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d. Premodifiers of the English Noun Phrase
The most common premodifiers are Ns and ADJs. In this section, the premodifiers of ENPs are described as follows.
1. Nominal Premodifier
The first premodifier of an ENP is Ns. Radford 1988 calls this type of modifiers as nominal premodifiers or prenominal modifiers. Almost the same as
postnominal modifiers, prenominal modifiers have two functions, namely attributes and complements. The structural properties of NPs modified by nominal
premodifiers consist of determiners, attributes, and complements. Radford 1988 describes the functions of these three different structural properties of
premodifiers as: determiners expand N-bar into N-double bar
attributes expand N-bar into N-bar complements expand N into N-bar pp. 196-197
Because complements expand an N into N-bar, it comes closer to the noun head than attributes Radford, 1988, p. 214. The structure is written as Attributes +
Complements + Noun Head. Attributes in the premodifier function the same as adjuncts in the postmodifier. To analyse the distinction between attributes and
complements, example 15a is presented. 15.a a [high quality] [Physics] student
The phrase can be paraphrased into two parts by postmodifiers, as in 15b. 15.b 1. a student of Physics
2. a student with high quality or completely interpreted as:
29 15.c a student of Physics who has high quality
The phrase in 15b.1 has a clausal construction as shown in 15.d. 15.d 1. He is a student of Physics
2. He is studying Physics. „Physics‟ becomes the complement of the verb study; it specifies what the student
is studying. So, the PP „of physics‟ is the complement of the noun head „student‟.
Different from the PP „of Physics‟, the PP „with high quality‟ cannot be a
complement of the verb „study‟. If the PP „with high quality‟ functions as a
complement, the sentence becomes ungrammatical. 16.e 1. He is a student with high quality.
2. He is studying high quality. The PP
„with high quality‟ is an adjunct in the postmodifier; it gives additional information that the student happens to have high quality. Based on the analysis, it
can be concluded that the N „Physics‟ functions as a complement, but the NP
„high quality‟ becomes an attribute in the premodifier. Since adjuncts can be stacked on top of each other, attributes can be the
same. 16.f a high quality middle class student
However, complements cannot be stacked. 16.g a Physics Mathematics student
Complements can only be coordinated with complements by a conjunction, as shown in 16h.
16.h some Physics and Mathematics students
30 An N-bar can be replaced by the pro-N-bar, one, as shown in the NPs consisting
of Attribute + Head. 16.i 1. Which student? The high quality one.
2. Which high quality student? This one. However, in Complement + Head, the proformed one can only occur as 16j.1.
16.j 1. Which Physics student? That one. 2. Which student? The Physics one.
In addition, Radford 1988 explains that prenominal NPs have close
relation to postnominal PPs p. 204. Postnominal PP complements in 1 have prenominal NP complement counterparts as shown in the examples 2.
16.k 1. the ban on pornography 2. the pornography ban
16.l 1. damage to the brain 2. brain damage
Radford, 1988, p. 204-205 The relation also occurs between postnominal PP adjuncts and prenominal NP
attributes. It is presented below. 16.m 1. the shop on the corner
2. the corner shop 16.n 1. the bridge over the river
2. the river bridge Radford, 1988, p. 205
In addition to nominal premodifiers and postmodifiers, Radford 1988 states that they have an important difference. The NP in the postmodifier can be
positioned to precede the head in the premodifier, as shown in 16o. 16.o 1. a lover of classical music
2. a classical music lover Radford, 1988, p. 207
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