Modification
The sentence modifiers
Nouns Modifiers (postnominalprenominal)
Verb phrase modifiers
A. Sentence modifiers
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Sentence modifiers may appear at the beginning,
middle or the end of the sentence.
Seven structures can be used as sentence modifier:
1. Single word adverbial
Fortunately, no one got hurt in the latest events.
Frankly, I don’t believe him.
2. Clause adverbial .
Since the meeting was cancelled, we postponed our
flight.
3. Absolute structure:(n+ present or past participle)
The radiation being contained, people started their
work normally.
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4. Infinitive phrase:
To earn more money, you should work harder.
To be frank, no one deserves the prize
5. participle phrase:
Considering his qualification, he did an
excellent work.
6. Relative in –ever.
Whatever he does ,he remains my model.
Wherever they go, we’ll catch them.
Whenever he sleeps, he snores.
Noun Phrases: Prenominal modifiers
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A noun can be modified by a noun,
adjective, determiners, predetermines,
postdeterminers in specific order.
Order of nouns modifiers:
5
4
3
2
1
PRE/D
D
post/D
AJ
N
NH
All the first appointed school principles
were honored.
Ambiguous structures:
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Having the noun between the adjective and
the head nouns may cause ambiguity.
The well-known company manager attend
the meeting.
“well-known “may modify the first or the
second noun.
The manager of the well-known company
attended the meeting.
The well-known manger of the company
attended the meeting
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Detrminers:
A. Articles: the ,an, a.
B. Possessive pronouns: my, your, her, his,
their, our.
Demonstrative: this, that,these , those.
Poss. Of names: Summer’s – nora’s.
Special class (that may not be preceded by
predetrminer):
Another either
neither what
Any
enough no
which
Each
much some
whose
Predeterminers:
 words that precede determiners: e.g
 All both half
double
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both her wonderful baby boys were
kidnapped
Postdeterminers:
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Words that follow determiners e.g:
Ordinal numbers: first,second….
Cardinal numbers: one, two,…..
Every, Few, Less, Little, Many, More
Most, other, same, several, single, such
The few controversial government
disputes were solved.
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Restricters: precedes predetrminers or
noun heads. ( small set)
Only, especially, merely, even.
Only half his college friends attend.
Almost all my dear school friends left
RES. Pre/D
Aj
N
HN
EXC.17-12 :Rearrange the following words:
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Summer, several, flowers, pink
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Garden, both, old, his, hoes.
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Bad, schedule, another, examination.
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Two, silk, my, dresses, pretty
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Roommates, all, studio, her
Postnominal Modifiers
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The demonstrators, extremely furious
,destroyed government building.
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The boy holding the papers is my
colleague.
Forms of postnominal modifiers
1. Modified adjective:
 The demonstrators, extremely furious
,destroyed government building. (post nominal
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adjectives are usually preceded by a qualifiers)
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2. Compound adjective: (two or more adj)
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The apartment, cozy and affordable, fits our needs.
3.Uninflected Word
The meeting upstairs is confidential.
4. An adverb:
Women’s issues particularly satisfies her passion.
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Note: having adverb or uninflected modifiers may
cause ambiguity
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My older brother especially likes to go
fishing.
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It has two potential meanings :
My older brother in particular (unlike the
rest of my brothers) likes to go fishing.
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Going fishing is especially what my older
brother likes.
5. Noun phrase:
 My work this time is completely different.
 My vacation last summer was fascinated.
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6.prepositional phrasel adjective.
 Millicent searched for the owner of the
shop.
 I saw a boy with a red wagon.
7. participle -ing
 The guy holding the books is my colleague.
 The girl giggling is a dear friend
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8. Participle –ed:
He refused to pay the money demanded.
Diana driven by her passion to langs joined the college of
Translation.
The Military court ,setup under emergency laws , sentenced the
suspects to death.
9. Infinitive phrase:
I have issues to investigate/ he has many books to read.
10 . Relative Clauses
The person who broke the window ran away.
Relative clauses may begin with: when, where, why , after, before.
They act as adverbial in the relative clause.
The apartment where he lives is so coasty.
We found where she lives. ( subordinate conjunction: nominal DO)
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See pp.259-262
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Note:The relative has function within its own clause.
 The adjective clause:
 The function of the pronoun who:
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Restrictive relative clauses: it limits or restricts the
substantive which it modifies and hence is essential for
identifying the substantive. Punctuation is not desirable:
 E.g
The repairman found the tube which was bad.
 The girl whom you saw in the yard is my sister.
 We hunted the spot where I caught the fish
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Non restrictive Adjective clauses:
 Gives added information about the
substantive, hence it’s set off by comma
punctuation.
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My father , who recently retired ,sold his
business.
Practical hints
That clause is always restrictive
 After a personal or geographical names
the clause is usually non restrictive.
 Birmingham, where my friend lives, has an
eye –catching nature.
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The appositive adjectival:
Is a noun or noun phrase that follows the
noun .it has the same referents of the
preceding noun.
 He enjoyed his hobby, geography.
 Beckham, a famous footballer, held a press
conference.
 Arab news, my favorite newspaper, has
been classified among the best selling
newspapers.
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Types of appositives
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Two types ( restrictive-non restrictive) can
be distinguished using stress. with
restrictive there is no juncture between the
noun and its following noun.
He saw Hamlet, a play of Shakespeare.
 Next week they will present the play
Hamlet.
 See your book:pp.267-268
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The Verb phrase
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There are different types of verb’s modifiers:
1.prepositional phrase adverbial.
The car slid into the garage.
Harry at that time was stuyding
chemisry.(before the verb)
Harry was at that time studying chemistry.(
between aux and m.verb)
He killed the man with a pistol. (after the
DO)
2.Noun phrase Adverbials;
 We will assign them new tasks next time.
 He worked on his assignment the whole
day.
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3. Clause adverbials: after, although, , once
,since,as, as if…... (subordinating conjunctions) .They
have no function in the sentence. They are
sentence modifiers if a parted from the sentence
by comma. They are verb modifiers if no commas
used.
4. Infinitive phrase adverbial :
 He works to succeed. ( why did he work ?)
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He wants to succeed.( what does he
want)
Ambiguous structure
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He killed the man with a pistol.
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The car slid into the garage with its head
lights on.
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See pp.269-275