Complex Noun Phrases: Authentic Text Examples
Understanding complex noun phrases with examples from real texts
This page contains 24 interactive animations showing various types of complex noun phrases taken from authentic texts. By clicking on an animation the user can cycle through each component of each complex noun phrase example to see detailed explanations of each component of the noun phrase. These components are premodifiers and postmodifiers in the form of adjectives, nouns, prepositional phrases, relative clauses, ing-clauses, ed-clauses, to-clauses, appositive noun phrases, and noun complement clauses. For each example there is a link to the original source for the user to see the example in its original context.
Most academic or journalistic texts are quite dense with complex noun phrases. The reason for this is that they can present a lot of information in a few words. The examples shown in previous pages were chosen from real texts but each one was chosen to exemplify one particular aspect of noun phrase modification. The following examples are also from real texts, but they have been chosen to show how various types of noun modification are commonly used in such texts. Each example demonstrates more than one type of modification (both premodificationA word or phrase which gives further information about another word or phrase and placed before the head. and postmodificationA word or phrase which gives further information about another word or phrase and placed after the head.).
Each example highlights various aspects of noun phrase modification along with an explanation. Click in each textbox to start and to cycle through each animation.
Example 1
Premodification: adjective
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ing-clause
Source
Example 2
Premodification: noun, adjective
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ed-clause
Source
Example 3
Premodification: adjective, compound noun
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ing-clause, appositive noun phrase, to-clause
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Example 4
Premodification: adjective
Postmodification: prepositional phrase
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Example 5
Postmodification: relative clause
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Example 6
Postmodification: relative clause
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Example 7
Premodification: adjective
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ing-clause, appositive noun phrase,
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Example 8
Premodification: adjective
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ing-clause, appositive noun phrase, noun complement clause
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Example 9
Premodification: noun, adjective
Postmodification: ing-clause, relative clause, prepositional phrase
Source
Example 10
Premodification: ed-participle, adjective, ing-participle, noun
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ed-clause
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Example 11
Premodification: ed-participle, adjective, noun
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, relative clause
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Example 12
Premodification: ed-participle, adjective, noun
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ed-clause
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Example 13
Premodification: ed-participle, adjective, ing-participle, noun
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ing-clause
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Example 14
Premodification: adjective
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, appositive noun phrase
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Example 15
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, relative clause, appositive noun phrase
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Example 16
Premodification: adjective, noun
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ed-clause
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Example 17
Premodification: noun
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, to-clause
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Example 18
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ing-clause
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Example 19
Premodification: adjective
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ing-clause, ed-clause
Source
Example 20
Premodification: adjective, noun
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ed-clause, ing-clause
Source
Example 21
Premodification: noun, adjective
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, appositive noun phrase
Source
Example 22
Premodification: noun, adjective
Postmodification: relative clause, prepositional phrase
Source
Example 23
Premodification: adjective, noun ing-participle
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ed-clause
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Example 24
Premodification: determinerA word which is used with a noun and which limits the reference of the noun in a particular way.
Postmodification: prepositional phrase, ing-clause
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