Post-modification
The third important component of a complex noun phrase is post-modification, called
post-modifiers, comprising all the items placed after the head. These post-modifiers
are mainly realized by prepositional phrases, finite clauses (or relative clauses),
nonfinite clauses, adjective phrases, noun phrases or adverbial phrases:
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determiner head post-modifiers
with yellow covers
(1) a book
(prepositional phra
who told you the se
(2) the man
clause)
speaking English flu
(3) the girl
finite clause)
(4) a shelf full of books (adjecti
(5) the opera "Carmen" (noun ph
(6) The road back (adverbial phr
In the example (1) ‘with yellow covers’ is a prepositional phrase post-modifying the
head ‘book’. Apart from ‘with’, there is a wide range of prepositions that can be used,
e.g.: the road to London, the house beyond the church, a child of five, etc., including
the complex prepositions, e.g. a house on the top of the hill, action in case of
emergency, etc. and those having participle forms as in problems concerning the
environment.
The commonest preposition in the noun phrase post-modification ‘of’ has a close
correspondence to ‘have’ sentences:
The ship has a funnel. = the funnel of the ship
The table has four legs. = the four legs of the table
However, some are relatable to ‘be’ sentences:
London is a city. = the city of London
The news was the team’s victory. = the news of the team’s victory
Also, the ‘of’ phrase can be used to express the subject or object relation:
The bus arrived. = the arrival of the bus
Someone imprisoned the murderer. = the imprisonment of the murderer
In the example (2), the post-modifier is a relative or finite clause which can be
restrictive or non-restrictive. There are a number of relative clauses beginning with
relative pronouns: ‘who’, ‘whom’, ‘whose’, ‘that’ (personal); ‘which’, ‘that’, ‘what’
(non-personal); ‘when’, a preposition plus ‘which’ (time); ‘where’, a preposition plus
‘which’ (place); and ‘why’, ‘for which’ (reason). While restrictive relative clauses
help to define the head noun, the non-restrictive ones give additional information to
it, as exemplified in:
who is standing
The woman is my neighbour.
outside
restrictive/ finite
That is my
who is standing outside.
neighbour,
non-restrictive/ non-finite
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Example (3) illustrates the post-modifier as a non-finite clause, present participle
clause. The non-finite can be past participle clauses.
The only car serviced in the garage is mine.
non-fininte, past participle
clause
In addition, post-modifiers can be to-infinitive clauses:
The next flight to arrive was from London.
The place to stay for summer holidays should be pleasant.
As is seen in the example (4), adjective phrases can be post-modifiers of the head
noun in the complex noun phrases. The adjective phrases can usually be regarded as
a reduced relative clause. Complex indefinite pronouns ending in -body, -one, -thing,
and -where can be modified only post-positively, e.g.:
Anyone (who is) intelligent can do it.
The men (who were) present were his supporters.
In the example (5), the phrase explicitly encodes the information that “Carmen is an
opera”. For this reason, ‘Carmen’ is traditionally said to be in apposition to ‘the
opera’.
Another minor type of post-modification illustrated in the example (6) is adverbial
modification. Similarly, in the following examples, the adverbial phrases post-modify
the head noun: the way ahead, the direction back, the hall downstairs, etc.
Unlike pre-modifiers, their no grammatical limit to the number of post-modifiers
occurring in a noun phrase, considerations of style and comprehensibility will
normally keep them to one or two. Where we have more than one, the relative order
tends to depend on the related properties of length and class, with shorter modifiers
preceding longer ones, prepositional phrases preceding clauses:
A man from Britain who I was talking about last
night
prepositional phrase relative clause
Major classes of post-modification
- Of- genetive: the four legs of the table
- Noun phrase: the film “Titanic”
- Adjective pharse : Something strange happened last night.
These are best books available in our shop.
She is a woman happy in marriage.
I want to meet the person responsible.
- Prepositional Phrase
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Place: The man in the car/at the desk/ upstairs/down there
Time: The meeting on Tuesday
Manner: A problem of great significance
A man of four children
- non-finite clause
To V appositive, e.g: their hope to become teachers
Descriptive, e.g: the last bus to arrive
V-ing participle, e.g: the man standing there is my doctor.
V-ed participle, e.g: The vase broken is very expensive.
The words underlined are key words.
- Finite clause: The girl who is talking to my boss
12th Sep, 1990 is the date when he was born.
That’s the reason why he spoke ill of me.
- Adverbial: the room upstairs is always noisy.
the way ahead