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Hans51 Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
Modifying of Relative Clauses
Although this is not a new question, I would like to hear opinions from as many native English speakers as possible.
I have learned that relative clauses modify only the head of noun phrases and I totally agree on this.
A smart man who is a teacher
'who' modifies just 'man'.
And then I was wondering if if I thought that 'who is a teacher modifies 'a smart man', could there be a meaning difference?
And problems are two-noun nouns like convenience store, book store, etc.
I have learned that relative clauses modify convenience store, not store because it is a two-noun noun.
And then can we never think that relative clauses modify store and convenience modifies store respectively?
And if I thought like that, could there be a meaning difference?
I think that there is no meaning difference either way if it is possible.
What do you native English speakers think?
Thank you all so much and I hope this is clear and not annoying.
I have learned that relative clauses modify only the head of noun phrases and I totally agree on this.
A smart man who is a teacher
'who' modifies just 'man'.
And then I was wondering if if I thought that 'who is a teacher modifies 'a smart man', could there be a meaning difference?
And problems are two-noun nouns like convenience store, book store, etc.
I have learned that relative clauses modify convenience store, not store because it is a two-noun noun.
And then can we never think that relative clauses modify store and convenience modifies store respectively?
And if I thought like that, could there be a meaning difference?
I think that there is no meaning difference either way if it is possible.
What do you native English speakers think?
Thank you all so much and I hope this is clear and not annoying.
Top answer
Hans51 And then I was wondering if if I thought that 'who is a teacher modifies 'a smart man', could there be a meaning difference? No. At least I can't think of any examples where the meaning would change depending on how you thought the sentence should be analyzed.
- Hans51 And then I was wondering if if I thought that 'who is a teacher modifies 'a smart man', could there be a meaning difference?
- No.
- At least I can't think of any examples where the meaning would change depending on how you thought the sentence should be analyzed.
- For example, the sentence The cat is on the mat has the same meaning even if I think wrongly that 'cat' is a verb and 'mat' is an adjective.
- Hans51 I have learned that relative clauses modify convenience store, not store because it is a two-noun noun.
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2 Answers
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Hans51And then I was wondering if if I thought that 'who is a teacher modifies 'a smart man', could there be a meaning difference?No. At least I can't think of any examples where the meaning would change depending on how you thought the sentence should be analyzed. For example, the sentence The cat is on the mat has the same meaning even if I think wr
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Hans51I have learned that relative clauses modify convenience store, not store because it is a two-nounWhat does a relative clause have to do with the noun phrase "convenience store" itself?
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