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Descriptive grammar year 2

Lecture 18: Restrictive and non-

restrictive modifiers in NPs

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Restictiveness and non-

restrictiveness

• (1)

The new laptop is more reliable than the old

one.

[restrictive]

• (2)

John’s wonderful mother

.

[non-restrictive]

• (Non-)Restrictive modification: probably

universal.

• Not overtly marked by syntax or morphology

• Can sometimes be marked by prosody in

speech and punctuation in writing.

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Order of elements in NP structure

• Pre-determiner + central determiner +

post-determiner + pre-modifiers + head N
+ post-determiners

• (3)

All those three grossly over-rewarded

financial advisers in the city too

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Pre-head modifiers within a NP

DETERMINERS

• closed class items

which define and
select the referent

• obligatory (but there

are exceptions)

• limited in number

PRE-MODIFIERS

• describes or classifies

the referent by means
of open-class items
(mainly Adjs and N)

• optional

• unlimited in number

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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The adjectival modifier

• The Adj ascribes:

– objective quality

(e.g.

a square box, a round table

)

or

– subjective quality

(the speaker’s or writer’s attitude

towards the referent:

good, bad, stupid

, etc.)

• Objective qualities are related to some cultural

norm,

• but some “objective” qualities are culture-

specific.

2

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Ordering of pre-modifiers

• constrained by rules:

– Violations – ungrammaticality:

the unicorn vs.

*unicorn the

• or tendencies (the preferred order):

– Changes – questionable acceptability or a changed

information structure.

• ENG: AdjPs + head N, but with exceptions

(minor rules necessitating a post-nominal
position of some AdjPs).

• PL: AdjP can either precede or follow the head:

literatura polska = polska literatura

.

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Pre-modification: exceptions

• (I) Adjectives of foreign (mainly French)

origin – in the post-nominal position:

– court martial, Lord Spiritual, attorney general

,

(4)

He was court-martialled

.

• (II) NP headed by an indefinite pronoun –

the modifying Adj must follow the head:

– (5)

something strange

,

anything unusual,

everything available, someone musical,
anybody attractive, anyone interested

,

nothing

exciting,

etc.

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Pre-modification: exceptions

• (III) Adj modified by a PP – the AdjP must

be head-first.

• Effect on the positioning of such AdjPs

within NPs:

– only

head-final

AdjPs can

pre-modify

nouns,

– only

head-first

AdjPs can only be in

post-

modification

.

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Pre-modification: exceptions

• (6)

(a) proud parents

(b) *proud of their

child parents

(c) parents proud of their

child

• (7)

(a) easy answers

(b) *easy for us to

give answers

(c) answers easy for us to

give

• (8)

(a) a pleasant discovery

(b) *a pleasant

for me discovery

(c) a discovery pleasant

for me

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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A sequence of pre-modifiers

• A sequence of AdjP modifiers:

– ENG: only in pre-modification

– PL: either in pre- or post-modification

• Evaluative + General property + Age +

Colour + Provenance + Manufacture +
Type

• (9)

An [attractive tight-fitting brand-new

pink Italian lycra women’s] swimsuit

3

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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A sequence of pre-modifiers

• Evaluative Adjs: speaker’s evaluation:

good,

bad, annoying, attractive, boring, despicable,
excellent, ghastly, mind-numbing, oppressive,
perfect, revolting, tasty, valuable

, etc.

• General property Adjs: objective properties:

size (

big, small

), dimension (

long, tall, short,

wide, narrow, fat, thin

), sound (

loud, faint

),

touch, (

rough, smooth

), taste (

sweet, sour

). Also:

ear-splitting, enormous, foul-smelling, inaudible,
miniscule, obese, tight-fitting, vast

. Human

properties:

cruel, intelligent, irascible, jealous,

kind, pompous, rude, snooty, wise

.

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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A sequence of pre-modifiers

• Age Adjs:

old, new, young, ancient, brand-new,

modern, up-to-date

, etc.

• Colour modifiers:

black, white, red

,

crimson,

vermilion, carmine, blue-green, powder-blue

.

• Provenance modifiers: typically nationality

Adjs:

French, Italian, Chinese

, etc. or other

geographical and politico-geographical proper
nouns, e.g.

Queensland

in

an old Queensland

sofa

.

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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A sequence of pre-modifiers

• Manufacture modifiers: adjectival, e.g.

wooden, woolen

, but are typically nouns:

cotton,

iron, jade, nylon, polyester, satin, wood, wool,

participles:

carved, enamelled

, and genitive

proper nouns:

a delicious Sainsbury’s pie

.

• Type modifiers: mainly nouns:

fancy-dress

costume, photograph album, dessert spoon, lap-
top computer, passenger aircraft, winter
overcoat

, genitive nouns:

men’s department,

women’s clothes, children’s disease

, Adjs:

digestive biscuit

.

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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A sequence of pre-modifiers

• Any changes to the

default ordering of
modifiers change the
meaning of the NP:

• (10)

her recent clever

move

[recently she made

a clever move]

• (11)

her clever recent

move

[she did something

recently and it was clever
of her

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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A sequence of pre-modifiers:

interpretation

• First interpret the first Adj closest to the

head N,

• then add the meaning of the Adj preceding

the first AdjP, then the next, etc.

• (12)

his precious old prints

[old prints are

precious]

• (13)

his old precious prints

[precious

prints are old and not new]

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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AdjPs in both pre- and post-

modification

• Prenominal placement:

AdjPs which express a

permanent quality of the head N,

• Postnominal placement:

AdjPs which express a

temporary quality of the head N.

• (14) (a)

Noun modification is an involved problem

. [a

complex problem]

• (b)

Could you deal with the problems involved?

[connected with the matter in hand]

• (15) (a)

There was a concerned look in his face

.

[worried, permanent quality]

• (b)

Please talk to the students concerned

. [temporary

quality]

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Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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AdjPs in both pre- and post-

modification

• (16) (a)

The present social security system

needs reforming

. [existing, current; permanent

quality]

• (b)

There was a nice round of applause from the

people present

. [in attendance, temporary

quality]

• (17) (a)

Those over 25 are believed to be

responsible individuals

. [serious, dependable,

permanent quality]

• (b)

The individuals responsible were over the

age of 25

. [answerable, temporary quality]

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Coordinated AdjPs: can be rearranged

with no change in meaning

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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The PP modifier

• A PP modifier: placed

after

the head N, because

a PP is always head-first

(head P +

complement).

• More than one PP in the NP: the PP closest to

the head N is interpreted first, then the next PP
following the first one, etc.

• (19) (a)

the student in the front row with the blue

rucksack

(‘this student in the front row who has a

rucksack’)

• (b)

the student with the blue rucksack in the front

row

(‘this student has a rucksack who is in the

front row’)

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Ordering of post-modifiers and

complements

• (20) light dependents > heavy dependents

– End-weight principle

• (21) (a)

the rumour

in the tabloid press

that

income tax would be cut

. [PP + content clause]

• (b)

?the rumour that income tax would be cut

in

the tabloid press

.

• (22) (a)

the rumour that income tax would be cut

which was published in ‘The Times’

• (b)

the rumour

which was published in ‘The

Times’

that income tax would be cut

Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Interpretation of Ns with both pre-

and post-modifiers

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Descriptive grammar 18, year 2

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Interpretation of Ns with both pre-

and post-modifiers

• Interpretation (a):

the [mysterious

[shape in the

corner]

]

• head N modified first by the PP, then the

interpretation of the AdjP is added: ‘there is a
shape in the corner and it is mysterious’.

• Interpretation (b):

the [

[mysterious shape]

in the

corner]

• head N modified first by the AdjP, then the

meaning of the PP is added: ‘the mysterious
shape is in the corner (and other shapes are not
mysterious)’.