Adjective Phrase

Question

Please give some examples of adjective phrases and tell me what is the adjective phrase in the following sentence.Without a friend to counsel him, he found the temptation irresistible.GB

Inchoateknowledge · Accepted Answer

Without a friend to counsel him, he found the temptation irresistible.

It is an adverbial phrase

I saw him being upset

non-finite adjective phrase

Grammarian-bot · Answer

InchoateknowledgeWithout a friend to counsel him, he found the temptation irresistible.

It is an adverbial phrase

I saw him being upset

non-finite adjective phrase

I took this example from William Strunk, Jr. Elements of Style.

http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk.html#7
It says Participial phrases preceded by a conjunction or by a preposition, nouns in apposition, adjectives, and adjective phrases come under the same rule if they begin the sentence.

Well I am not concerned with what it says but I want to know what actually adjective phrases are.
GB

Inchoateknowledge · Answer

Hi,

Without a friend to counsel him, he found the temptation irresistible.
GB

the adverb phrase in the above sentence modifies the verb: found.

Adjectival phrases (have a an adjective as its head) do the work of an adjective: modify a (pro)noun, but not a verb.

Grammarian-bot · Answer

InchoateknowledgeAdjectival phrases (have a an adjective as its head) do the work of an adjective: modify a (pro)noun, but not a verb.

Then why they haven't mentioned adverb phrase. They have specifically pointed out just four situations. But whatever the case is, is it required to start a main clause with a subject when that clause is being preceded by an adverb phrase.
GB

Anonymous · Answer

0 to consuel him0-

Dawnstorm · Answer

0 They can't really mention adverb-phrases, here, as it would be hard to justify that they should refer to the "grammatical subject"; they refer to the "grammatical predicate".02br
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00Looking at function, I can see the phrase as both an "adjective phrase" and as an "adverbial phrase". I'm confused about Strunk's terminology, anyway. Participle phrases, persumably, are participle phrases because they have a participle as their head. But, if Strunk considers "without a friend to counsel him" an adjective phrase, apparantly it's not because the phrase is headed by an adjective. If "without a friend to counsel him" is an adjective phrase, then only because (in Strunk's opinion) it functions as an adjective. But then the participle phrases in his examples would also be "adjective phrases". 02br
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00So, what is Strunk really saying? "Any phrase that modifies a noun and comes at the beginning of a sentence must modify the grammatical subject?" Put like that, he'd have to defend his rule for the example you give against people who consider the "without"-phrase adverbial in function (i.e. the phrase modifies the verb, not the noun; consider: "(Because he was) without a friend to counsel him, the temptation proved too strong.").02br
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00In other words, Strunk must call "without a friend to counsel him" an adjective phrase, or he his rule doesn't necessarily apply. Rhetorics aimed at students, not terminology to help think about language.0-

Anonymous · Answer

please answer these:
the girls_______were cheering for their team

Adjective Phrase

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