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Very Gently Very Gentle Even More Right Up The Tree

A clause modifier is a clause that provides additional information about another element. A clause contains a subject and verb. Modifiers can be words, phrases, or entire clauses that describe or define the meaning of another element. Common modifiers in English include adverbs and adjectives, but other constituents like noun phrases and prepositional phrases can also act as modifiers. Modifiers can precede or follow the element they modify.

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Michelle Pascua
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16 views

Very Gently Very Gentle Even More Right Up The Tree

A clause modifier is a clause that provides additional information about another element. A clause contains a subject and verb. Modifiers can be words, phrases, or entire clauses that describe or define the meaning of another element. Common modifiers in English include adverbs and adjectives, but other constituents like noun phrases and prepositional phrases can also act as modifiers. Modifiers can precede or follow the element they modify.

Uploaded by

Michelle Pascua
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A clause modifier is simply a clause that modifies something.

A clause is a sentence with at least a subject and a verb, for instance "I went to school". Now if we want to turn this clause into a modifier, we simply let it modify the meaning of something, for instance the phrase "I had breakfast":

I had breakfast before I went to school.

In grammar, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure;[1] the removal of the modifier typically doesn't affect the grammaticality of the construction. A modifier can be a word, a phrase or an entire clause. Semantically, modifiers describe and provide more accurate definitional meaning for another element. In English, adverbs and adjectives prototypically function as modifiers, but they also have other functions. Moreover, other constituents can function as modifiers as the following examples show (the modifiers are in bold): [Put it gently in the drawer]. (adverb in verb phrase)

She set it down [very gently]. (adverb in adverb phrase) He was [very gentle]. (adverb in adjective phrase)
[Even more] people were there. (adverb in determiner phrase)

It ran [right up the tree]. (adverb in prepositional phrase) It was [a nice house]. (adjective in noun phrase) His desk was in [the faculty office]. (noun in noun phrase)
[The swiftly flowing waters] carried it away. (verb phrase in noun phrase)

I saw [the man whom we met yesterday]. (clause in noun phrase) She's [the woman with the hat]. (preposition phrase in noun phrase) It's not [that important]. (determiner in adjective phrase)
[A few more] workers are needed. (determiner in determiner phrase)

We've already [gone twelve miles]. (noun phrase in verb phrase) She's [two inches taller than me]. (noun phrase in verb adjective phrase)

A premodifier is a modifier placed before the head (the modified component). A postmodifier is a modifier placed after the head, for example:

land mines (pre-modifier) mines in wartime (post-modifier) time immemorial (post-modifier)

A few adjectives, borrowed from French, may be postmodifiers, generally with a change in meaning from their premodifier use. An example isproper:

They live in a proper town (in a real town) They live in the proper town (in the town that's right for them) They live in the town proper (in the town itself)

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