{"id":1076,"date":"2012-01-17T12:06:10","date_gmt":"2012-01-17T19:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/e-gmat.com\/blogs\/?p=1076"},"modified":"2012-01-17T12:06:10","modified_gmt":"2012-01-17T19:06:10","slug":"sentence-review-modifier-standpoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e-gmat.com\/blogs\/sentence-review-modifier-standpoint\/","title":{"rendered":"Sentence Review – Modifier Standpoint"},"content":{"rendered":"A <\/span> 3<\/span> min read <\/span><\/span>

I love when my students send me an email with a doubt in the sentence that they read at wsj or nytimes or any other reputable source.\u00a0 Why do I love it – since I see them understand the meaning of these sentences while they apply the grammatical rules that they learn in the e-GMAT course.\u00a0 This is the essence of learning SC skills.\u00a0 So lets discuss one of such doubts that was recently sent to me:<\/p>\n

Sentence – courtesy wsj<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The planned closing of Israel’s nuclear plant near Dimona this month, which was reported in Israeli media, sounded alarms in Washington, where officials feared it meant Israel was repositioning its own nuclear assets to safeguard them against a potential Iranian counterstrike.<\/em><\/p>\n

Doubt<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

According to me,\u00a0which would generally refer to the noun directly in front of it. \u00a0However, here it seems that which is modifying the planned closing nuclear plant. Can you please explain how I can use WHICH in general?<\/p>\n

My Response<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The main focus of the sentence is on the planned closing of Israel’s nuclear plant.\u00a0 It makes logical sense to say that this “planned closing” was reported in Israeli media.\u00a0 Thus, logically it makes sense for “which” to refer to “the planned closing”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Is “which modifier” used in grammatically correct form.\u00a0 The answer is “YES IT IS”.\u00a0 Here “which modifier” is construed to modify this entire noun phrase – The planned closing of Israel’s nuclear plant near Dimona this month.\u00a0 And this is perfectly correct.\u00a0 Remember noun modifiers modify closest nouns, but they can also modify slightly far away noun when context requires and when this slightly far away noun is the head of the complete noun phrase.\u00a0 The only other thing to keep in mind is that there should not be any ambiguity in the meaning.\u00a0 Lets check how all these conditions apply to this sentence:<\/p>\n

1:\u00a0 Context requirement – As we saw above, it makes logical sense for “which” to refer to “planned closing”.<\/p>\n

2:\u00a0 Modified entity is Head of Noun Phrase – The noun phrase is – the planned closing of Israel’s nuclear plant near Dimona this month.\u00a0 The “which modifier” modifies the head of this noun phrase “the planned closing”.\u00a0 Notice how “Israel’s nuclear plant” modifies the “planned closing”.\u00a0 “Near Dimona” in turn modifies nuclear plant.\u00a0 “This month” goes back to modifying “the planned closing”.\u00a0 So you can picture the hierarchy of the modifiers as follows:<\/p>\n

the planned closing<\/span><\/span><\/strong> of Israel’s nuclear plant near Dimona<\/span> this month<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Both green and purple modifiers modify the head of the noun phrase – planned closing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

3:\u00a0 Ambiguity – The closest noun is “month”.\u00a0 It does not make any sense for “which modifier” to modify “month”.\u00a0 Month was reported in Israeli media.\u00a0 This makes no logical sense.\u00a0 Lets go further left into the noun phrase – “which” cannot modify Dimona as well.\u00a0 Likewise, nuclear plant was not reported in Israeli media – it was the closing of this plant that was reported in the media.\u00a0 Thus, as you can see, there are no two possible logical meanings here and hence there is no scope of ambiguity.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, as it stands, the “which” modifier here correctly modifies “the planned closing”.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Noun Modifiers typically modify closest nouns.\u00a0 But they can also modify slightly far away nouns if the following conditions are satisfied<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Context requires that noun modifier modifies slightly far away noun.<\/li>\n
  2. Slightly far away noun is the head of the noun phrase.\u00a0 So here is the construction – Modified Noun – Noun Phrase – Noun Modifier.<\/li>\n
  3. There is no ambiguity in the meaning of the sentence.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    The above concepts are covered in following concepts\/courses<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n