Nouns

To begin our discussion, we must first establish the notion of a noun.

English teachers commonly identify nouns by their content. They describe nouns as words that
"identify people, places, or things," as well as feelings or ideas—words like salesman , farm ,
balcony , bicycle , and trust. If you can usually put the word a or the before a word, it’s a noun.
If you can make the word plural or singular, it's a noun. But don't worry...all that is needed at the
moment is a sense of what a noun might be.

Noun Pre-Modifiers

What if a single noun isn't specific enough for our purposes? How then do we modify a noun
to construct a more specific reference?

English places modifiers before a noun. Here we indicate the noun that is at the center of a
noun phrase by an asterisk (*) and modifiers by arrows pointed toward the noun they modify.

white house

large man

Modification is a somewhat technical term in linguistics. It does not mean to change something,
as when we "modify" a car or dress. To modify means to limit, restrict, characterize, or otherwise
focus meaning. We use this meaning throughout the discussion here.

Modifiers before the noun are called pre-modifiers. All of the pre-modifiers that are present and the
noun together form a noun phrase .

NOUN PHRASE

pre-modifiers noun

By contrast, languages such as Spanish and French place modifiers after the noun

casa blanca white house

homme grand big man

 *

The most common pre-modifiers are adjectives, such as red , long , hot . Other types of words
often play this same role. Not only articles

the water

but also verbs

running water

and possessive pronouns

her thoughts

pre-modifiers limit the reference in a wide variety of ways.

Order: second, last

Location: kitchen, westerly

Source or Origin: Canadian

Color: red, dark

Smell: acrid, scented

Material: metal, oak

Size: large, 5-inch

Weight: heavy

Luster: shiny, dull

A number of pre-modifiers must appear first if they appear at all.

Specification: a, the, every

Designation: this, that, those, these

 Ownership/Possessive: my, your, its, their, Mary’s

Number: one, many

These words typically signal the beginning of a noun phrase.

Some noun phrases are short:

the table

 *

Some are long:

the second shiny red Swedish touring sedan

a large smelly red Irish setter

my carved green Venetian glass salad bowl

the three old Democratic legislators

Notice that each construction would function as a single unit within a sentence. (We offer a test
for this below,)

The noun phrase is the most common unit in English sentences. That prevalence can be seen in
the following excerpt from an example from the section on the choice of language:

The stock market’s summer swoon turned into a dramatic rout

Monday as the Dow Jones industrial average plunged.

The stock market’s summer swoon turned into a dramatic rout

* *

Monday as the Dow Jones industrial average plunged.

* *

To appreciate the rich possibilities of pre-modifiers, you have only to see how much you can
expand a premodifier in a noun phrase:
the book
the history book
the American history book
the illustrated American history book
the recent illustrated American history book
the recent controversial illustrated American history book
the recent controversial illustrated leather bound American history book

Noun Post-Modifiers

We were all taught about pre -modifiers: adjectives appearing before a noun in school.
Teachers rarely speak as much about adding words after the initial reference. Just as we find
pre -modifiers, we also find post -modifiers—modifiers coming after a noun.

The most common post-modifiers are prepositional phrases:

the book on the table

civil conflict in Africa

the Senate of the United States

Post-modifiers can be short

a dream deferred

or long, as in Martin Luther King Jr.’s reference to

a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves

and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together

at a table of brotherhood.
What does King have? A dream? No. He has a specific dream. Once we are sensitive to the
existence of noun phrases, we recognize a relatively simple structure to the sentence. Here we
recognize a noun phrase with a very long post-modifier—thirty-two words to be exact.

We do not get lost in the flow of words, but recognize structure. At the point that we recognize structure
within the sentence, we recognize meaning. (Notice also that post-modifiers often include clauses which
themselves include complete sentences, as in the last example above.)

Post-modifiers commonly answer the traditional news reporting questions of who , what , where
, when , how , or why . Noun post-modifiers commonly take the following forms:

prepositional phrase the dog in the store

_ing phrase the girl running to the store

_ed past tense the man wanted by the police

wh - clauses the house where I was born

that/which clauses the thought that I had yesterday

If you see a preposition, wh - word ( which, who, when where ), -ing verb form, or that or which after a
noun, you can suspect a post-modifier and the completion of a noun phrase.

The noun together with all pre- and post-modifiers constitutes a single unit, a noun phrase that
indicates the complete reference. Any agreement in terms of singular/plural is with the noun at
the center.

The boys on top of the house are .............

Here the noun at the center of the noun phrase is plural, so a plural form of the verb is called for
(not a singular form to agree with the singular house) .
Boxes Within Boxes: Testing for a Complete Noun Phrase

The goal of reading, we noted above, is not to recognize grammatical features, but to find
meaning. The goal is not to break a sentence or part of a sentence into as small pieces as
possible, but to break it into chunks in such a way that fosters the discovery of meaning.

Consider one of the examples above of a prepositional phrase as a post-modifier:

the book on the table

Book is a noun at the center of the noun phrase. But table is also a noun. If we analyze the
noun phrase completely, on all levels, we find:

the book on the table

on the table

 *

We can have prepositional phrase within prepositional phrase within prepositional phrases:

…the book on the table in the kitchen…

on the table in the kitchen…

in the kitchen …

We don't want to recognize every little noun phrase. We want to recognize the larger ones that
shape the meaning. The book is not "on the table." The book is "on the table in the kitchen."

The Senate of the United States is composed of two legislators from each State.

Question: Who is in the Senate?

a) two legislators

b) two legislators from each State?

The answer is b). The full Senate consists of two from each state (100 people), not simply two!
We read the sentence as

The Senate of the United States is composed of

two legislators from each State.

If we read the sentence as

The Senate of the United States

is composed of two legislators

from each State.

we miss the meaning.

Earlier we noted that pre -modifiers in noun phrase can be expanded to significant length. For
the most part, we increased the length of the pre-modifier by adding additional adjectives, a word
or two at a time. Noun phrase post -modifiers can be expanded to much greater lengths. We
can add long phrases which themselves contain complete sentences.

the park where I hit a home run when I was in the ninth grade .

The sentence within the post-modifier is printed in boldface.

The following sentence indicates something was lost. What was lost?

He lost the book by Mark Twain about the Mississippi that he took out of the library on
Sunday before the game so that he could study during half time when his brother was
getting popcorn.

The answer is the complete phrase

……… the book by Mark Twain about the Mississippi that he took out of the library on
Sunday before the game so that he could study during half time when his brother was
getting popcorn.

The base term book is modified as to author (Mark Twain), topic (about the Mississippi), as well
as intent or purpose (that he took out of the library on Sunday before the game so that he could
study during half time when his brother was getting popcorn.) We assume that he has another
book by Twain about the Mississippi that he did not lose. Want proof? What would be
replaced by “it”?
The full reference of a noun phrase is often “conveniently” ignored in movie advertisements.
Janet Maslin, movie critic for The New York Times , complained when an advertisement for the
video tape of John Grisham’s "The Rainmaker" quoted her as describing the movie as director
Francis Ford Coppola’s “best and sharpest film,” when, in fact, her review stated:

John Grisham’s "The Rainmaker" is Mr. Coppola’s best and sharpest film in years. (1)

The original quotation does not refer to the “best and sharpest film” of Coppola’s career, but to his “best
and sharpest film in years.”

What is the difference between noun clause and adjective clause?

now, i am understand that

(A) Tom (who is my friend) is handsome.

friend=noun, so this (A) is noun clause, right?

(B) Tom (who is handsome) is my friend.

handsome=adjective, so B is adjcetive clause, right?

Adjective clauses are subordinate clauses that have a subject and a predicate, and they act as
adjectives, meaning they modify nouns.
Example: In the above sentence, meaning they modify nouns is an adjective clause modifying the
noun adjectives.

Adverb clauses are subordinate clauses that act as adverbs, meaning they modify verbs,
adjectives, or other adverbs.
Example: "Because they are adverb clauses, they can modify a lot of things.
In the above sentence, Because they are adverb clauses is an adverb clause modifying the verb
phrase can modify.

Noun clauses are subordinate clauses that act as nouns. Noun clauses can function as subjects,
direct objects, indirect objects, objects of the preposition, or predicate nominatives.
Example: Whoever owns the red car just got arrested.
In the above sentence, Whoever owns the red car is a noun clause acting as the subject. If I were
to take that noun clause out, the independent clause would no longer have a subject, and it would
be just a lonely fragment.

Noun clauses are completely necessary in a sentence. Adjective and adverb clauses can be taken
out of the sentence without changing the sentence's meaning.
Adjective Clauses
See The Sentence for definitions of sentence, clause, and dependent clause.

A sentence which contains just one clause is called a simple sentence.

A sentence which contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses is
called a complex sentence. (Dependent clauses are also called subordinate clauses.)

There are three basic types of dependent clauses: adjective clauses, adverb clauses, and noun
clauses. (Adjective clauses are also called relative clauses.)

This page contains information about adjective clauses. Also see Adverb Clauses and Noun
Clauses.

A. Adjective clauses perform the same function in sentences that adjectives do: they modify
nouns.

The teacher has a car. (Car is a noun.)

It’s a new car. (New is an adjective which modifies car.)

The car that she is driving is not hers.

(That she is driving is an adjective clause which modifies car. It’s a clause because it has a
subject (she) and a predicate (is driving); it’s an adjective clause because it modifies a noun.)

Note that adjectives usually precede the nouns they modify; adjective clauses always follow
the nouns they modify.

Adjective Clauses are introduced by the following words: who, whom, whose, which,
that, where, or when.

Clause Use Example

Marker
Who People The tribes who lived in the Great Plains used
smoke signals.
(subject)
Whom People The woman whom we met was called Lightning
Cloud.
(object)
Whose People/Things I know the man whose bicycle was stolen.
(possessive)
Which Things That is a story which interests me. (subject)
(subject/object) The drumbeats which we heard sent a message.
(object)
That People/Things The Apache is a tribe that lives in Arizona.
(subject)
(subject/object) The smoke that you see is from the hills. (object)
Where Place That is the valley where the tribe lived.
(adverb)
When Time This is the day when we get the signal.
(adverb)

The subject pronoun and the be form of the verb are omitted.

 Clause: The man who is playing is my friend.

 Phrase: The man playing is my friend.

 Clause: The signals, which are given, are simple.

 Phrase: The signals given are simple.

2. When there is no form of be in the adjective clause, you may omit the subject
pronoun and change the verb to the “–ing” form.

 Clause: Anyone who wants to get the news can listen to the message.
 Phrase: Anyone wanting to get the news can listen to the message.

 Clause: His alphabet, which consists of 85 sounds, was an important invention

for his people.
 Phrase: His alphabet, consisting of 85 sounds, was an important invention for his
people.
 could not answer the question (which) you asked. (Here the relative pronoun which can
be omitted.)
I have read all the books (which) you gave me.
The plan (which) I proposed was accepted by all.
That is the reason (why) he does not want to come here.
Adjective Clauses – Their Use in Complex Sentences:

Adjective clauses always modify the noun in the main clause of a complex
sentence. For example, look at the following sentences:

The car, which she is driving, runs on electricity.

The adjective clause, “which she is driving,” modifies the noun “car”.

A woman, who was wearing a fancy red dress, red shoes and red handbag,
sang on the street and greeted by-passers.

The adjective clause, "who was wearing a fancy red dress, red shoes and
read handbag" modifies the noun "woman".

On my vacation, which is only one-week, I will keep my cell phone turned

off. The adjective clause, "which is only one-week", modifies the noun
"vacation".

This book on Middle East that my friend recommended is the best. The
adjective clause, "that my friend recommended", modifies the noun "book".

The doctor that my boyfriend recommended was caring and friendly. The
adjective clause, "that my boyfriend recommended", modifies the noun
"boyfriend".

Relative Pronouns Act as Subordinators in Adjective Clauses:

Subordinators for adjective clauses are always relative pronouns. Relative

pronouns include the words: who, whom, that, known as clause modifiers.

The relative pronoun 'whom' substitutes for nouns and pronouns that relate
to people; 'which' modifies nouns animals and things.

'When', 'whose' and 'where' are also relative pronouns. Use 'when' for time;
'where' for place; 'whose' for the possessive form of nouns and pronouns.

"She called me when I was in the middle of a conference."

"I finally remembered where I parked my car." ('where' substitutes for a

place)
"I found a dog on the street yesterday whose owner I found out later."
('whose' substitutes for the possessive pronoun 'his' or 'her')

Types of Adjective Clauses

There are two types of adjective clauses:

 Restrictive adjective clause provides information necessary for

identifying the noun it modifies and it's never separated by commas.
The following sentence demonstrates this point:

"People who can’t sing should not try out for the choir." The
restrictive clause: "who can’t sing"

"Women who are independent have better relationships with men."

The restrictive clause: "who are independent"

"Consumer prefer cars that are small and fuel-efficient." The

restrictive clause: "that are small and fuel-efficient"

 Non-restrictive adjective clause. It adds additional information not

necessarily essential to the noun it modifies. It's separated with
commas from the main clause.The relative pronoun "that" is never
used in a non-restrictive adjective clause. Examples:

"Linda, who could’t swim, should not have jumped into the lake."

non-restrictive clause: "who couldn't’t swim"

"The applicant, who did well on the first interview, was rescheduled
for a second one."

non-restrictive clause: " who did well on the first interview"

"The laptop, which is only $300, has high ratings."

non-restrictive clause: "which is only $300