Premodification and Postmodification of Nouns

Faculty of Philosophy
Department of English and English Literature

Sarajevo, November 2010
Seminar Paper:
Premodification and
Postmodification of Nouns
Supervisor:
Student:
Prof.dr. Lada esti
Nermina Hanjalic
CONTENTS
I. Introduction....I
1. The Main Characteristics of Nouns..1
2. Premodification of Nouns..3
a. Determiners3
b. Adjectives..3
c. Participles...4
d. Possessive nouns...6
e. Nouns....6
f. Adverbials.7
g. Adjective compounds in various syntactic combinations.....8
3. Postmodification of Nouns9
a. Relative clause...9
b. Nonfinite clause...11
c. Prepositional phrase.12
d. Appositive....12
4. Conclusion........13
5. References.14
1. INTRODUCTION
The reason why I chose this theme for my seminar paper is the fact that the nouns are the most
numerable words in all worlds languages and that they, together with other types of words,
create an endless number of combinations which we use in our speech. In my opinion, the beauty
of a literary work depends on the way in which a writer manages to combine such words and in
which he makes them become living in our imagination and enable us to enter his or her fictional
world.
There is a whole range of items which we use to modify nouns. By combinations I mentioned
in the previous paragraph I meant the complex noun phrases which may consist of three
components:
1.
The head of the noun phrase the noun phrase nucleus (the mellow light of the
huge lace-covered lamp);
2.
The premodification all the words that belong to the noun phrase and are placed
before its head (the mellow light of the huge lace-covered lamp);
3.
The postmodification all the words that belong to the noun phrase and are
placed after its head (the mellow light of the huge lace-covered lamp).
Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaums grammar gives us a whole range of premodifying and
postmodifying items, starting from the simple premodification by adjectives to the complex
postmodification by the whole sentences.1 Most of my work here is based on the grammar of the
aforementioned authors, and the examples that I am going to offer have been taken from some of
my favourite literary works. Some sentences that illustrate certain grammatical rules had to be
slightly altered in order to have the emphasis placed at the important part of the sentence.
In A Students Introduction to English Grammar, R. Huddleston and G. Pullum classify the
modifiers as the internal dependants which fall inside the structure of a noun phrase.
A Students Grammar of the English Language, S. Greenbaum, R. Quirk, Longman 1993.
2.
THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF NOUNS
The words that we use to name persons, ideas, places, objects etc. are called NOUNS. The word
noun comes from the Latin word nomen which means name2. The nouns are the most
numerable words in dictionaries of any worlds language.
The English nouns have the following characteristics:
a. Number:
Singular
(book, child, wind, man, ox)
Plural
a. Regular s plural: (books, winds)
b. Irregular plural:
(children, men, oxen)
b. Case:
Subjective (function as subjects in a clause): (The man is surely tired.)

Objective (function as objects in a clause): (She has finished the lesson.)
Possessive (modify other nouns in a clause): (My mothers hat is lost.)
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
c. Gender:
In the English language, the nouns have natural gender. The masculine and the feminine
nouns refer to human beings, with an exception of animals, ships or imaginary creatures
to whom people give human characteristics.
It is appropriate to mention here the types of nouns in the English language:
-
Countable nouns form plural by adding s (one pencil, two pencils);
Non-countable nouns not used in plural, and one type of such nouns are mass nouns
which are words for concrete objects stated in an undivided quantity (rice, brass, blood).
Abstract nouns (football, chemistry) are also non-countable.3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noun
A Practical Reference Guide, M. Frank, Regents/Prentice Hall 1993, pg. 6
Nouns themselves are not enough to convey meaning therefore we reach for a whole range of
other types of words and word structures to modify them. In that sense we can talk about
premodification and postmodification of nouns as the means of giving their further descriptions.
3. PREMODIFICATION OF NOUNS
Placing words like adjectives or other nouns in front of a noun in order to give its further
description is called premodification of nouns. Following Quirk, I shall take into account the
following premodifying items: determiners, adjectives, participles, nouns, possessive nouns,
adverbials, and adjective compounds in various syntactic combinations.
a.
Determiners
Determiners can be used with the greatest number of nouns, therefore they always come first in a
noun phrase. Depending on their order, we devide them into three categories: central
determiners, predeterminers, and postdeterminers.
- Central determiners precede the noun in a noun phrase. The following items belong to
this group of determiners:
articles: the, a/an (the tiger, a tiger);
demonstrative adjectives: this, pl. these (this chair, pl. these chairs);
that, pl. those (that car, pl. those cars);
possessive adjectives: (my/his/our house);
adjectives of indefinite quantity: some coffee, all the books, few pounds;
relative and interrogative adjectives: whose parents, which building.4
Usually, only one kind of central determiner is used.

- Predeterminers precede the central determiners in a noun phrase. The following items
belong to this class of determiners:
partitives: all (of) the books, both (of) her sisters;
fractions: half (of) the money, one-quarter (of) the amount;
(Obviously, partitives and fractions may be interpreted as preceding a prepositional phrase from
which of has been omitted.)
multipliers:
twice the size, three times the amount.
- Postdeterminers (numerals and sequence adjectives) follow the central determiners and
predeterminers.
numerals:
a. ordinals (those ten books, his two cars);

b. cardinals (the third lesson, the sixth month);
b.
sequence adjectives:
the last prisoner, the next generation
Adjective:
Sequence of adjectives in premodification

According to M. Frank, the order of adjectives in premodification is determined by the degree
of generality of each type of adjective.5
English is not an inflectional language therefore the word order in a sentence is of a high
importance. This means that the premodifiers should not be randomly clustered around a noun.
For example, it is correct to say:
The big, black dog
because big hasbut
*The black, big dog
Randolph Quirk illustrates the premodification sequence in the following way:6
5
6

A Students Grammar of the English Language, S. Greenbaum, R. Quirk, Longman 1993., pg. 392
determiners
general
the
hectic
the
extravagant
age
colour
participle
provenance
London
crumbling
grey
some
intricate
small
his
heavy
noun
old
green
crumbling
Gothic
interlocking
Chinese
carved
denominal
head
social
life
social
life
church
tower
church
tower
designs
jade
new
idol
moral
responsibilities
d.
e. No matter how strict this might seem, the English language gives us a possibility to disorder the
sequence. The discontinuous modification is quite common in spoken English.
f.
I find myself planning still last years holiday.7
One electric fan revolved like a wounded bird.8

I want to see the real India.9
The unspeakable attempt presented itself to her as love.10
A single head can have two or more coordinated adjectives in premodification:
when they receive conspicuous and unexpected honour.11
The adjectives themselves can be modified in premodification by intensifiers such as very,
really, quite, rather, etc:
Until lately he was quite a nice boy.12
The example given by a native English speaker

A Passage to India, E.M. Forster, pg. 21, Penguin Classics 2005
9
10
11
12
8
she was a very, very nice woman13

A rather small woman, she shrank a little from the first contact with the Bottoms
women.14
c.
Participles:
- ing participle:
Molly Carthew went to everlasting fire.15
Religion is a living force to the Hindus.16
He had become a sort of walking repudiation of Oxford and all its traditions.17
The ing participle which functions as premodifier can itself be modified:
She let her put her large cool pastry-making hands upon her shoulders.18
The notion of a trip to the West Country took an ever-increasing hold on my thoughts.19
He was the best-looking boy I have ever seen.20
-ed participle:
A stuffed parrot.21
The Thread was in her folded hands.22
She put her gloved hand up to her lips.23
Just like with the ing participles, the ed participles can be modified:
13

Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence, pg.2, Penguin Popular Classics 1995
15
Brighton Rock, G. Green, pg. 217, Vintage 2009
16
17
Pygmalion, B. Shaw, pg. 4, Penguin Classics 2003
18
19
The Remains of the Day, K. Ishiguro, pg. 5, F&F Ltd. 2005
20
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises. E. Hemingway, pg. 141, Arrow Books 2004
21
Flauberts Parrot, J. Barnes, pg. 184, Vintage 2009
22
23
14
Beside him hung a portrait of his wife, a pallid, thin-lipped women in black.24
The red-nosed boy has again insulted me in court.25
He was, I believe, not in the least an ill-natured man.26
d.
s genitive:
When she came on in her boys clothes she was perfectly wonderful.27
(boys clothes does not refer to clothes that belong to a boy, but to clothes that look
boyish)
e.
Noun:
Premodification by a common noun:

They have had my own divorce-case.28
She wears a little sailor hat of black straw.29
During this time I spent many minutes examining the road atlas.30
Premodifiaction by a personal noun:
He was led past that by his contempt for the popular Pitman system of shorthand.31
She shrank a little from the first contact with the Bottoms women.32
The mother perceived her son gazing enraptured outside the Lion Wallace booth.33
Premodification by a possessive form of a noun:
24
The Picture of Dorian Gray, O. Wilde, pg. 138, Penguin Classics 2003
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
25
Gustaves father and sister were buried there.34

Mrs. Turton replied that Mr Heaslops mother was trying to get a passage.35
A refusal in such circumstances may not reflect my employers true feelings on the
matter.36
Plural noun in premodification becomes singular:
He has shown me his stamp collection.37
f.
Adverbial:
The evidence showed that the deceased lady was knocked down by the engine of the ten
oclock slow train from Kingstown.38
But, for the rest of Hesters life, there was evidence that someone in a faraway land cared
for the aging woman.39
g.
Sentence:
The stay-at-home mothers stood gossiping at the corners of the alley.40
He was the son of a well-to-do tradesman.41
34

36
37
38
Dubliners, J. Joyce, pg. 74, Dover Publications Inc. 1991
39
The Scarlet Letter, N. Hawthorne, pg. 222, Penguin Popular Classics 1994
40
41
35
POSTMODIFICATION OF NOUNS
In this chapter I will consider restrictive type of postmodification, more precisely, the kind of
modification which is essential for identification of the head. The following word structures fall
under the category of postmodifying items:
a.
Relative clause:
The subject of a relative clause is a relative pronoun which shows the agreement with the head
based on the personal and non-personal gender system.
In the English language, only human beings have personality, however, this extends to imaginary
creatures like fairies, dwarfs, elves etc. which have human characteristics. This rule extends to
pet animals, ships, and even cars/motorbikes. It is common for people to assign a female gender
and even a name to such loved objects.
Personal (who):
Never trust a woman who wears mauve.42
A man who fights never survives long.43
She knew no one who lived there.44
Non-personal (which):
Beyond the railway which runs parallel to the river the land sinks.45
The postcards which Mrs. Higgins describes are such as I have received from Sweet.46
I would decipher a sound which a cockney would represent by zerr.47
42
44
45
46
47
43
It is quite common that the relative pronouns who and which are replaced with the general
pronoun that which may be applied to both personal and non-personal character:
The swift and comfortable mail-train slid with herthrough landscapes that were baked
and bleached.48
His papers include some satires that may be published without too destructive results
fifty years hence.49
In cases where relative pronoun is not the subject of the relative clause, the relative pronoun can
be omitted (zero, ):
She had on the hat (which) he disliked.50
The relative pronoun can also have the form whose if it is in a genitive relation with the noun
head:
They rise from the gardens whose ancient tanks nourish them.51
We use the whom form of the relative pronoun if the relative clause functions as the
prepositional complement:
I only want to meet those Indians whom you come across socially.52
Or as an indirect object:
Had I one friend to whom I could daily betake myself methinks my soul might keep
itself alive thereby.53
Restrictive and nonrestrictive modification
48

50
51
52
53
The Scarlet Letter, N. Hawthorne, pg. 163, Penguin Popular Classics 1994
49
10
All the relative clauses I mentioned here belong to the restrictive type of modification. This
means that the identification of the head depends on the information given by the clause.
On the other hand, there is a nonrestrictive modification of a head whereby the modifying clause
only gives an additional information about the head. In such cases, the modifying clause is often
placed between commas.
His wife Karen, who is the founder of a charter school in the Bay Area, becomes a
member of the CAIs board of directors.54
b.
Nonfinite clause:
Nonfinite clause in postmodification is nothing else but a reduction of adjective clause with the
relative pronoun omitted from the structure.55 Therefore:
-ing participle clauses:
These fists and fingers are the Marabar Hills (which are) containing the extraordinary
caves.56
We continued through the museum until we reached the room (which was) containing the
parrot.57
US denies it sent a letter (which was) demanding freeze extension.58
-ed participle clauses:
The fair boy (who was) called Ralph smiled vaguely.59
The yellow tigers (which was) painted on the palace walls seemed to spring.60
54
www.sparknotes.com/lit/three-cups-of-tea/characters.html
56
57
58
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article
59
Lord of the Flies, W. Golding, pg 3, F&F Ltd.
60
55
11
It may be acquire from a manual(which was) published by the Clarendon Press.61

-infinitive clauses:
a party to bridge the gulf between East and West62
He was a difficult man to love.63
The desperate attempt to represent her dialect must be abandoned as unintelligible
outside London.64
c.
Prepositional phrase:
According to Quirk, a prepositional phrase is by far the commonest type of postmodification in

English.65
Scraps of Persian poetry came into his head.66
A servant in scarlet interrupted him.67
Laughter from the bathing-pool deflected him.68
d. Appositive:
Modification by appositive can be considered an afterthought or an assertion which
enriches what has already been said.
He lay in a trance, sensuous but healthy, through which the talk of the two others did not
seem particularly sad.
Gods, big and little, were getting aboard.69
61

63
64
65
A Students Grammar of the English Language, S. Greenbaum, R. Quirk, Longman 1993., pg. 375
66
67
68
69
62
12
4. CONCLUSION
English:
In this seminar paper, helped out by the grammatical works of R. Quirk and M. Frank, I have
made a brief introduction to premodification and postmodification of the most numerous English
words nouns.
Starting from the general characteristics of nouns and then preceding through various classes of
words and word structures that we use in pre and postmodification, I tried to make sure that all
the relevant grammatical rules are illustrated by the examples taken from my favourite novels.
Bosnian:
U ovom seminarskom radu, potpomognuta gramatikama R. Quirka i M. Frank, napravila sam
kratko upoznavanje sa predmodifikacijom i postmodifikacijom najbrojnijih rijei u engleskom
jeziku imenica.
Poevi sa optim karakteristikama imenica a zatim nastavljajui kroz razliite klase rijei i
njihovih struktura koje koristimo u pred i postmodifikaciji, pokuala sam ilustrovati sva
relevantna gramatika pravila odgovarajuim primjerima koje sam uzela iz mojih omiljenih
romana.
13
5. REFERENCES
1. Quirk Randolph, Greenbaum Sidney, A Students Grammar of the English Language,
Longman, 1993.
2. Frank Marcella, A Practical Reference Guide, Regents/Prentice Hall, 1993.
Literature:
1. Barnes Julian, Flauberts Parrot, Vintage, 2009.
2. Forster E.M., A Passage to India, Penguin Classics, 2005.
3. Green Graham, Brighton Rock, Vintage, 2009.
4. Golding William, Lord of the Flies, F&F Ltd.
5. Hawthorne Nathaniel, The Scarlet Letter, Penguin Popular Classics, 1994.
6. Hemingway Ernest, Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises, Arrow Books, 2004.
7. Ishiguro Kazuo, The Remains of the Day, F&F Ltd., 2005
8. Joyce James, Dubliners, Dover Publications Inc., 1991.
9. Lawrence D.H., Sons and Lovers, Penguin Classics, 1995.
10. Shaw Bernard, Pygmalion, Penguin Classics, 2003.
11. Wilde Oscar, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Penguin Classics, 2003.
Web pages:
1. www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article
2. www.sparknotes.com/lit/three-cups-of-tea/characters.html
14

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Faculty of Philosophy

Department of English and English Literature

Prof.dr. Lada esti

A Students Grammar of the English Language, S. Greenbaum, R. Quirk, Longman 1993.

THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF NOUNS

Subjective (function as subjects in a clause): (The man is surely tired.)

Countable nouns form plural by adding s (one pencil, two pencils);

A Practical Reference Guide, M. Frank, Regents/Prentice Hall 1993, pg. 6

articles: the, a/an (the tiger, a tiger);

possessive adjectives: (my/his/our house);

relative and interrogative adjectives: whose parents, which building.4

Usually, only one kind of central determiner is used.

partitives: all (of) the books, both (of) her sisters;

A Practical Reference Guide, M. Frank, Regents/Prentice Hall 1993, pg. 109

fractions: half (of) the money, one-quarter (of) the amount;

twice the size, three times the amount.

a. ordinals (those ten books, his two cars);

the last prisoner, the next generation

Sequence of adjectives in premodification

A Practical Reference Guide, M. Frank, Regents/Prentice Hall 1993, pg. 114

I find myself planning still last years holiday.7

One electric fan revolved like a wounded bird.8

The example given by a native English speaker

she was a very, very nice woman13

A Passage to India, E.M. Forster, pg. 195, Penguin Classics 2005

Premodification by a common noun:

Gustaves father and sister were buried there.34

Flauberts Parrot, J. Barnes, pg. 93, Vintage 2009

A Passage to India, E.M. Forster, pg. 197, Penguin Classics 2005

It may be acquire from a manual(which was) published by the Clarendon Press.61

According to Quirk, a prepositional phrase is by far the commonest type of postmodification in

Pygmalion, B. Shaw, pg. 4, Penguin Classics 2003

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