premodifiern.
/ˌpriːˈmɒdᵻfʌɪə/, U.S. /ˌpriˈmɑdəˌfaɪər/ Linguistics.
A word, phrase, or grammatical element which modifies one coming immediately after it.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > syntax or word order > syntactic unit or constituent > [noun] > modifier or qualifier > specific
dangling modifier1909
premodifier1952
postmodifier1954
1952 Amer. Speech 27 110 ‘Walking is good exercise’ is an instance of a gerund. The distinguishing feature is a premodifier.
1966 G. N. Leech Eng. in Advertising xiv. 128 Pre-modifiers which can have the designative, or categorising function are nouns, adjectives and compounds.
1972 Language 48 456 The relatively empty do [in the ungrammatical sentence He had well done it] does not permit a premodifier well, but with a richer verb premodification is normal, e.g. He has well revealed the causes.
1973 G. W. Turner Stylistics iii. 81 Words preceding the head word in a group are conveniently called ‘modifiers’ (sometimes ‘premodifiers’).
1996 Internat. Rev. Appl. Ling. in Lang. Teaching 34 6 Also segmented was child from the NNS [non-native speaker] children, which was used as a premodifier of psychology in contrast to the NNS use of infant, infantile as a postmodifier.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1952