Watch out for post-modifiers in English!
by Alistair
Across all languages in the world, modifiers--that is, words or phrases that add extra description and information to other elements--can be located in two positions: before the element being modified, or after the element being modified.
When a modifier is positioned before the element being modified, linguists call it a “pre-modifier.” When it is positioned after the element being modified, linguists call it a “post-modifier.”
An example of a modifier is an adjective (and, by extension, an adjective phrase). An adjective modifies (i.e. adds extra description or information to) a noun or noun phrase.
All languages in the world have adjectives and adjective phrases. However, because different languages in the world are bound by their own grammars, adjectives in different languages are also restricted by different rules, such as rules for their location.
How do English and Cantonese differ in terms of the location of their adjectives?
In English, adjectives can be both pre-modifiers or post-modifiers, but in Cantonese and other Chinese languages, adjectives are always pre-modifiers.
Because Chinese does not have post-modifiers, Chinese speakers learning English as a target language would easily make mistakes when analyzing or producing post-modifiers in English, especially if they are not cognizant of this difference between adjectives in the two languages.
If Chinese speakers understood that Chinese adjectives can only be pre-modifiers, while English adjectives can be both pre- and post-modifiers, it would be easier for them to produce English adjectives accurately.
What does it mean that Chinese adjectives can only be pre-modifiers?
It means that adjectives in Chinese are always positioned before the noun or noun phrase modified. It For example:
- 黑色(嘅)袋
- 喺床上面嘅袋
- 跌緊落地嘅袋
- 我琴日買嘅袋
These examples above represent different types of adjectives. For example, “黑色嘅" is a simple adjective describing the “new” quality of “袋”; “喺床上面嘅" is an adjective describing its location; and “我琴日買嘅" includes a whole action with another subject “我" as the description, but all of these adjectives share the common characteristic of coming before the noun “袋.” In other words, they are all pre-modifiers.
If we rewrite these same adjectives in English, however, only the first one would be a pre-modifier, while all the other ones would be post-modifiers:
- the black bag (vs. 黑色嘅袋)
- the bag on the bed (vs. 喺床上面號袋)
- the bag falling on the ground (vs. 跌緊落地嘅袋)
- the bag that I bought yesterday (vs. 我琴日買嘅袋)
In English, words that themselves act as adjectives are usually pre-modifiers. That is why the first adjective, “black,” is in front of the noun “bag.”
However, as we can see, other types of adjective phrases in English are post-modifiers. In these examples, the prepositional phrase “on the bed,” the participle phrase “falling on the ground,” and the relative clause “that I bought yesterday,” which all act as adjectives to the noun “bag” as in the Chinese, all come after the noun “bag.”
Speakers of Chinese should be aware of this difference between the positioning of adjectives in Chinese and English and pay special attention to post-modifying adjectives in English—that is, anything other than single-word adjectives.
Other articles in the “Characteristics of English” section explore the different types of adjectives in English we discussed in this article.
注意英文的「後置修飾語」
— Alistair
修飾語（modifier）是指那些為其他元素添加額外描述和信息的單字或詞組。在世界上的所有語言中，修飾語都不外乎會在它修飾的元素的前方或後方出現。
一個位於它修飾的元素前方的修飾語，語言學家稱之為「pre-modifier」（前置修飾語）; 而在它修飾的元素後方的，則稱為「post-modifier」（後置修飾語）。
「形容詞」（adjective）（及形容詞組）是修飾語的一種，作用是修飾名詞或名詞組（為名詞添加額外的描述或信息）。
所有語言都擁有形容詞及形容詞組。不過，由於每種語言均受各自的文法所規範，形容詞也會被不同的規則約束，當中包括它們擺放位置的規則。
那麼，英文和廣東話的形容詞在擺放位置上有甚麼不同？
英文的形容詞或形容詞組，有「pre-modifier」亦有「post-modifier」，但廣東話及其他中文語系語言的形容詞或形容詞組，卻只有「pre-modifier」。
因為中文沒有「post-modifier」，中文母語人士學習英文時，如果沒意識到兩種語言在形容詞位置上的差異，便很容易在分析或運用「post-modifier」的時候違反英文文法。
相反，他們若明白中文形容詞只會是「pre-modifier」，但英文形容詞卻既會有「pre-modifier」，也有「post-modifier」，他們便能更準確地使用英文形容詞了。
我們說中文的形容詞只會是「pre-modifier」，這又是甚麼意思？
意思是，中文的形容詞只會在它修飾的名詞或名詞組前面出現。例如:
- 黑色（嘅）袋
- 喺床上面嘅袋
- 跌緊落地嘅袋
- 我琴日買嘅袋
以上是不同種類形容詞的例子：「黑色（嘅）」描述「袋」的表面特徵；「喺床上面嘅」是描述位置的形容詞；「我琴日買嘅」是包含另一個主語「我」及其完整行動的一組形容詞。四組形容詞都出現在名詞「袋」的前面，因此都屬於「pre-modifier」。
但如果把它們寫成英文的話，卻只有第一個例子的翻譯是「pre-modifier」，其餘兩個都會是「post-modifier」:
- the black bag (vs. 黑色嘅袋)
- the bag on the bed (vs. 喺床上面號袋)
- the bag falling on the ground (vs. 跌緊落地嘅袋)
- the bag that I bought yesterday (vs. 我琴日買嘅袋)
如果一個英文單字的詞類本身就是個形容詞，那麼它大多會是「pre-modifier」，也因此上述第一個形容詞「black」會出現在名詞「袋」的前面。
但正如大家所見，英文其他種類的形容詞都是「post-modifier」。上述例子中，用以形容名詞「bag」的介詞組（prepositional phrase）「on the bed」、分詞組（participle phrase）「falling on the ground」、及關係子句（relative clause）「that I bought yesterday」，通通都它們修飾的名詞「bag」的後面出現，作出修飾。
母語為中文的人士需明白中文和英文形容詞在出現位置上的差別，並要特別注意英文中那些屬於「post-modifier」的形容詞，即所有非單字形容詞的情況。
我們會在《英文的特徵》部分的另一篇文章中，探討更多於此篇中提及過的各種英文形容詞。