THE STRUCTURE OF

NP,ADJP,ADVP, AND PP
WEEK 13

MODIFIERS

Noun Phrases as Noun Phrase

- are defined as phrasesModifiers
that consist of a noun including pronouns and
any determinatives, modifiers, and complements such as adjectives,
determiners, verbs, prepositions, and clauses.

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Please keep the bathroom door shut.
• Which hotel room are you staying in?
• The new table legs are made out of oak.
• We just bought a new dining room table.

Adjective Phrases as Noun Phrase

Modifiers
- are defined as phrases that consist of an adjective and any modifiers
such as adverbs and prepositions.

• That little girl prefers the purple blanket.

• Your mom makes the most mild, tasteless chili.
• My favorite fall treat is a big cup of hot apple cider.
• The very scary dog barked at somebody special.

Prepositional Phrases as Noun Phrase

Modifiers
- are defined as phrases formed by a preposition followed by a
prepositional complement.

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The man in the yellow hat owns a pet monkey.
That woman with the glasses is my mother.
• My dog is the puppy behind the fence.
• I enjoy writing articles about English grammar.

Verb Phrases as Noun Phrase Modifiers

- are defined as phrases formed by one or more verbs plus any objects,
modifiers, complements, particles, and infinitive markers such as nouns,
verbs, adverbs, p-words, and prepositions.

• The girl handling students the syllabus is the graduate teaching

assistant.
• The woman now singing loudly had served me my coffee.
• The cake eaten by the dog was for my grandfather.
• He stores the paintings to display in the front closet.

Adjective Clauses as Noun Phrase

Modifiers
- are defined as subordinate clauses that consist of a clause usually
beginning with a relative pronoun. Adjective clauses are also referred to
as relative clauses.

• The book that I found in the stacks had been marked as missing.
• Do you know the little boy who left his coat in the park?
• My grandfather is the man to whom my grandmother pledged her
love.
• The reason why he forgot his pants is rather amusing.

CLAUSES

NOUN A noun clause functions as a noun in a sentence.

It follows a linking or copular verb to describe
CLAUSE or modify the subject of the sentence.
Unlike noun phrases, noun clauses contain both
a subject and a verb.

● Do you know what time it is?

● Tom can invite whomever he chooses.
● I don’t understand what you’re talking
about.
● Whether Roman accepts the job or not is
his business.

NOUN A noun clause functions as a noun in a sentence. It follows a

linking or copular verb to describe or modify the subject of the

CLAUSE sentence. Unlike noun phrases, noun clauses contain both a

subject and a verb.

● Do you know it?

● Tom can invite her.
● I don’t understand him.
● It is his business.

If you can successfully replace the clause with a pronoun,

you’ve found a noun clause. However, these sentences are
much less interesting and detailed than the original versions.
Noun clauses are important when making a sentence
understandable.

Because noun clauses can appear almost anywhere in

How to Spot a a sentence, they can be tricky to spot. One of the
easiest ways to spot a noun clause is to look for these
Noun Clause words:

● how

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● that
● what
● whatever
● when
● where
● whether
● which
● whichever
● who
● whoever

Clauses Make
Sentences
Interesting
They are great additions to a
sentence when you want to
provide more information and
vary your sentence structure.

- a type of clause that gives information about

ADJECTIVE the noun or pronoun that it modifies.
- will generally start off with words like who, whom,
CLAUSE whose, when, where, which, that, and why.
- is always a dependent clause, which means that by
itself it would not form a complete sentence.

Examples:
1. Jacob is the one whose father manages the car
dealership.
2. Ashley went to the gym where she takes karate
lessons.

An adverb clause is a group of words that function as an adverb in a

sentence. The clause can modify or describe verbs, adverbs,

ADVERB and adjectives. In general, adverb clauses add information that elaborates
on when, where, why, how, how much or under what condition the action

CLAUSE
in the sentence takes place. An adverb clause also begins with
a subordinating conjunction, such as "after," "if," "because" and "although.
“

(at the beginning of a sentence)

● Whether you like it or not, you have to go to bed now.
● If you pay your bills on time, you can have a good credit score.
(in the middle of a sentence)
● My sister, when she is angry, will turn red in the face.
● Elephants, although they are large, are not predators.
(at the end of a sentence)
● Marty kept his schedule open in case his wife went into labor.
● You must keep practicing the song until you get it right.

A prepositional phrase is a group of words consisting of a preposition,

PREPOSITIONAL
its object, and any words that modify the object. Most of the time, a
prepositional phrase modifies a verb or a noun. These two kinds of
prepositional phrases are called adverbial phrases and adjectival

CLAUSE phrases, respectively. When a prepositional phrase acts upon a noun,

we say it is behaving adjectivally because adjectives modify nouns. A
prepositional phrase that behaves adjectivally is called, quite logically,
an adjectival phrase.

Examples:
1. The cat in the middle is the cutest.
2. I always buy my milk from the convenience store on Main Street .
3. My mother has always wanted to live in a cabin by the lake .

RELATIVE
PRONOUNS
A relative pronoun is a word that introduces a dependent (or relative) clause and connects it to an
independent clause. A clause beginning with a relative pronoun is poised to answer questions
such as Which one? How many? or What kind? Who, whom, what, which, and that are
all relative pronouns.

● Who: Refers to a person (as the verb’s subject)

● Whom: Refers to a person (as the verb’s object)
● Which: Refers to an animal or thing
● What: Refers to a nonliving thing
● That: Refers to a person, animal, or thing

Examples:
● The woman who came to the door left flowers for you.
● I am not sure whom this book belongs to.
● Interpretative dance, which I find a bit disconcerting, is all the rage.
● Is this what you were talking about?
● She finally visited the coffee shop that had such great reviews

POSSESSIVE
RELATIVE
PRONOUNS

It surprises some people to learn that both who and which can take the
possessive form whose. Some will argue that of which is a better
construction when talking about things rather than people, but this results in
unnecessary awkwardness. The truth is that whose has been widely and
correctly applied to nonhumans for hundreds of years.

● She apologized to the boy whose glasses got broken.

● The house whose owner is on vacation has an unsightly garden.
● The house, the owner of which is on vacation, has an unsightly garden.
(This is correct but cumbersome.)

COMPOUND
RELATIVE
PRONOUNS

The term compound relative pronoun sounds complex, but it really isn’t.
Simply put, compound relative pronouns apply universally to a number of
people or things. They include whoever, whomever,
whichever, and whatever.

● Please tell whoever may call that I am not available.

● Whomever you hire will be fine with me.
● Whichever train you take from here, you will end at Charing Cross
station.
● Carly will be successful at whatever she chooses to do in life.

RESTRICTIVE
CLAUSES

Restrictive clauses are usually introduced by the relative pronouns that, who, whom, or whose.
A restrictive clause can have an identifying function.

● The astronaut who first stepped on the moon was Neil Armstrong.

The restrictive clause in this sentence is who first stepped on the moon. If we stripped it from the
sentence, we would be left with this:

● The astronaut was Neil Armstrong.

There is nothing grammatically wrong with this Spartan sentence. However, it does not have the same
intent as the former example, which was to identify the person who first set foot on the moon’s
surface.

A restrictive clause can also have a limiting function.

● Children who eat vegetables are likely to be healthy.

If the restrictive clause who eat vegetables were removed from this
sentence, the intended limits on the noun children would be no more.

● Children are likely to be healthy.

Obviously, our intention with the first sentence was to point out which
children, from among the world’s multitudes, perform a behavior likely to
sustain their health. Thus, who eat vegetables is an essential element of that
sentence.

NON-
RESTRICTIVE
CLAUSES

Nonrestrictive clauses provide additional but optional descriptions that can

be excised from a sentence without altering its meaning or structure.

● Kaylee, who just graduated from high school, is an accomplished figure

skater.

While the nonrestrictive clause who just graduated from high school offers
a good description of the subject of this sentence, Kaylee, the sentence
retains its meaning without it.

● Kaylee is an accomplished figure skater.

Nonrestrictive clauses provide additional but optional descriptions that can

be excised from a sentence without altering its meaning or structure.

● Kaylee, who just graduated from high school, is an accomplished figure

skater.

While the nonrestrictive clause who just graduated from high school offers
a good description of the subject of this sentence, Kaylee, the sentence
retains its meaning without it.

● Kaylee is an accomplished figure skater.

THAT’S ALL!

Thanks!
Do you have any questions?

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