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Noun Phrase Modifier

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by Titanp321 » Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:47 am
I have a question regarding noun phrases being modified with non-essential modifiers. I'll begin with an example:

The red corvette in the garage, which is attached to the house, is for sale.

Can the non-essential modifier which is attached to the house modify garage? Or, must it modify the the entire noun phrase The red corvette in the garage?

In the latter case, could I re-write the sentence as

The garage, which is attached to the house, has in it a red corvette for sale.

I know that a noun modifier must be next to the noun that it is modifying.

Thoughts?
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by CoachT » Fri Nov 30, 2012 10:37 am
Absolutely!

Consider OG13 SC#112.

Construction of *the Roman Colosseum*, which was officially known as the Flavian Ampitheater, ...


Contrast that to OG13 SC#29.

*Emily's letters* to Susan, which were written over a period...


The way that I like to think about it is that the GMAT may permit a short prepositional phrase to extend the meaning of the (as the GMAT calls it) referent.

A ", which" modifier should modify the word before the comma, as it does in the first example. However, if the intended referent is earlier in the sentence, a short, prepositional phrase can be thought of as 'one big word'. In the second example, Emily's-letters-to-Susan is the 'big word', and that IS before the comma and hence legal.
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by Titanp321 » Mon Feb 04, 2013 9:57 pm
Great examples. I also found a great explanation from Ron Purewal's Thursdays with Ron. The link is below

https://www.manhattangmat.com/thursdays-with-ron.cfm

It is the April 25th lecture and he discusses the issue around 1:09

"Which is allowed to jump over prepositional phrases if the prepositional phrase is part of the noun"
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by GMATGuruNY » Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:49 am
On the GMAT, COMMA + which should refer to the nearest eligible antecedent. Check my posts here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/spanish-arma ... 67329.html
https://www.beatthegmat.com/publishing-d ... 99353.html
https://www.beatthegmat.com/emily-dickin ... 21769.html (second post)
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by ceilidh.erickson » Wed Feb 06, 2013 9:47 am
Just to add to what everyone else has said... "which" modifiers are allowed to hop over prepositional phrases to modify the subject, or they can modify the noun in that prepositional phrase. It all depends on context. If I gave you the sentence:

The red corvette in the garage, which _____________, is for sale.

... but didn't tell you what that "which" modifier said, there's no way to know whether it's modifying "corvette" or "garage." It depends on the meaning - we can tell whether it's giving us information about a car or about a location. (Unless maybe it said something like "the red corvette in the garage, which was full of junk,..." That could be either the car or the garage! But the GMAT is unlikely to test you on this kind of ambiguity).

See more here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/emily-dickin ... tml#563839
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by iongmat » Wed Feb 06, 2013 10:18 am
Hello Ceilidh, can you please provide an instance when "which" has "hopped over".

Emily Dickensen example is not very contextual because, "which" cannot modify Susan Huntington Dickinson (since "which" can only modify non-living things).
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