The Pre-modifiers are the words or phrases that do the function of describing head nouns in a noun phrase. These can be put into two categories, i.e. internal modifiers and external modifiers. In case they are internal pre-head modifiers, they occur closely before the head noun in the form of single adjectives or adjective phrases. When they are external modifiers in an NP they are distant from head nominal. The details of these categories are as follows.
1. Internal Pre-modifiers
Commonly, an internal pre-modifier is an adjective or adjective phrase e.g., an excellent book, a very important issue. In addition to adjectives, nouns can also function as internal pre-modifiers to a head noun e.g., a marriage ceremony, the health department, etc. Internal pre-modifiers may be single adjectives, adjective phrases, single nouns or noun phrases which occur before the head noun in a noun phrase. For example:
- I wish you a nice day!
- My new computer is very costly.
- I spent a very happy life when I stayed in Ginza.
- I like that big, black car.
When single words, phrases, and clauses act as a noun, i.e. they stay as subject, object, object of preposition etc., they are called nominals. In case nouns are inside the nominals, they are termed as internal modifiers. When these modifiers precede the head of the NP, they are called internal pre-modifiers.
Pre-modifiers can be of various categories. These categories have been highlighted in the following table.
| Adjectives | Determiners | Nominals | Participials |
| a loyal friend, this latest news, some very regular workers, | another three cases, the more than twelve cases | a plastic sheet, high density fluid, a United States university, | the rejected candidate, a laughing doll, a newly purchased car, |
The words in bold are pre-modifiers and their category is marked by the respective boxes of the table.
1.1 Limiters
Certain limiters (i.e., modifiers) may precede the determiners e.g., all the people, both the teachers, too small a house for a family of five. We need to note that adverbs can also occur in this position but not after the determiner in a noun phrase. For example, certainly the last chance, but not *a certainly last chance. After the determiner we need an adjective, as last is present in the foregoing example.
1.2 Preferences in the relative order of internal pre-modifiers
The writers observe preferences in connection with the relative order of modifiers, especially among pre-modifiers. For example, a tall green tree will be preferred in comparison to a green tall tree. The reason of this preference seems that the adjective marking scalable characteristics are put first and the ones that mark fixed characteristics are put second. Further, numeral modifiers precede adjectives such as five wooden tables. However, the reverse order may occur in some constructions, for example, memorable three years of my life.
1.3 Use of multiple pre-modifying nouns
Multiple pre-modifying nouns can stay before head noun in a noun phrase (e.g., food products shop, sea shore conditions, cancer hospital report, etc.).
1.4 Nouns as pre-modifiers
The function of pre-modifying noun is to specify particular aspects or features of head noun such as type, material, etc. Further, the nouns that do the function of pre-modifiers are singular even when the head noun is plural. For example:
- Two bird cages are on the roof top.
- I purchased three cotton shirts from the market.
The pre-modifying nouns that indicate time or measurement stay in singular form even when their meaning is plural. For example:
- We reached Bejing after a six-hour flight.
- They intended to have a five-day tour of Murree Hills.
- A two-liter bottle of milk will suffice for today.
1.5 Meaning relationship between pre-modifying noun and the head noun
The pre-modifying nouns may be title nouns and place nouns, e.g., Doctor Raheel in which Raheel is a person who is a doctor. Similarly, Jallo Park is a park located in Jallo. The characteristic of these title and place nouns is that these express consistently a single meaning relationship to the head noun. The same characteristic is not consistently carried by the concrete/tangible nouns used as pre-modifiers shown in the following categories.
(1) head noun is composed of pre-modifying noun, e.g. plastic furniture, cotton shirt, clay pots, etc.
(2) head noun comes out of the pre-modifying noun, e.g. milk powder, mango juice, spring water, etc.
(3) head noun serves as location for pre-modifying noun, e.g., fruit market, coffee house, desert animals, etc.
(4) head noun specializing in pre-modifying noun, e.g. mountain climbers, sea captains, etc. (5) head noun is used for/with the pre-modifier noun, e.g., farm house, town hall, cannon ball, etc.
1.6 Additional meaning relationships commonly expressed by NN sequence
A number of possible meaning relationships are associated within a range of pre-modifying nouns.
(1) head noun, a person belonging to the institution indicated by the pre-modifying noun, e.g. committee member, law officer, etc.
(2) head noun as an inanimate entity associated with and identified by pre-modifying noun, e.g., state assembly, International Monetary Fund, etc.
(3) head noun in the form of a text about the topic identified in pre-modifying noun, e.g. research presentation, disease history, sports magazine, etc.
(4) head noun is a person or institution that regulates or administers pre-modifying noun, e.g. awards committee, price commission, safety measures, etc.
(5) head noun stays as an institution whose function is to obtain information about the pre-modifying noun, e.g. emergency department, information agency, news bureau, etc. (6) head noun does the role of an inanimate entity which regulates or administers the pre-modifying noun, e.g. monetary fund, water treaty, monopoly act, etc.
2. External Pre-Modifiers
External modifiers in an NP are the ones that are distant from head nominal. These modifiers have a number of subtypes which are highly restricted as far as the range of expressions are permissible. For example:
- First type of these modifiers occur in quantification expressions before various determiners. For example: all the people, both his hands, twice the amount I was anticipating.
- The second type of these modifiers is that occur only before the indefinite article a(n). Further, these modifiers are either adjectives or adjective phrases. For example: such a nice performance, too hard an exercise, so difficult a task.
- The third type is in which modifiers do not ask for the presence of a determiner. For example, even the experienced scholars, only a doctor, the boss alone, even Shafiq, Shakeela herself
3. The Fused-head Modifiers
Mostly the head element remains distinct from the dependents in NPs and is represented by a noun. However, another construction is possible where the head noun stays combined or fused with a dependent element (usually determiner or an internal modifier). It means, a single words plays the role of a determiner or modifier and the head also. This combination is termed as fused-head modifier.
There are three kinds of fused-head whose examples and explanation are as follows:
3.1 Simple fused-head
- We have lots of option, but our opponent doesn’t seem to have [any].
The fused head can be expanded into an ordinary NP with a separate head. The separate head can be retrieved from the context, i.e. we can put any options in place of any.
3.2 Partitive fused-head
a. Some of his observations were quite eye-opening. [explicit]
b. I have two cars, but [both] are out of order. [implicit]
Partitive fused-head helps the writer to suggest that a part is being denoted instead of the whole thing. When we employ an explicit partitive, a partitive PP complement precedes the fused head such as of his observations in the example given above. The NP some of his observations is partitive in the meaning that it denotes a subset of the set comprising his observations. It means some observations of his total observations. The utility of this construction is that we cannot expand the fused construction into a construction with a separate head, for example: *some observations of his observations.
When we employ an implicit partitive, the of the complement is understood and is not overtly expressed. In the example (b), both is understood as both of them, i.e. ‘both of the cars’.
3.3 Special
a. [Many] would become ready to travel with you to a health resort.
In this subtype, many (i.e. fused head) represents many people. This fused head provides a special interpretation of many as many people because neither the surrounding text nor the situation of the utterance furnish the concept of people.
On the whole, this post has presented information about the function of internal and external modifiers in a noun clause. The function of these components of a noun phrase is to specify definiteness, quantity, or what the head noun possesses. Further, it has also been shown how modifiers are sequenced in a noun phrase along with the preference in sequence. Lastly, fused-head construction of modifiers has been dealt with as well. The information about internal and external modifiers in this post is crucial for writers as it can help them enhance their advanced writing capability.
Sources Consulted
- Biber and Gray (2011)
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org
- Huddleston and Pullum (2007)
- Payne, T. E (2010)
