Prepositional phrase help

[susiedqq]

Her advice (1) on the subject (2) of girls was useless.

Would I be correct stating that the sentence contains two prepositional phrases both functioning as adjectives: the second one "of girls" modifying the noun of the first one "subject" and the first one "on the subject" modifying the noun "advice"? yes

"On the subject of girls" is two prepositional phrases, correct? yes

Once again, I apologize for not understanding sooner. That's OK. It's why we are here!

[velimir]

Hello Cooklava,
First things first ( that is what one english native would say , I’ve made a mistake in the earlier post ). But this time I think that I will start from the second part first in spite of this saying.
"What about the first prepositional phrase (now including girls as the modifying adjective--on the girls' subject)? Is it modifying the direct object advice as an adjective also? Do both prepositional phrases--"on the subject" and "of girls"--function as adjectives? "
I’ve painted red what I think is incorrect in your conclusions and below I will analysed it orderly:
1. “Girls’” is not an adjective but genitive case of the noun “girls”,so you can label it simply as a pre-modifier of the noun not an adjective modifier(but nevermind this,it is not so important)
2. Direct object is not “advice” but “advice on the subject of girls” . This is important to know because it makes confusion . When you want to identify the direct object as a sentence element you are simply trying to find what is a logical complement of the verb and you are not interested in any further examination or analysis. So, if I am asking : What did she offer? , I expect you not to hold back anything and tell me what exactly she offered. If we change the object the same will hold true:
- She offered him a plum. (here,we’ve chosen a bare noun as a form of direct object )
- She offered him a price which he couldn't refuse.(here, direct object is a noun postmodified by a relative clause)
3. "on the subject"( although it is a prepositional phrase in its form), has no function as some functional part in this sentence.It is only a part of the prepositional phrase "on the subject of girls" which is a postmodifier of the noun “advice” in the noun phrase ” advice on the subject of girls” which functions as a direct object. The prepositional phrase “of girls” is a postmodifier in the functional structure of a postmodifer of the higher level. Again, what really matters is to make distinction between the levels of analysis and to avoid mixing up form and function.
4. “..function as adjectives “ - Your logic about this is quite all right,but it is correct to say as you’ve written a little above it “..therefore, "of girls" functions as an adjective would”. Exactly like that. No more and no less. Let me give you one example I’ve thought out:
If my wife regularly wash the dishes but sometimes I do that instead of her ,what function I do when I wash the dishes? Of my wife or a dish-washer ? My opinion(maybe subjective) is that I don’t have required attributes to take the place of a woman but that I can do the dish-washing quite well. Using this analogy , my wife would be an adjective and I would be a noun, and the dish-washing would be classifying nouns. Which means that the role of a classifier predominantly serves adjective (and it being its main function along with the role of describing and evaluating nouns),but nouns and other forms do the classifying as well. Except for the labeling all that you’ve asked is therefore absolutely correct i.e all those elements do the same thing : modify – classifying noun

-"of girls" – prepositional phrase by form, function = postmodifying-classifying the noun
“ subject”
-“on the girls' subject” - prepositional phrase,postmodifying-classifying the noun “ advice” ( “girls’” is the element inside the structure of this postmodifier which is by form noun in a genitive case and functions as a pre-modifier -classifier)
- “on the subject of girls'” – prepositional phrase ,pre-modifying- classifying the noun advice (although this construction sounds a bit strange to me in this place,but you know better of course)
-from my example you can see that a postmodifier of the noun which classify it may be a clause :
“which he couldn't refuse” – clause by form, classifying the noun “price”
Let’s put some adjective classifier for the noun “ advice” ,there is a large selection of these:
professional advice , legal advice, financial advice…
Let’s put some noun which classify “advice” :
Business advice, specialist advice…
Of course adjectives have also a descriptive and evaluative function with still more possible variations for modifying nouns:
good advice, bad advice, excellent advice, helpful, practical….
As you can see many different forms can serve the same function . I hope this will help Cooklava. Hope I didn’t make too many mistakes , I’m sleepy.. . it is 2:24 AM ..Thursday..going to bed..and I see now that Susiedqq has already done the job. Anyway , you can read this also.
Best regards
Velimir

[Cooklava]

Thanks to both of you again.

And, you are correct in suggesting that the construction (on the subject of girls) sounds strange. Just saying "advice about girls" would save words and be more than sufficient in getting the point across. But, as you know, this is grammar, and the best way to learn it is by turning over each rock.

Best wishes and thanks again for all the valuable information.

[velimir]

You're welcome Cooklava . Again,I'm glad you've found it helpful.

Best regards

Velimir