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Cup cake Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Curly adjectives

Hi Everyone,

I'm writing a sentence and wondering how far you can stretch an adjective. Here is a sentence:

'I have to feed the next-door neighbour's fish while they are away on holidays.'

Is it correct that 'next-door neighbour' are all adjectives describing the fish?

Thanks and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
CC Emotion: smile
  

Top answer

" A determiner is a class of noun modifier. So is an adjective. By the way, the sentence as written has a humorous antecedent problem.

— AlpheccaStars

  • " A determiner is a class of noun modifier.
  • So is an adjective.
  • By the way, the sentence as written has a humorous antecedent problem.
  • They = the fish.
  • Do these fish travel on holidays?
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12 Answers
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next door (modifies "neighbor")
neighbor's (this is a possessive noun, meaning that they own the fish.)

In grammatical terms, possessive pronouns and nouns are called "determiners."
A determiner is a class of noun modifier. So is an adjective.

By the way, the sentence as written has a humorous antecedent problem. They = the fish.
Do these fish travel on holidays? An
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Thanks AlpheccaStars. Emotion: wink

Lol, I can see what you mean about the sentence meaning. I think I'll change it now that you've poin
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Another issue is that "neighbour's" (singular) does not match "they" (plural). This makes it easier to interpret "they" as referring to the fish.
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That's a good point GPY.

Neighbours should mean 'the household', and therefore more than one person. Whoops, maybe I should've written,

'I have to feed the next-door neighbours' fish while they are away on holidays.'

Is this right?
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Cup cake'I have to feed the next-door neighbours' fish while they are away on holidays.'Is this right?
Yes, if you mean more than one person.
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AlpheccaStarsA determiner is a class of noun modifier.
I'm not so sure about that. According to Huddleston (Introduction to the Grammar of English), a determiner is a separate kind of thing; it's not subsumed under the category of modifier:

NP - noun phrase
Possible "dependents" in the NP - determiner, modifier. (A PossP can be a determine
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Cup cake'I have to feed the next-door neighbours' fish while they are away on holidays.'Is this right?
I forgot to mention ... In British English, "away on holidays" is wrong. It should be "away on holiday" or "away on their holidays". However since neither AS nor CJ has mentioned this, I imagine "away on holidays" is OK in AmE.
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GPYI imagine "away on holidays" is OK in AmE.
Who knows? My brain automatically converts all that "holiday" talk to American "vacation" without even thinking about it. I'd say "on vacation" and I don't know what the British would say, so I remain silent on the subject. I depend on you to correct it if it's wrong.
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Oh yes, you're right GPY.

I'll come back after I've absorbed CJ's post. I'm off shopping for a bit.

I just LOVE this microscopic analysis of English. What better way to 'brush up', or learn.

For anyone who wants a challenge - this is it!

Michael Jackson's famous last words (so to speak.)
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