Chapter 2: Noun With Modifier;Identifying

 

A. Identify the noun phrase In the following sentences!

1. The house has a wooden interior door.
2. I went to a local hospital for an MRI.
3. I heard a girl talking about collecting beads
4. I collected loads of nice smooth pebbles.
5. The quote on a magnet on my grandma's refrigerator popped into my thoughts.
6. I knew someone who had a passion from making things out of wood
7. A woman in blue jeans stood at the window of an expensive shop.
8. Little boys who play truant from school have been punished at the field.
9. A public house which was recently bought by Mr. Ian is up for sale.
10. At the station, the boy was warned by a smiling policeman not to sit on the rubbish man.

B. Read the following text! Then underline the noun phrases found in the text!

Fanny Waterman, celebrated piano teacher, co-founder of the Leeds International Piano Competition, draws her pupils from all over the world, and surprisingly does her best to discourage the brilliant ones from becoming concert pianists. She warns them that the life of the concert pianist can be the loneliest in the world.

The music room is the heart of the eight-bedroomed Victorian house in Leeds where she and her husband have lived since 1966. The windows lead out onto the terrace overlooking the lawn. The Steinway piano on the left, from Hamburg, was a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary present from her husband. The other had belonged to a friend. "The Hamburg piano is the workhorse, where all the piano is the workhorse, where all the lessons go on." She has written 22 books on piano playing; the music on the Steinway includes the latest. Next to it are Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas and nearby, Bach's preludes and fugues. 

The ivory figure on the other piano was a gift to her from her father, a designer of jewelry. The vase with the flowers was a present from the young Korean, Ju Hee Suh, who came second in the 1984 Leeds competition. The music stand is Victorian, while the glass dish on the table next to it belonged to the late Lord Boyle, a former Conservative Minister of Education, who became Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University. The photograph on the piano shows her with Rudolf Serkin, the pianist, taken at his summer school in 1981.

Noun Phrase Modifiers: Prepositional Phrase and Adjective Clause

As we know that noun phrase modifiers are defined as words, phrases, and clauses that describe a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase. Although adjectives and adjectives phrases most frequently function to describe nouns, there are five grammatical forms which can perform the grammatical function of noun phrase modifiers. They are:

• Noun phrase, for example, My bathroom door is broken.
• Adjective phrase, for example, The beautiful girl bought a pink bag.
• Verb phrase, for example, The girl singing loudly is my classmate.
• Prepositional phrase, for example, The man in red coat is my uncle.
• Adjective clauses, for example, I met the boy who cried in the park yesterday.

We have discussed kinds of modifiers used in noun phrases in the previous part. Now, we are going to focus on post-modifiers in the form of prepositional phrase and adjective clause. They are the most common post-modifiers.

Modifiers are words, phrases, or clauses that provide description in sentences. Modifiers allow writers to take the picture that they have in their heads and transfer it accurately to the heads of their readers. 

1. Prepositional Phrase (Determiner+ Head + Prepositional Phrase) 

A prepositional phrase is the preposition and the object of the preposition together. Prepositions include direction, place, time, cause, manner, and amount. The following are examples of noun phrases with modifiers in the form of prepositional phrase. ·

a. The bag under the chair is mine.

b. The plant on the window gets a lot of sunlight.

c. The old house between the shops belongs to Mr. Hasan.

d. The meeting at three o'clock was cancelled.

2. Adjective Clause (Determiner+ Head+ Adjective Clause)

An adjective clause is also called a relative clause. A clause is a group of words that has a subject and predicate. There are two kinds of adjective clause: finite and non-finite. Adjective clause can perform as noun phrase modifiers.

a. Finite Adjective Clause

A finite clause may stand alone as a complete sentence. They depend on another clause to have meaning. Finite clauses usually use subordinating conjunctions, such as who, when, what, how, that, since, etc.

The following are examples of noun phrases with modifiers in the form of finite adjective clause.

The boy who is crying is Arya's brother.

A book that you ordered is now available.

The map that I found is expensive.

The shoes which you bought are similar to mine.

b. Non-finite Adjective Clause

A non-finite clause cannot stand on its own, Modifiers in the form of participle phrase and to infinitive belong to non-finite adjective clause. The following are examples of noun phrases with modifiers in the form of non-finite adjective clause. There are three major types· of non-finite post-modifying clauses:

1 ) ing-clauses

Examples:

The girl dancing on the stage is beautiful.

The bird flying into the garden Is Mr. Lukman's.

2) ed-clauses

Examples:

The car parked in the field is new

The pen found by Andi belongs to Anis.

3) to-clauses

Examples:

I don't have a book to read.

I have something to tell you.

Underline the noun phrases and identify the modifiers!

Example:

I want to borrow the magazine which you bought yesterday.  (Prepositional phrase)

1. The newspapers under the table are old.
2. The bicycle falling in the river was taken by Mr. Eric.
3. The young men attending the party are Vika's cousins.
4. We are asked to draw a place where we spent time in our childhood.
5. I was born in a house located in a small village.
6. She had a pair of glasses hidden under her bed.
7. The girls wearing long evening dresses are my mother's friends.
8. There's a car parked in front of our house that I don't recognize.
9. A young man in the brown suit was identified as a suspect,
10. If you really want to obtain success, the first thing you need to do is finding the problem to solve.