POSTMODIFICATION - ALL TYPES

*headwords are in bold, postmodifiers underlined; all NPs with postmodification were analyzed.

1. In Southeast Asia, a region full of young democracies, journalists and press freedom advocates are
alarmed by politicians eager uptake of two cultural memes spawned by the Trump election and
presidency.

Southeast Asia, a region full of young democracies, (NP)

a region full of young democracies (AdjP)
[journalists and press freedom advocates = the subject, no postmodification]
politicians eager uptake of two cultural memes spawned by the Trump election and presidency (PP)
two cultural memes spawned by the Trump election and presidency (V-ed clause)

2. Thus it came about that, three days later, I descended from the train at Styles St. Mary, an absurd
little station, with no apparent reason for existence, perched up in the midst of green fields and
country lanes.

[three days later - not an NP; We could ask How much later? and the answer would be three days.
This means that the noun phrase three days acts as the modifier of the adverb later (headword);
something can happen a little later or much later, five days later or a year later, and so on.]
Styles St. Mary, an absurd little station, with no apparent reason for existence, perched up in the midst
of green fields and country lanes (NP)
an absurd little station, with no apparent reason for existence (PP), perched up in the midst of green
fields and country lanes (V-ed clause)
no apparent reason for existence (PP)
[in the midst of green fields and country lanes = PP; complex preposition + NP as complement; in the
midst of = usred]

3. As we passed through one of the gates on our way home again, a pretty young woman of gipsy
type coming in the opposite direction bowed and smiled.

one of the gates on our way home (PP)

the gates on our way home (PP) = this is the more likely interpretation;
[If we were to interpret on our way home as an adverbial, i.e. the sentence as having the meaning 'As we, on our
way home, passed through one of the gates again', that would imply we passed through the same gate twice,
which is less likely.
On the other hand, the choice to interpret on our way home as postmodification allows for the interpretation
that we passed through one more of the gates that were on our way home, which is to be expected when there
is more than one gate you have to go through to reach your home. Similar structures: We just barely squeezed
through the old gates on our way back; After going through the gates on our way to Columbus Cove, ... ]
our way home (adverb)
a pretty young woman of gipsy type (PP) coming in the opposite direction (V-ing clause)
4. First we drove to Brixton Workhouse Infirmary, where we found that it was indeed the truth that a
charitable couple had called earlier, that they had claimed an imbecile old woman as a former servant,
and that they had obtained permission to take her away with them.

Brixton Workhouse Infirmary, where we found that it was indeed the truth that a charitable couple had
called earlier, that they had claimed an imbecile old woman as a former servant, and that they had
obtained permission to take her away with them (relative clause as postmod.; where = at which ... )

permission to take her away with them (to-infinitive clause)

N.B. In order to understand the analysis of the above sentence, it is necessary for you to first
understand the structure of the relative clause postmodifying infirmary and elements within it: where
= relative adverb, we =S, found = the main verb, that it was indeed ... away with them = that-clause as
DO]
The that-clause functioning as DO is rather complex:
that = conjunction,
it = the grammatical 'dummy' subject,
was = the main verb
indeed = adverbial
the truth = subject complement
that a charitable couple had called earlier, that they had claimed an imbecile old woman as a former
servant, and that they had obtained permission to take her away with them = (a coordination of three
that-clauses functioning as) the real, notional subject, which has been moved towards the end of the
clause, and replaced by it, in order to comply with certain important principles that govern the flow of
information in English sentences - which could be simplified as 'shortest first, longest last' and 'known
information first, new information last'.
[If we disregarded these principles the clause would have the following form ... that a charitable couple had
called earlier, that they had claimed an imbecile old woman as a former servant, and that they had obtained
permission to take her away with them was indeed the truth .
If this sounds too overwhelming, try using any of these three clauses as the subject, to see how acceptable the
sentence seems to you.
-That a charitable couple had called earlier was indeed the truth.
-That they had claimed an imbecile old woman as a former servant was indeed the truth.
-That they had obtained permission to take her away with them was indeed the truth.
As evident, each of them could be the subject in its own right; however, by coordinating the three that-clauses
the author was able to express his thought using only one sentence, instead of three (language economy).]
The above analysis of the clause that it was indeed the truth that a charitable couple had called
earlier, that they had claimed an imbecile old woman as a former servant, and that they had obtained
permission to take her away with them had to be presented so as to (hopefully ) clearly show that
the three coordinated that-clauses do not function as an appositive that-clause postmodifying the
noun truth (despite the fact that truth is an abstract noun), but rather have the role of the notional
subject.
5. Sometimes there seemed nothing to improve, nothing to cultivate; recently she found herself
pruning the dead sections from her rambling rose, wishing she could find some fault of Joshua's
worthy of attention, some secret of Jack's or Benjamin's, a perversion in Oscar.

nothing to improve, (infinitive clause)

nothing to cultivate (infinitive clause)

some fault of Joshua's (PP) worthy of attention (AdjP)

some secret of Jack's or Benjamin's (PP)
a perversion in Oscar (PP)

The above noun phrases are coordinated asyndetically, i.e. without an explicit coordinator, but you
could insert 'and' or 'or' between them. Since the second noun phrase does not describe the head of
the first in any respect, they are not examples of noun phrases as postmodifiers (as is the case with
e.g. London, the capital city of England, my best friend Ian, a dog half his size and so on).

*pruning the dead sections (DO) from her rambling rose (A)
(pruning them from her rambling rose - one of the tests for constituency, pronominal substitution;
pruning from her rambling rose the dead sections - another test for constituency, the movement of
the unit; this paraphrase might sound less plausible but that is so because the object is short, if it were
longer it would sound much better, e.g. pruning from her rambling rose all the dead sections that
made it less mesmerizing)

6. Guided only by the memory of a roughly circular hole some seven inches wide cut into the centre,
clutching at the dream of that holey, mutilated square of linen, which is my talisman, my open-
sesame, I must commence the business of remaking my life from the point at which it really began.

the memory of a roughly circular hole some seven inches wide cut into the centre (PP)
a roughly circular hole some seven inches wide (AdjP) cut into the centre (V-ed)
[how wide? some seven inches - this is the modifier of the adjective wide]
the dream of that holey, mutilated square of linen, which is my talisman, my open-sesame (PP)
that holey, mutilated square of linen (PP), which is my talisman, my open-sesame (relative clause)
[* the relative clause refers back to the noun square, not linen; because one 'square of linen', not
'linen' in general, is his talisman.]
the business of remaking my life from the point at which it really began (PP)
the point at which it really began (relative clause; at which replaceable by where)

7. The Department did not have the resources to mount a proper graduate programme, and in any
case espoused the traditional belief that research was a lonely and eremitic occupation, a test of
character rather than learning, which might be vitiated by excessive human contact.

the resources to mount a proper graduate programme (to-inf. clause)

the traditional belief that research was a lonely and eremitic occupation, a test of character rather than
learning, which might be vitiated by excessive human contact (appositive that-clause)
a test of character rather than learning, which might be vitiated by excessive human contact (PP)
learning, which might be vitiated by excessive human contact (relative clause)

[*rather than = conjunction]

[in any case (the department) espoused ... = je usvojio/prihvatio vjerovanje da ...]
[vitiate = potkopati, podrovati, pokvariti]

8. The coupons were bundled in a rubber band, and Enid was realizing that their expiration dates,
often jauntily circled in red by the manufacturer, lay months and even years in the past: that these
hundred-odd coupons, total face value of which exceeded sixty dollars, had all gone bad.

their expiration dates, often jauntily circled in red by the manufacturer (V-ed clause)

[*months and even years in the past - not an NP, but a PP with a modifier; How deep in the past?
Months and even years. - this NP modifies the prepositional phrase in the past; Dakle, datumi su sezali
toliko daleko u proslosti, a nisu 'lezali' mjesecima pa cak i godinama u proslosti.]

these hundred-odd coupons, total face value of which exceeded sixty dollars, (relative clause; total
face value of which = whose total face value; the first structure with of which is only more formal. It is
also possible to place of which at the beginning in very formal texts: of which total face value ...)

**Incidentally, you should also notice the use of colon ( : ) in this sentence. It is placed between two
that-clauses which function as the object of the verb 'was realizing'. To make the sentence less formal,
we could replace that colon by a semi-colon ( ; ).
You may have encountered this punctuation sign mainly between independent clauses, where the
second clause elaborates the first, usually by giving examples or clarifying it (e.g. You must make up a
better excuse: no one will believe that.)