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Inlinguistics, amodifier is an optional element inphrase structure orclause structure[1] whichmodifies the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, theadjective "red" acts as a modifier in thenoun phrase "red ball", providing extra details about which particular ball is being referred to. Similarly, theadverb "quickly" acts as a modifier in the verbphrase "run quickly". Modification can be considered a high-level domain of the functions of language, on par withpredication andreference.[2]
Modifiers may come either before or after the modified element (thehead), depending on the type of modifier and the rules ofsyntax for the language in question. A modifier placed before the head is called apremodifier; one placed after the head is called apostmodifier.For example, inland mines, the wordland is a premodifier ofmines, whereas in the phrasemines in wartime, the phrasein wartime is a postmodifier ofmines. A head may have a number of modifiers, and these may include both premodifiers and postmodifiers. For example:
In this noun phrase,man is the head,nice andtall are premodifiers, andfrom Canada andwhom you met are postmodifiers.
In English, simple adjectives are usually used as premodifiers, with occasional exceptions such asgalore (which always appears after the noun, coming fromIrish in which most adjectives are postmodifiers) or the adjectivesimmemorial andmartial in the phrasestime immemorial andcourt martial (the latter comes fromFrench, where most adjectives are postmodifiers). Sometimes placement of the adjective after the noun entails a change of meaning: comparea responsible person andthe person responsible, orthe proper town (the appropriate town) andthe town proper (the area of the town as properly defined).
In English (and other languages) a modifier can be separated from its head by other modifiers, making the phrasediscontinuous, as inThe man here whom you bumped into in the street yesterday, where the relative clausewhom...yesterday is separated from the word it modifies (man) by the modifierhere. In some other languages, words other than modifiers may occur in between; this type of situation is especially likely in languages withfree word order, and often agreement between the grammatical gender, number or other feature of the modifier and its head is used to indicate the relationship. In English, modifiers may sometimes even be interposed between component words or syllables of the head, such as insplit infinitives (to boldly go) orinfixation, most commonlyexpletive infixation (in-fucking-credible).[3]
Two commonparts of speech used for modification areadjectives (andadjectival phrases andadjectival clauses), which modify nouns; andadverbs (andadverbial phrases andadverbial 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 usedattributively, but not when used predicatively – compare the examples with the adjectivered at the start of this article.
Another type of modifier in some languages, including English, is thenoun adjunct, which is a noun modifying another noun (or occasionally another part of speech). An example island in the phraseland mines given above.
Examples of the above types of modifiers, in English, are given below.
In some cases, noun phrases orquantifiers can act as modifiers:
Modifiers of all types of forms may be used for certain function with differentsemantic features. The grammar of a language determines which morpho-syntactic forms are used for which function, as it varies from language to language. The functions of modification can be grouped into five such types:[2]
Sometimes it is not clear which element of the sentence a modifier is intended to modify. In many cases this is not important, but in some cases it can lead to genuineambiguity. For example:
Here the participial phrasesitting on the step may be intended to modifyher (meaning that the painting's subject was sitting on the step), or it may be intended to modify the verb phrasepainted her or the whole clausehe painted her (or justhe), meaning in effect that it was the painter who was sitting on the step.
Sometimes the element which the modifier is intended to modify does not in fact appear in the sentence, or is not in an appropriate position to be associated with that modifier. This is often considered a grammatical or stylistic error. For example:
Here whoever was "walking along the road" is not mentioned in the sentence, so the modifier (walking along the road) has nothing to modify, excepta vulture, which is clearly not the intention. Such a case is called a "dangling modifier", or more specifically, in the common case where (as here) the modifier is a participial phrase, a "dangling participle".
