Noun phrases

Postmodification

We can make a sentence more complex by putting more information into it. Here are four simple sentences:

• This painting represents women. (noun)
• The women are ancestral. (adjective)
• The women are of this particular tribe. (preposition phrase)
• The women are sitting in the shade of a tree. (participle clause)

All this information can be contained in one sentence. For example:

This painting represents	ancestral	women	of this particular tribe	sitting in the shade of a tree.
	Adjective	Noun	Preposition phrase	Participle clause

We cannot change the order of these elements.

• This painting represents ancestral women sitting in the shade of a tree of this particular tribe.
• This painting represents women ancestral of this particular tribe sitting in the shade of a tree.

To show another example, look at these sentences:

• Sarathbabu was inspired by his mother. (participle clause)
• His mother worked very hard. (adverb)
• Sarathbabu was inspired by his mother while he was growing up. (preposition phrase)
• He grew up in a tiny thatch-roofed hut. (preposition phrase)
• He was surrounded by poverty while growing up. (participle clause)
• Sarathbabu dreams of creating employment and enabling people to fend for themselves. (clause)

All this information can be packed into the following sentence:

Inspired by his hard-working mother while growing up in a tiny thatch-roofed hut and surrounded by poverty, Sarathbabu now dreams of creating employment and enabling over 100,000 people in India to fend for themselves.