grammar - Aren't adverbs related to the closest word? What about other modifiers?


Aren't adverbs related to the closest word? Does nightly in nightly business report refer to business?


Update:
I am still confused.
Is relation of non-adverb modifiers different from that of adjective?
In First Certificate Language Practice by Michael Vince the "first" is related to the nearest modified word (without dephis application)


I am not interested in specific case of "Nightly Business Reports" (only), I'd like to understand a rule/pattern with possible exceptions in order to reuse it in my writing.



Answer



In the case of a list of modifiers, it is generally presumed that all the modifiers apply to the final subject; if one modifier is intended to apply to another modifier in the list, most often they will be joined by a hyphen. Per your example, nobody would assume that the "nightly" in "nightly business report" modifies "business"; if it were supposed to, it would have been written "nightly-business report".


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