Modifier or Modified?

Sheila Collins · Post by **Sheila Collins** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 1:10 am

Would the dependent clause be the modifier, or is it modified by the independent clause?

"The sink overflowed and flooded the kitchen, as I did not check it before I left the house."

ouyang · Post by **ouyang** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 3:57 pm

The dependent clause "as I did not check it before I left the house" is modifying the independent clause's predicate by providing a reason for the action.

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 3:33 am

Yes, the reason being that the "less important" thing always modifies the "more important" thing.

It isn't that there is actually any modification going on, to my mind, since that implies an alteration or at least a limitation.

ouyang · Post by **ouyang** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 6:04 am

Woody, what part of speech is the word "why" in "Why did the sink overflow"? Isn't it an interrogative adverb like "when" in "When did the sink overflow?" Clauses that these words reference are also adverbs,

In "The sink overflowed after I left because I didn't check it", aren't "after I left" and "because I didn't check it" both adverbial clauses? Adverbs that alter and limit are just different kinds of adverbs.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:20 am

I was rather under the impression that the notion of modification applied mainly if not exclusively to the relation dependents have with their heads in noun phrases (which would include relative clauses only, right?). So the adverbial clause is (as Ouyang says) one of "reason" (or effect and cause), and to apply the notion of modification with adverbs to more than when modifying verbs (ad+verb i.e. at the word or phrase level, e.g. 'write nitpickingly') would seem to be stretching the meaning of 'modification' at least further than it should perhaps go.

And what if there were no subordinator (subordinating conjunction)?

The sink overflowed and flooded the kitchen -/# I didn't check it before I left the house...

I didn't check the sink before I left the house -/# It overflowed and flooded the kitchen...

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:43 pm

I thought something like that, but as the question suggests some people do seem to speak of modifying clauses.

However, as you say, the meaning seems stretched. I agree they are adverbials, and if we say:

"He walked down the road like he was a poodle trotting on hot coals"

obviously the second clause is a kind of modification. However if we say

"He walked down the road because he wanted to buy some bread"

then there is no real modification, just additional information. And if any additional information is classed as a modification then clearly every dependent clause must be a modifying clause - "modifying" is merely a synonym for "dependent", and it seems a confusing one with no utility.