04 – Modifiers: Adjectives, adverbs, etc.

SimpleNLG German, just like SimpleNLG English, distinguishes between three types of modifiers: front-modifiers, pre-modifiers, and post-modifiers. Additionally to the English version, in SimpleNLG German you have a fourth type of modifier, which is simply called "modifier".

To all phrases, for example a noun phrase or a verb phrase, modifiers can be added. Pre-modifiers are placed before the phrase, post-modifiers after, and both are not inflected. When you apply addModifier(), instead of addPreModifier() or addPostModifier(), the placement differs whether the modifier was added to a noun phrase, or to a verb phrase.

For verb phrases, the modifier is added as a post-modifier. In modifiers set to verb phrases, adjectives are considered as adverbial adjectives and thus not inflected. The modifier "schnell" is added after the verb in the sentence "Er läuft schnell.", for example. If a modifier is added to a separable verb, it is added between the separable parts, i.e. "er räumt schnell ein". If you want to make sure that the text you want to add will be placed directly after the verb, even if the verb is separable, you should consider adding the text as a complement instead. For noun phrases, the modifier is added between the article and the noun. If an adjective is added as a modifier to a noun phrase, it is considered as attributive adjective and inflected. For instance, "schnell" added as a modifier to "das Auto", results in "das schnelle Auto".

Summarised, methods available for adding modifiers are:

• addFrontModifier("heute"),
• addPremodifier("gut"),
• addPostmodifier("schnell") or
• addModifier("groß").

You can add adjectives and adverbs as modifiers, but also other clause components which should be added as static text, like "Auf regionaler Ebene". (You could also add "Auf regionaler Ebene" as prepositional phrase instead of static text, then, the adjective would be conjugated etc.)

If you add or set a front-modifier to a whole sentence, the word order will change and the verb will be placed after the modifier. For example, "wir expandieren" would change the word order to "Heute expandieren wir" with the front-modifier "heute" added.

Change to word order is not applied if you set a pre-modifier.

Adverbs

If you add a pre-modifier to an adjective, SimpleNLG German will assume that adverbial usage is meant. For example, instead of making das relative hohe Haus, it will then put das relativ hohe Haus.

Predicative vs. attributive usage of adjectives

If you set an adjective as a modifier to a noun, attributive usage will be assumed and the adjective will be inflected. If you add an adjective as a post-modifier to a verb, SimpleNLG will assume adverbial usage and not inflect the adjective. Example: "Das große Haus" (modifier to noun) vs. "Das Haus ist groß." (post-modifier to verb). If you need predicative usage with a noun (e.g. "Er liegt gut im Rennen"), set "gut" as a pre-modifier to the noun instead of as a modifier.