Modifiers are words or phrases used to limit the focus of a noun. Noun phrases rely on modifiers to distinguish a particular noun from others of the same type. For example, in the sentence "The coat on the stairs is my brother's," the phrases "on the stairs" and "my brother's" modify the basic noun "coat." Descriptive terms that appear before the noun are known as premodifiers, while successive terms are post-modifiers. Modifiers can assume various forms, such as adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, infinitive phrases, clauses and even other nouns. In the previous example, the phrase "the coat on the stairs" is prepositional and the phrase "my brother's" consists of possessive adjectives.
Noun phrases are frequently used in colloquial language to convey spatial, numerical, physical, temporal and definitive details or demonstrate possessiveness. Consider these lines from a popular nursery rhyme: "Mary had a little lamb. It's fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go." "Little lamb" and "white as snow" are short noun phrases that use simple adjectives to define the lamb's physical appearance. The next line begins with the prepositional noun phrase "everywhere that Mary went," which defines the location with the spatial adverb "everywhere." The final noun phrase, "the lamb was sure to go," is presented as a deconstructed infinitive phrase. As an infinitive, it denotes the lamb's action through the root verb "to go," but also completes the previous prepositional phrase describing where the animal has gone. When you speak or write, you automatically arrange multiple noun phrases to complement one another and build upon a basic idea with more absolute details.
Modifiers that appear separately in a sentence can make up a discontinuous noun phrase. In such cases, the most essential modifiers are typically placed at the end of a sentence for emphasis. The following sentence offers an example: "[A new biography] was released [that tells the true story of Benjamin Franklin's inventions]." The bracketed sections identify the discontinued noun phrase. Although the sentence construction remains correct when the sections are joined, dividing the phrase ensures that the most memorable information in the sentence is the last element the reader sees. However, it is important to avoid confusion as a result of overlapping multiple segments of a discontinuous noun phrase, as in the following sentence. "[Ten sources] have been cited [from the essay] [that have reputable credentials] [that are listed on the suggested bibliography]."
Noun phrases are frequently found in complex sentences where parenthetical interruptions are used to incorporate supplementary information. For instance, participle-based sentences incorporate noun phrases as past or present verbal descriptions: "Sarah's nose, [broken after a childhood accident], was never reset properly." In appositive statements, noun phrases re-identify or re-address the subject or object, as in the following nursery rhyme: "Peter, Peter, [pumpkin eater], had a wife and couldn't keep her."
The uses of noun phrases are unlimited and understanding how to arrange them in sentence can improve your composition skills. When working with noun phrases, always check that each modifier clearly relates back to the target noun without losing proper sentence structure.