21 · Phrases
Modifiers after the head
A word or phrase after a noun can remain inside the noun phrase and describe or identify that noun. This job is called postmodifier. In the key to the cabinets, the prepositional phrase to the cabinets postmodifies key.
The singular head key requires is; cabinets is inside its postmodifier.
The plural head keys requires are; cabinet is inside its postmodifier.
The whole noun phrase is the subject, but the finite verb agrees with its head, not with the nearest noun. The contrast shows the PP inside the subject noun phrase. It does not make agreement a general test for a postmodifier: agreement is visible only when that noun phrase is a finite-clause subject.
Trace the phrase back to its parent
- Find the likely noun head and mark the complete phrase after it.
- Ask whether that phrase helps pick out the noun and is contained in the noun phrase, or whether it instead describes the event.
- If the noun phrase is the subject, use agreement as an additional check on the head.
A PP after a noun can attach to the verb instead, and the same words can sometimes allow both readings. Removal can reveal a smaller noun phrase, but it does not settle every modifier–complement distinction.
Postmodifier names a job, not a kind of phrase.
A prepositional phrase after the noun and a clause after the noun can do the same job. What makes them postmodifiers is their relationship to the noun they follow, not the kind of phrase they are.
Ten sentences from this lesson, one decision at a time.