modification (n.)

A term used in SYNTAX to refer to the STRUCTURAL dependence of one GRAMMATICAL UNIT upon another – but with different restrictions in the scope of the term being introduced by different approaches. Some reserve the term for structural dependence within any ENDOCENTRIC PHRASE; e.g. in the big man in the garden, both the big and in the garden modify man – PREMODIFICATION and POST-modification respectively. Some LINGUISTS reserve the term for the premodifying structures only: in HALLIDAYAN grammar, for example, the above phrase would have the structure M–H–Q, standing for modification–HEAD–QUALIFICATION. TRADITIONAL grammar reserved the term for ADVERBIAL units which were dependent on the VERB, and this tradition is sometimes encountered.