Download Words, Phrases, and Clauses

Words, Phrases, and Clauses
“ADJECTIVAL” refers to any word, phrase, or clause that does what an adjective normally does – that is,
modify or add information to a headword.
A SAMPLE arrangement of adjectival words, phrases, and clauses is shown in the following chart:
Determiner
Adverb
Adjective
Noun
Headword
Prepositional
Phrase
The
positively
electrifying
crime
novel
about identity theft
Participial
Phrase
written by John
Doe
Relative or Adjective
Clause
which won a Pulitzer
Prize
Determiner: A noun signaler, a determiner is a word that signals that a headword will follow.
Articles (the, a)
Possessive pronouns (my, his, her, your, their, whose)
Numbers (one, two, three…)
Possessive nouns (Ex. John’s, the boy’s)
Demonstrative pronouns (this, these, that, those)
Indefinite pronouns (many, each, every)
Adverb: As an adjectival, an adverb modifies an adjective, ends in –ly, and comes before the adjective and
headword that it modifies.
For example:
A really big dog…
This highly probable risk…
Adjective: An adjective is a describing word. There can be more than one adjective to modify a headword.
For example:
A relatively unusual, scary situation…
Our hot and stuffy room…
The high-ranking individual…
Noun: A person, place, or thing, a noun may be used in combination with a headword.
For example:
Our internet connection…
His garbage truck…
Headword: A NOUN THAT IS THE CENTRAL SUBJECT OF A PHRASE.
Prepositional Phrase: a preposition plus its object, a prepositional phrase begins with a preposition
(about, across, after, against, along, among, around, as, at, before, behind, below…) and follows a headword
For example:
The house by the bay…
That car over there…
Participial Phrase: A phrase that contains a verb in the past or present tense; a participial phrase begins
with a verb ending in –ing, -d, -ed, -n, -en, or –t and follows a headword.
For example:
That boy keeping silent...
His golden watch chosen by…
The President of the country club described as…
Relative/Adjective Clause: Usually answering the question “Which one” or “What kind of,” a relative or
adjective clause begins with a relative pronoun (who, whom, whose, which, or that) or a relative adverb (when,
where) and it follows a headword.
For example:
The stray cat that I saw scratching on the door…
That time when we were scared…
The athlete from Chicago who challenged the referee…
More Resources Online:
WWW.CWU.EDU/~WRITINGCENTER
Because NOUNS can appear in sentences as subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, subject complements,
object complements, and objects of prepositions, there are endless sentence structures that you can create using
adjectival words, phrases, and clauses.
See what happens when you add adjectival structures to a headword.
Determiner + Adverb + Adjective + Noun + Headword +
Prepositional
Participial
Relative/Adjective
+
+
Phrase
Phrase
Clause
The more adjectival structures you add to a headword, the more specific and complex the headword becomes.
For example: novel
The novel...
The electrifying novel…
The positively electrifying novel…
The positively electrifying crime novel...
The positively electrifying crime novel about identity theft…
The positively electrifying crime novel about identity theft, written by John Doe…
The positively electrifying crime novel about identity theft, written by John Doe, which won a Pulitzer Prize…
Changing just one adjectival, such as the determiner, allows you to make subtle distinctions that help the
reader understand a concept and move from one idea to another:
The action that Jim took was the right one.
Jim’s action was the right one.
His action was the right one.
An action like that is the right one.
Every such action Jim has taken has been the right one.
That action of Jim’s was the right one.
Such an action might have been questionable.
Some adjectival words and phrases can be moved out of order. They can be moved to a space before the
determiner and be separated from the headword by a comma:
Participial phrase
Prepositional phrase
Adverb and adjective
Adjectives
Example: Pressured by the test, the students…
Example: In many areas of the world, people…
Example: Relatively shy, the child…
Example: Hot and sweaty, the soldiers…
Be careful not to string together too many adjectives or get carried away with prepositions.
Remember that adjectives can be rewritten as prepositional phrases, and prepositional phrases can be
rewritten as adjectives.
For example:
Headword + Prepositional phrase:
Adjective + Headword:
An elderly woman with gray hair…
An elderly gray-haired woman…
For more information on sentence structures try looking up modifiers, adverbials, and nominal phrases and clauses.
Works Cited:
Hacker, Diana. A Writer’s Reference. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. Print.
Kolln, Martha. Rhetorical Grammar. 5th ed. New York: Pearson Education, 2007. Print.
Lunsford, Andrea A. Easy Writer. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Print.