<p>At <a href="a">/U</a> the reception were <a href="b">/U</a> the chattering <a href="c">/U</a> guests, the three-tiered cake, and the lively music that have become characteristic of <a href="d">/U</a> many wedding celebrations. No error(e) </p>
<p>I thought the answer was D because it needed to plural (characteristics). Isn't characterstic referring to the "chattering guests, the three-tiered cake, and the lively music"?</p>
<p>If not, then does "characteristic" refer to the "wedding celebrations"? (which is still plural)..</p>
<p>I'm so confused....</p>
<p>Yea characteristic of is a prepositional phrase acting as an adjective modifying “wedding celebrations.”</p>
<p>The sentence is like bam, bam, bam (3 things) *have<a href=“could’ve%20mistakenly%20led%20you%20to%20believe%20that%20what%20comes%20after%20must%20be%20in%20the%20plural”>/I</a> become…</p>
<p>Also, characteristics (note the s) is a noun, but guests, cakes, and music arn’t characteristics; they’re nouns naming features that are frequently in weddings (which is basically what the adjective “characteristic (no s) means.”</p>
<p>This isn’t relevant to this question but characteristic (no s) can sometimes be used to name a particular of a group of characteristics (e.g., tall, funny, or unreliable) as in:</p>
<p>omg this is so characteristic(adj) of him. he’s always unreliable(a characteristic of his i.e., a noun).</p>
<p>Not the best sentence but it uses both the adj and the noun so that you now know both exist.</p>
<p>Oh~
Wow, you explained it so well. ^^ I get it.</p>
<p>I didn’t know that characterstic could be an adj. </p>
<p>But isn’t “of wedding celebrations” the prep. phrase and “characterstic”, the adj modifying the prep phrase (“of wedding celebrations”)?</p>
<p>Another question…so if I have “characteristic of (blank)” then would “characteristic” always be adj?
Also, not just the word characterstic… but would any other words that could act as both noun and adj, before the preoposition “of” be considered as an adj?</p>
<p>omgsh… grammar so confusing…</p>
<p>yea “of wedding celebrations” could be identified as a prepositional phrase I guess, with “wedding celebrations” as the object of the preposition “of.” However, I think that “characteristic” has to be included in the phrase to make it an adjective phrase modifying the cakes and gangsters on bikes and whatever because characteristic doesn’t modify “of wedding celebrations”; rather, “of wedding celebrations” modifies “characteristic” as an adverb by more closely focusing “characteristic.”</p>
<p>As for “characteristic of blank” constructions, I think it still depends on what the sentence is trying to say. For example, in the sentence above, characteristic is an adjective; however, one can say “honesty is a characteristic of his,” with the article “a” determining (identifying) that what follows is a noun. So no, “characteristic” will not always be an adjective when preceding “of.”</p>
<p>As for the last question, the answer is still no. For example, there are phrases like “kindness of heart” and “brilliance of mind” that involve nouns.</p>
<p>^ Oh, I see.</p>
<p>So it’s like this… “omg this is so characterstic of him. He’s always unreliable.”
Would “unreliable” be the “cakes,music, and chatter”
And the “of him” would be the “of wedding celebrations”
And the emphasis is on the “characterstics” (of wedding celebrations), which are the nouns,(cakes, chattering, and music)… right?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well no because “unreliable” is in a different sentence, while “cakes music and chatter” are the nouns in a sentence that also includes “characteristic.”</p>
<p>Unreliable is serving as an predicate adjective following the copula verb “is” (as indicated by the apostrophe s). As such, it describes the subject, or ‘complements’ it.</p>
<p>Actually, upon rereading the original sentence, I think “characteristic of wedding celebrations” is an adjective phrase coming after a copula verb (becomes) that serves as a predicate subject complement. “characteristic of wedding celebrations” still modifies “cakes music and chatter,” the NOUNS ‘doing’ the becoming, if that makes sense.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>“Of him” would indeed be the counterpart of “of wedding celebrations.”</p></li>
<li><p>No, characteristic as a noun can only be represented by qualities (unreliability, honesty, but not cakes or dogs) that describe someone. Qualities like unreliability are nouns, as are things like cakes, but I’ve never seen a noun like “a dog” or “a cake” (thing nouns) used to describe characteristics of a person (or a dog I guess).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In my original ad hoc sentence, I used the adjective form of a quality. It didn’t really include “characteristic” as a noun; I just put it in a parenthetical that wasn’t really part of the sentence. Sorry if that confused you.</p>