Grammatical Modifier - Types of Modifiers

Types of Modifiers

The two principal types of modifiers are adjectives (and adjectival phrases and adjectival clauses), which modify nouns; and adverbs (and adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses), which modify other parts of speech, particularly verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, as well as whole phrases or clauses. (Not all adjectives and adverbs are necessarily modifiers, however; an adjective will normally be considered a modifier when used attributively, but not when used predicatively – compare the examples with the adjective red at the start of this article.)

Another type of modifier in some languages, including English, is the noun adjunct, which is a noun modifying another noun (or occasionally another part of speech). An example is land in the phrase land mines given above.

Examples of the above types of modifiers, in English, are given below.

• It was . (adjective modifying a noun, in a noun phrase)
• carried it away. (adjectival phrase, in this case a participial phrase, modifying a noun in a noun phrase)
• She's . (adjectival phrase, in this case a prepositional phrase, modifying a noun in a noun phrase)
• I saw . (adjectival clause, in this case a relative clause, modifying a noun in a noun phrase)
• His desk was in . (noun adjunct modiying a noun in a noun phrase)
• . (adverb in verb phrase)
• He was . (adverb in adjective phrase)
• She set it down . (adverb in adverb phrase)
• people were there. (adverb modifying a determiner)
• It ran . (adverb modifying a prepositional phrase)
• was saved. (adverb modifying a noun phrase)

In some cases, noun phrases or quantifiers can act as modifiers:

• workers are needed. (quantifier modifying a determiner)
• She's . (noun phrase modifying an adjective)