A Comparative study of modifiers in noun phrase in modern standard Arabic and English

الملخص

Modifiers are words, phrases or clauses that provide description in sentences. A modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure. This study is aimed to identify modifiers in Arabic and to present a descriptive account of modifiers in the language. An attempt is made to present a comparison of modifiers in the noun phrase in Arabic and in English, in terms of their positions, in order to find the major similarities and differences between Arabic and English. The study shows that there are similarities and differences between these two subsystems of the modifiers in Arabic and English. The similarities between them facilitate the developmental process of learning a foreign language whereas differences make the learning process of English as a foreign language difficult and Arabic learners make many mistakes.