fourteen | stupid | school | boys |
| determiner | numerative | epithet | classifier | noun |
| 1 | 2 | |||
You might have chosen different terms for the second row but that doesn't matter too much providing you have the same sort of categories. To explain:
- The word the is often called the definite article. Here, we have chosen determiner
because it is easier. Other determiners are articles,
demonstratives (this, these etc.), possessives (my,
your etc.) and some non-specific ones such as some, both,
all etc.
The term numerative refers to a special kind of determiner. This group includes cardinal and ordinal numbers as well as expressions like many, thousands of, lots of etc. Numerators are often considered a subset of quantifiers. - You probably had adjective in the third box and you are
right – it is an adjective. However, if you have
followed the guide to
adjectives on this site, you'll know that we need to distinguish
between epithets (which describe) and classifiers (which categorise).
For example, in the expression noun phrase the word noun is acting as a classifier because it tells us what class of phrase it is. In the expression long phrase the word long is an epithet telling us what the phrase is like. Classifiers are often nouns themselves. If you want to be sure, try putting an adverb before it. Adverbs can modify epithets but they can't modify classifiers. We can have, e.g.:
a very long phrase
but not
*a very noun phrase.
In our example here, the word school is such a common classifier that it often forms a compound noun, schoolboys.
We need to be slightly careful with the distinction, however, because you have to look at what the word is actually doing. You can have, e.g.:
a nice private house (classifier)
and
a very private meeting (epithet).
Now try something slightly tougher. Can you figure out what's going on in this phrase?
All twenty or so anomalous and puzzling experimental results ...
Here's a guide:
| All | twenty or so | anomalous and puzzling | experimental | results |
| determiner | numerative | epithets | classifier | noun |
This may seem like a very straightforward thing to do and it is for
those who have a good mastery of the language. However, being able
to separate the different types of modifiers and know what each type
does is very important in the production of clear writing and in the
ability to understand complex noun phrases. Like much else, it is
not too challenging to teach providing
it is presented logically and piecemeal rather than as a jumble of
facts.
This is not the place to set out techniques but an obvious way
is to analyse with learners from examples and then set tasks which
require increasing levels of sophistication. For example, start
with:
| bicycle |
| then add a determiner |
| that bicycle |
| then add a numerator |
| that second bicycle |
| then add an epithet or two |
| that second expensive, red bicycle |
| finally add a classifier |
| that second expensive, red racing bicycle |
One way to do this is to pass slips of paper around. Learners
can quickly get the idea and build up a full picture of how to create
complex nominalisations from simple nouns. It's both useful and
satisfying.
Be alert to what your learners are writing and see if you can
nudge them towards producing pre-modified nouns as a matter of course.
 |
Post-modification |
Post-modification adds more detail again to the noun phrase. Unlike pre-modification, post-modification tends to be much more complicated (sometimes impenetrably so with certain writers). Here's an example. Can you identify and classify the post-modification items?
That bicycle which you bought from the man you met in the pub in the High Street.
Click here when you have an answer.
Here's a guide:
| that bicycle | which you bought from the man | you met in the pub | in the High Street |
| noun (pre-modified) | relative pronoun clause applying to the bicycle | relative pronoun clause with an omitted pronoun applying to the man | prepositional phrase |
| 1 | 2 | ||
Did you get the same division?
- relative clauses are frequent post-modifiers and
always qualify the nouns which
immediately precede them. There's much more in
the guide to relative pronoun clauses
on this site. There is, in theory at least, no limit to the
number we can have but more than two usually loses the listener or
reader (especially if the relative pronoun is omitted). Try,
for example:
The house you bought from the man I saw with the woman who told the girl's brother to fix the pipe he broke with the hammer he bought from the shop you told him about was too expensive.
Relatives are also commonly reduced, for example:
the man sitting in the chair (ellipting who is) - prepositional phrases are also common and often occur at the end of the phrase as here. For more, see the guide to prepositional phrases.
Again, teaching the area is not too daunting providing it is approached systematically with careful analysis and modelling. You can do a similar thing to the idea above, adding modifiers to simple nouns until a really complex and sophisticated phrase is constructed.
Post-modifying adjectives
There are two ways that adjectives can be used to post-modify an noun or noun phrase:
- As predicative adjectives
These are linked to the noun phrase itself by the true copular verb, be, as in, e.g.:
Mary is unhappy
The man who lives on the corner in the big house is always rude
or they are linked with pseudo-copular verbs like appear, seem, feel, taste, smell etc. as in, e.g.:
The food smelt wonderful
The food we were presented with in the restaurant on the corner tasted superb. - As postpositioned attributive adjectives, as in, e.g.:
The chairman elect read the minutes of the last meeting
The programme proper doesn't start until after the advertisements
There are, in English, a limited range of adjectives that can follow the noun in this way. For more, see the guide to adjectives, linked below.
 |
Combining pre- and post-modification |
It's clear that we often use both forms of modification at the same time so we might get something like this:
Further, more detailed, information about why these changes are being proposed will be available on the consultation website from Friday 13 March, ahead of the planned commencement of the consultation on Monday 16 March.
Can you unpack what is happening here? Click here when you have an answer.
| Further | a slightly unusual, non gradable pre-modifying adjective |
| more detailed | a graded pre-modifying adjective phrase |
| information | the essential noun |
| about why these changes are being proposed | a post-modifying prepositional phrase with a wh-complement |
| will be | the core verb phrase (marked for tense with an auxiliary and the true copular verb) |
| available | the complement adjective |
| on the consultation website | a post-modifying prepositional phrase with a noun complement (modifying the verb phrase and its adjectival complement) |
| from Friday 13 March | a second post-modifying prepositional phrase (also modifying the verb phrase and its adjectival complement) |
| ahead of the planned commencement | a third post-modifying prepositional phrase with a noun complement (itself pre-modified with the adjective planned) |
| of the consultation | a post-modifying genitive construction modifying commencement |
| on Monday 16 March | a final prepositional phrase of time post-modifying the noun phrase commencement of the consultation |
This is, incidentally, a real sentence sent to staff as part of an
email concerning a pension scheme. Admittedly, they were
university staff so may be expected to be able to unpack the meaning.
There are, as you can see, no fewer than nine examples of pre- and
post-modification here. Understanding such sentences is not easy
and getting to the core meaning (i.e., Information will be
available) means being able to recognise all the
modification and know what it's doing.
Here's another example of this kind of thing.
That first expensive, red racing bicycle with the black seat which you bought from the slightly scruffy barman with red hair you met in the cheap and nasty sports pub in the town High Street has been stolen.
That is a slightly unusual (and made up) sentence designed to demonstrate
what can happen but, as we saw above,
it is not uncommon to find extensive use of pre-and post-modification,
especially in technical and academic literature and formal communication.
Helping learners to unpack the phrases and identify the verb and the main noun subjects and objects can be very helpful.
With the sentence above, for example, it is helpful to get learners to
try to identify 14 true statements in more simple sentences. Like
this:
| 1 | it is the first bicycle |
| 2 | it is expensive |
| 3 | it is red |
| 4 | it is a racing bicycle |
| 5 | it has a black seat |
| 6 | he bought it from a man |
| 7 | the man was slightly scruffy |
| 8 | the man was a barman |
| 9 | the man had red hair |
| 10 | he met the man in a pub |
| 11 | the pub is cheap and nasty |
| 12 | the pub is a sports pub |
| 13 | the pub is in the High Street |
| 14 | the High Street is in the town |
Once learners are able to do this, you can reverse the process and
give them a number of statements to combine using pre- and
post-modification. For example, can you combine the following into
a single complex sentence using pre- and post-modification?
Click here when you have your answer.
| the house is new |
| the house is made of brick |
| the house is semi-detached |
| the house belongs to a man |
| you met the man last week |
| you met him in the café |
The sentences can be combined as:
You met the man who owns the new brick semi-detached house last week in the café.
Easy (for you). You may have had a different and more elegant solution.
Try the short test on all this.
| Related guides | |
| noun post-modification | a guide to the ways nouns can be modified by what follows them |
| noun pre-modification | a guide to the ways nouns can be modified by what precedes them |
| adjectives | for the in-service guide to adjectives which has more concerning how they modify noun phrases |
| adverbial intensifiers | a guide to intensifiers including emphasisers, amplifiers, downtoners and approximators |
| adverbials | a guide explaining adjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts |
| phrase structure | a guide to how phrases are constructed |
| adjectives | the guide to follow if terms such as epithet and classifier are mysterious |
| prepositional phrases | a guide dedicated to a major way of modifying verb and noun phrases |
| relative pronoun clauses | a guide to a common way to modify |
| a lesson | a link to a lesson for higher-level learners in this area (new tab) |
| syntax index | for links to other related areas |