premodifier

Premodifier is a term in linguistics for a word or expression that modifies a noun and appears before the noun head within a noun phrase. Its function is to restrict, describe, or otherwise specify the referent of the noun.

Common premodifiers in English include attributive adjectives (green apples, tall buildings), participles used as adjectives (shining armor, broken glass), noun modifiers or attributive nouns (car door, university library), and numerals or quantifiers (two cats, several ideas). In some analyses, determiners such as the, this, and my are treated as pre-head modifiers, though they are often described separately from the core modifier categories.

When multiple premodifiers occur, they tend to follow a conventional order: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, and purpose. For example, in the phrase a lovely large old wooden dining table, the modifiers appear in a sequence that reflects this ordering, with opinion before size, age, and material.

The concept is most commonly discussed in English grammar, where noun phrases frequently integrate several premodifiers before the head noun. While premodyfiers are primarily a feature of English syntax, similar ideas appear in the analysis of noun phrases in other languages, with differences in allowed categories and ordering.