Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

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539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms

The noun phrase | 323

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More than one postmodifier can occur together:

The 

girl |

in jeans

|

in the corner

|

with that tall American student

| .

Complements and postmodifiers can occur together. The complement comes first

because it is so closely associated semantically with the head:

complement

postmodifier

Students

|

of astronomy

|

at Cambridge

| all get very high grades.

(Students at Cambridge of astronomy all get very high grades.)

Order of pre- and post-head elements

169d

The table below shows the order of the pre- and post-head elements in the noun

phrase. Because they indicate the type of reference for the whole noun phrase,

determiners come before premodifiers. Because complements complete the

meaning of the head and are therefore closely associated with the head, they

precede postmodifiers.