M U L T I P L E M O D I F I E R S
So far most of the senuenccs used to illustrate adjectivals have had a single postheadword modifier, either a clause or a phrase. But we often have more than one such modifier, and when wc do, the order in which they appear is well defined: prepositional phrase, participial phrase, relative clause:
the security guard [in our building] [who checks out the visitors]
the woman [from London] [staying with the Renfords]
the D C -10 [on the far runway] [being prepared for takeoff] [which was hijacked by a group o f terrorists]
In a traditional diagram, all the noun modifiers in both pre- and post position are attached to the headword:
D C - 10
A change in the order of modifiers would change the meaning: the D C -10 being prepared for takeoff, which was hijacked by a
group o f terrorists on the far runway
Here the prepositional phrase no longer specifies which D C -10; it has be come an adverbial modifier in the relative clause, modifying was hijacked. In this version D C -10 has only two postheadword modifiers, not three:
DC-10
\ r' prepared
takeoff
which was hijackcd
Jusc as am biguity m ay result from a string o f prepositional phrases, these m ultiple m odifiers, too, are som etim es open to m ore th an one interpretation:
the driver of the bus standing on the corncr a friend of my sister who lives in Tam pa
In context these noun phrases m ay or may not be d e a r to the reader. In any case, the ambiguity is easily avoided:
the driver o f the bus who was standing on the corner the driver o f the bus parked at the corncr
my sister’s friend from Tam pa
my sister in T am pa’s friend (or, my sister in Tam pa has a friend who . . . )
O T H E R P O S T N O U N M O D I F I E R S
Infinitives. H ie infinitive— the base form o f the verb preceded by to— can serve as a modifier in rhe postheadw ord position. As a verb, it will have all the attributes of verbs, including com plem ents and modifiers, depending on its underlying sentence pattern:
the way to be helpful the time to start
the party after the play to honor the director the best place in San Francisco to eat seafood
1.56 P an III: Expanding ihe Sentence
way tim e
“
As the last w o examples illustrate, the infinitive can be separated from the headword by another modifier. These examples also illustrate another com m on feature o f the adjectival infinitive: Its subject may not be the
noun it modifies; its subjcct is frequently just understood— the object in an understood prepositional phrase:
That was a nicc thing [for you] to do.
Fisherman’s W harf is not necessarily the best place in San Francisco [for one] to eat seafood.
N o u n Phrases. Nouns or noun phrases o f time and place can follow the headword:
the party last night the ride home
These adjectival noun phrases are diagrammed just as the adverbial noun phrases are— on horizontal lines:
Chapter 7: Modifiers o f the Noun: Adjectivals J.57
Adjectives. Qualified adjectives and com pound adjectives, which usually occupy the preheadword position, can follow the headword if they are set off by commas:
the neighbors, usually quiet
the neighborhood, quiet and peaceful
Like the nonrestrictive participles, these nonrestrictive adjectives can also introduce the sentence when they modify the subject:
Usually quiet, the neighbors upstairs are having a regular brawl tonight.
Q uiet and peaceful, the neighborhood slept while the cat burglars made their rounds.
158 P an III: Expanding the Sentence
The diagram docs not distinguish between pre-and postheadword m odi fiers— except for the capital letter. But the purpose of the diagram, after all, is to show the structural relationships, not the word order.
A dverbs. Even adverbs can occupy the postheadw ord position in the noun phrase:
I hat was my idea cxactlv.
The people here have no idea o f conditions there.
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Identify all the postnoun modifiers in the following sentences and label them by form. A sentence may contain more than one postnoun modifier.
1. Curling is a game in which players slide circular, handle-topped granite stones across the ice toward a target.
2. The sport, which originated in Scodand and the Netherlands, combines the skills of bowling and shuffleboard with the strategies of billiards and chess.
3- It is played on an ice rink that is 42 yards long and 10 vards wide, in teams of four players to a side.
4. Each player propels two stones toward a target that is 38 yards away.
5. Curling stones are made from a very special granite called Blue Hone, which is known for its toughness and resiliency.
6. Players “deliver” their stones with a twist of the wrist, imparting the curling action for which the game is named.
7. The third and fourth players on a team look for ways to knock the opponents’ stones out of bounds.
8. An importan t piece of curling equipm ent is the broom, used by players to melt the ice slightly in the path of a teammate’s stone.
9. The winning team is the one whose stones are closest to the center of the target; for each stone that is closer, one point is scored. 10. The sport is extremely popular in Canada, where there are more
than a million curlers, who play both at local clubs and on a thriving cash circuit.
Chapter 7: Modifiers o f the Noun: Adjectivals 1.59 CHAPTER ?
Kev Terms
Adjcctival Adjectival clause Adjectival infinitiveAdjectival prepositional phrase Adjcctivc A dverbial p articip le Antecedent Case Dangling participle Demonstrative pronoun Determ iner Functional shift Free modifier Headword In to n a tio n Nonrestrictive modifier Participial phrase Participle Passive participle Possessive case Postheadword modifier Preheadword modifier Relative adverb Relative clause Relative pronoun Restrictive modifier
Sentences
f ° r PRAC.TlC.'f-Draw vertical lines between the slots o f the sentence patterns. M ark the headword o f each N P with an X, the determiner with a D; underline the pre- and postheadword modifiers; then label each according to its form. Circle any pronouns that fill N P slots.
For further practice, identify the sentence patterns and diagram the sentences. Rem em ber th at all verb phrases and clauses functioning as adverbials and adjcctivals also have identifiable scntcncc patterns.
1. The clown, acting silly to entertain the children, was not very funny.
2. A weed is a plant whose virtues have not been discovered. [Ralph Waldo Emerson]
3. M y neighbor’s husband, who is a strong union man, would not cross the picket line that the clerical workers organized at the mill where he is a foreman.
4. The company’s reorganization plan, voted down last week, called for the removal o f all incum bent officers.
5. At m idnight Cinderella’s beautiful coach, in which she had been driven to the ball, suddenly became a pum pkin again.
6. According to the Sierra Club, the equivalent o f eleven barrels of oil is saved for every ton of plastic bags reused or recycled. 7. Drawing on my fine com m and o f the English language, I said
nothing. [Robert Benchley]
8. The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience o f the king. [Shakespeare]
9. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. [Shakespeare] ] 0. Calling Pearl H arbor Day a day that would live in infamy,
President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war. 11. Having been a police officer in downtown Nashville for
thirty years, my neighbor grew restless after he retired from the force.
12. This is the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
q\JESTIO(Y£ IT 3 . =
/ °r -DJSCUSS\0 >
1. Generate a noun phrase according to each of the following formulas:
A. det + adj + h e a d w o r d + participial phrase
B . d e t + a d j - r n o u n + h e a d w o r d + c la u s c
C. det + adj + h e a d w o r d + prep phrase + part phrase
D. det + noun + h e a d w o r d + part phrase + clause
Use your NPs in scntcnces as follows:
Use A as the direct object o f a Pattern VII sentence. Use B as the object o f a preposition.
Use C as an indirect objcct.
Use D as the dircct object in a relative clause.
Chapter 7: Modifiers o f the Noun: Adjectivals 161
2. In our dcscriprion o f die noun phrase, we saw rhat rhe headword slot is filled by a word that is a noun in form. W ould you con sider these underlined noun phrases as exceptions to the rule?
The rich are different from other people. I was late for our meeting.
You clean the upstairs, and I’ll do the downstairs. 3. Explain the source of the ambiguity' in the following sentence:
My brother is considered the area’s best foreign car mechanic. 4. In this chapter we discussed the recursive quality o f the noun
phrase— that is, the embedding o f one noun phrase in another. Give a sentence in which a relative clause is embedded in another relative clause; give another in which a participle is embedded in another participial phrase; another with a participle in a relative clause; another with a relative clause in a participial phrase. 5. Linguist Francis Christensen, quoted in the discussion o f punctuation,
suggests that restrictive modifiers make one statement and imply the opposite. W hat opposite statements can you infer from die following?
All the students w ith an average o f 90 or higher will be excused from the final.
The flight controllers who saw the strange lights in the sky became firm believers in UFOs.
The customers who witnessed the fight were called to testify. H ow would the meaning o f these sentences change if the post noun modifiers were set off by commas?
6. W hat is the source of the ambiguity in the following sentences? Tony buried the knife he found in the cellar.
Fred tripped his teammate with the baseball bat. Diagram each sentence in two ways to show its two possible meanings.
7. In what way does this famous line from M ilton appear to violate the rule regarding the placement o f relative clauses?
They also serve who only stand and wait.
8. In The Book o f Lists (Morrow, 1977), David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace, and Amy Wallace describe a comma “that cost the government w o million dollars before Congress could rectify the error.” Here’s the expensive sentence:
All foreign fruit, plants are free from duty.
The clerk who wrote the rule was supposed to use a hyphen instead o f a comma. Explain the difference.
162 P an III: Expanding the Sentence
C L A S S R O O M A P P L I C A T I O N S
1. There are very few, if any, nouns that cannot function as modi fiers o f other nouns. H ere’s a vocabulary exercise to test this statement. Begin with a comm on noun, such as light or tree or
house. Use it as a modifier; then use the noun you modified as a
modifier. See how long you can keep the chain going— perhaps around the room at least oncc. For example,
tree fa rm , fa rm building, building code, code word, word game, game player, player piano, piano bench, bench warmer,
warmer oven, oven lig h t. . .
If you get stuck, you can go back and change a word to start a new' path. 2. Ihe term “sentence combining” refers to a popular method of
teaching sentence structure in which writers learn to combine short sentences in various ways, lhis method is based on the work of the transformational linguists, who hold that ever}7 modifier in the noun phrase is actually a basic scntcnce. For example, chis sentence,
The silly, awkward clown is entertaining the children, combines three basic sentences:
I h e clown is entertaining the children. The clown is silly.
Ihe clown is awkward.
There are other ways in which these same three sentences could be combined. Here are w o ; try for at least a dozen:
The silly clown entertaining the children is awkward.
The awkward clown who is entertaining the children is silly. Using your knowledge o f both adverbial and adjectival modifiers, combine the following groups o f sentences in as m any ways as you can. (Again, try for at least a dozen!)
Becky stood before the magistrate. Beck)' felt nervous.
The danccrs kept time to the raucous music. The dancers wore strange costumes.
The dancers acted crazy.
The young man waited for the train The train was very late.
AP T f ^