5. The attribute

The attribute is a secondary part of the sentence which characterizes a person or non-person expressed by the headword either qualitatively, quantitatively or from the point of view of the situation. Attributes may refer to nouns and other words of nominal nature, such as pronouns and substitute words. An attribute forms a nominal phrase with its headword.

5.1 Ways of Expressing Attributes

An attribute may be expressed by:

1. adjectives and adjectival phrases:

e.g.: That was a good story.

That was a really good story.

2. pronouns or pronominal phrases:

e.g.: My life is a fairy-tale!

He is a good friend of mine.

3. numerals, ordinal and cardinal:

e.g.: Ten months is not enough.

I repeat it for the second time.

4. nouns in the common case or prepositional nominal phrases:

e.g.: Apple pie is my favourite.

Do you want to see the house with the most beautiful curtains?

5. nouns or pronouns in the possessive case:

e.g.: Anybody’s help would do.

Kate’s idea is the worst.

6. statives:

e.g.: We awake heard a disgusting noise.

7. participles I and II and participial phrases, characterizing the person or non-person through an action, process or reaction:

e.g.: They lived in a terrifying place.

People, once paid, left the job.

8. gerunds, gerundial phrases or gerundial complex. Gerunds generally characterize non-persons from the point of view of their function or purpose:

e.g.: These words perform linking function.

I heard the news of his daughter getting married.

9. infinitives, infinitive phrases or complex (for-to-infinitive construction):

e.g.: I have a question to ask.

This is a perfect guy for you to marry.

10. adverbs and adverbial phrases:

e.g.: He looked very handsome in the suit from his father’s wardrobe.

The underground music is not to everyone’s liking.

11. compositional phrases:

e.g.: machine-building plant (a plant that builds machines)

12. sentences used as a whole (the so-called “quotation nouns”). These are used mainly as hyphenated chains before the headword:

e.g.: His I-know-all-about-it attitude was unbearable.

13. a clause (attributive clause), which makes the whole sentence a complex one:

e.g.: They gave me the address where no one lived.

5.2 Types of the attribute

Attribute
Pre-modifying (comes before the headword)	Post-modifying (comes after the headword)
The apple trees were in blossom.	Those coming first occupied the best seats.

Attribute
Non-detached	Detached
a) forms one sense group with the headword; b) is not separated by commas; c) may be unextended, form chains of homogeneous attributes with identical reference or attributes with different reference. e.g.: a clever young man	a) is loosely connected with the headword; b) is set off by commas; c) may be placed in preposition, post-position or at some distance from the headword. e.g.: Familiar with these details, he paid them little attention.