Complement vs modifier
a linguistics student
a first-year student
Here, both 'linguistics' and 'first-year' are nouns that describe the type of 'student', but 'linguistics' is a complement of the noun 'student', whereas 'first-year' is a modifier of the noun 'student'.
How do you determine the former is a complement and the latter is a modifier?
Also, in the following examples, are the underlined words complements or modifiers?
a college student
a police station
a tax bill
Top answer
e. "a student of linguistics", where "linguistics" is clearly complement of the preposition "of". In [2], "first-year" is a modifier since there's no corresponding preposition phrase where "first-year" can be a complement - you can't say *"a student of first-year".
- e.
- "a student of linguistics", where "linguistics" is clearly complement of the preposition "of".
- In [2], "first-year" is a modifier since there's no corresponding preposition phrase where "first-year" can be a complement - you can't say *"a student of first-year".
- Further, "first-year" identifies/describes a property of "student".
- Now you try the others!
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[1] a linguistics student
[2] a first-year student
In [1] "linguistics" is a complement because it can be paraphrased with a preposition, i.e. "a student of linguistics", where "linguistics" is clearly complement of the preposition "of".
In [2], "first-year" is a modifier since there's no corresponding preposition phrase where "first-year" can be a complement -
0So where are your attempts at the other three?
Btw, I noticed that you asked this same question on other forums.
0The following link (from English Grammar Today) has some useful information about dependent words in a noun phrase, including complements and modifiers. I hope it will be of help to you.
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