stage

Grammatical structure

Examples in my corpus

Mean Statistics in this corpus

2

Attributive adjectives

The most significant change

56.2

Participle pre-modifiers

A badly burned face

9.3

Relative clauses

Images [that signal the distress of our global environment]

4.9

3

Nouns as pre-modifiers

The north polar cap

47.8

Possessive noun as pre-modifiers

One country’s emissions

7.5

Of phrase (concrete/locative meanings)

A twelve-toot-thick slab of ice floating

4.3

Prepositions as noun post-modifiers other than of (concrete/locative meanings)

A conflict in one of three different categories,

4.6

4

-ed participle as post-modifiers

The horizon defined by little hummocks,

6.4

-ing participle as post-modifiers

Those countries producing the chlorofluorocarbons responsible

2.1

Attributive adjectives, nouns as pre-modifiers

The polar regions

11.2

Of phrase (abstract meanings)

The bright lights of civilization

17.9

Prepositions as noun post-modifiers other than of (abstract meanings)

My search/for the underlying causes of the environmental crisis

13.9

5

Preposition + non-finite complement clause

With the sun glaring at midnight

2.5

Complement clauses controlled by nouns

The one that began with the industrial revolution early in the last century

0.3

Multiple prepositional phrases as post-modifiers, with levels of embedding

In a small tent pitched on a twelve-toot-thick slab of ice floating in the frigid Arctic Ocean.

21.3