Modifiers - I Flashcards
What are modifiers?
Modifiers provide additional information about other entities(modified entities) in a sentence. They can be a single word, a phrase, or a clause
- The abandoned car was sent to the scrap recycling plant :- Abandoned is the modifier modifying car(Single word modifier)
- The car abandoned near the church was sent to the scrap recycling plant:- abandoned near the church (phrase modifier)
- The car that was abandoned near the church was sent to the scrap recycling plant:- that was abandoned near the church (clause modifier)
What is wrong with the below sentence?
Driven by anger, there was a heated argument
Even though the sentence contains a subject and a verb and is gramatically correct it is incomplete from the meaning standpoint. We have an opening modifier “Driven by anger’ but we do not have a modified entity that is being modified so the sentence is incorrect
A modifier should always refer to a particular modified entity
What is wrong with the below sentence?
I once had shoes with laces that were red in color
In this sentence “that” could refer to either laces or shoes i.e. either of them could be red in color. So the sentence is ambiguous in that regard. To make it unambiguous we should be repeating the noun that is red in color
What are different types of modifiers?
- Modifies nouns but not verbs
- Modifies verbs but not nouns
- Modifies either nouns or verbs
What are types of modifiers that modify only nouns?
- -ed Verbals
- Noun phrase
- Relative pronoun clause
- One-word adjectives
- The car abandoned near the church was sent to the scrap recycling plant (-ed Verbal)
- Soft paraffin, a by-product of petroleum refining, is well known for its healing properties (Noun phrase)
- The car that was abandoned near the church was sent to the scrap recycling plant (Relative pronoun clause)
- Marie lives in the blue house across the street
PS all noun modifiers follow the proximity rule that is they are placed as close as possible to the noun
What are types of modifiers that modify only verbs?
These tell us about Why, When, Where, and How
- To Verbal - They give information about why did the action happen
- Adverbs - They modify verbs and not nouns
What is wrong with the below sentence?
Genetics can tell us when the Iberians males vanished 300 years earlier, but not why that didn’t happen
If you read the sentence for meaning the sentence does not make sense as the first part tells us that it happened and the second part questions why it didn’t happen. So either it happened or not, the issue is because the modifier “300 years earlier” should be placed close to the modified entity “why that didn’t happen “
What are common reasons for errors in modifiers?
- Incorrect modifier used
- Incorrect placement of the modifier
- Incorrect construction of the modifier/modified entity
What modifier error is present in the below sentence?
Alice fell from the stairs while rushing to the playground which caused injury to her leg
In this sentence, we have “Incorrect modifier used” error.
We are using “which” to modify the verb “fall”. The correct way to write the sentence is
“Alice fell from the stairs while rushing to the playground, a fall caused injury to her leg”
What modifier error is present in the below sentence?
Archaeologists believe mercury buried in ancient rock provides the strongest evidence of many species on land and in water that volcanoes caused the biggest mass extinctions
We have an error with “incorrect placement of the modifier”
Notice how that refers to water, making the modifier position incorrect as it is not water that caused extinctions
What are all of the relative pronouns?
- Who - Used of people
- Which - Used of things
- That - Used of things
- Whom - Used of people (in object form)
- Whose - Used of people/thing
- When - Used of time
- Where - Only used of places
How to identify between usage of Who vs Whom?
Who: Always acts as a subject
Whom: Won’t act as a subject
- The CEO met the businessmen who are to invest in the company
Ask the question “Who are to invest in the company” - Answer: Businessmen, Now what does who refers to businessmen - hence the usage of who is correct
The CEO met the businessman from whom the company will receive investments
Ask the question: “Who will receive the investment?”
Answer: The company but whom now does not refer to the company hence usage is correct, had it refer to company we should have used who
What entities prepositional modifiers are modifying in the below sentence?
The increase in prices of essential commodity has left the poor people in a plight incomparable to any experienced earlier
As prepositional phrases can modify both noun or a pronoun.
in prices of essential commodity - Increase (Noun modifier)
in a plight incomparable - left (Verb modifier) left where?
What is the role played by -ed verbal?
They always modify the noun entity
Construction 1
Subject + -ed Verbal + Verb
Pavlo Simola remembered most for his stone sculptures , created many masterpeices but none as famous as the painting popularly called The China Tree
- remembered most for his stone sculptures - Modifies Subject
Construction 2
-ed Verbal + Subject + Verb
Remembered most for his scriptures, Pavlo Simola created many masterpeices but none as famous as the painting popularly called The China Tree
Construction 3
Subject + Verb + noun + -ed Verbal
The 18th century dramatist wrote tragedies aimed at catering to the opulent elites
aimed at catering to the opulent elites - modifer
tragedies - Modified entity
Observe the below sentence
The movie earned millions produced and directed by Martin, within the first week of its release
As we have seen in above constructions -ed Verbal modifies the closest noun entity, the sentence here “produced and directed by” is modifying million which is illogical, so we need to place the modifier at appropriate place that is near the noun movie
