nmod: nominal modifier
The nmod relation is used for nominal modifiers. They depend either
on another noun (group “noun dependents”) or on a predicate (group
“non-core dependents of clausal predicates”).
nmod is a noun (or noun phrase) functioning as a
non-core (oblique) argument or adjunct.
This means that it functionally corresponds to an adverbial when it attaches to a verb, adjective or other adverb.
But when attaching to a noun, it corresponds to an attribute, or genitive complement (the terms are less standardized here).
The nmod relation can be further specified by the case.
In conjunction with the case relation, it provides a uniform
analysis for:
- the possessive alternation:
the Chair 's office
det(Chair-2, the-1)
nmod(office-4, Chair-2)
case(Chair-2, 's-3)
the office of the Chair
det(office-2, the-1)
nmod(office-2, Chair-5)
case(Chair-5, of-3)
det(Chair-5, the-4)
- variant forms with case, a preposition or a postposition, as in Finnish for example:
etsiä ilman johtolankaa \n to_search without clue.PARTITIVE
nmod(etsiä, johtolankaa)
case(johtolankaa, ilman)
etsiä taskulampun kanssa \n to_search torch.GENITIVE with
nmod(etsiä, taskulampun)
case(taskulampun, kanssa)
etsiä johtolangatta \n to_search clue.ABESSIVE
nmod(etsiä, johtolangatta)
- the dative alternation where the prepositional construction gets a similar analysis to the double object construction:
give the children the toys
dobj(give, toys)
iobj(give, children)
give the toys to the children
dobj(give, toys)
nmod(give, children)
case(children, to)
# give the toys to the children
1 donner donner VERB _ VerbForm=Inf 0 root _ give
2 les le DET _ Definite=Def|Number=Plur 3 det _ the
3 jouets jouet NOUN _ Gender=Masc|Number=Plur 1 dobj _ toys
4-5 aux _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
4 à à ADP _ _ 6 case _ to
5 les le DET _ Definite=Def|Number=Plur 6 det _ the
6 enfants enfant NOUN _ Gender=Masc|Number=Plur 1 nmod _ children
nmod is also used for temporal nominal modifiers:
Last night , I swam in the pool
nmod(swam, night)
nmod in other languages: [bg] [cs] [de] [el] [en] [es] [eu] [fa] [fi] [fr] [ga] [he] [hu] [it] [ja] [ko] [sv] [u]