1.10.7 Position of postmodifier

Rule: Postmodifiers normally immediately follow the noun.

Examples of errors:

1. What can I tell you more?
2. Since the exploration of space people's interest has risen in learning about possible extraterrestrial civilizations.

Rule 1.10.7 is usually invoked when the antecedent of a relative clause is ambiguous, as in a sentence like

This is a song about the political situation in Northern Ireland, which is terrible.

Is it the song or the political situation which is terrible? When there is no dander of confusion, the relative clause may be at quite a distance from its antecedent, especially in informal speech, e.g.:

There were a lot of children at the party yesterday where I saw you stuffing yourself who didn't get enough to eat.

Discontinuous modification is also common when the postmodifier is a relative or appositive clause, to avoid a clausal subject which is much longer than the predicate, e.g.:

A package that I had been expecting for a long time arrived.
= A package arrived that I had been expecting for a long time.

A rumor that he'had got married during the holidays circulated.
= A rumor circulated that he had got married during the holidays.

Breaking up the noun phrase in this way is much less common when the postmodifier is a prepositional phrase (cf. (2)), however. More and else (cf. (1)) always immediately follow the wh- word they modify, though the same meaning can usually be expressed by an adverbial in end position, e.g.:

What more/else can I tell you?
What can I tell you further/in addition/besides that/beyond that?