Structural grammar is particularly useful for indicating structures of modification.

 
Modification is the grammatical tie that exists, for example, between an adjective and its noun,
or a verb and its adverb.  But structural diagrams can also indicate clearly what we intuitively
feel when we construct sentences: that adjectives sometimes modify whole phrases which
themselves contain other adjectives, that adverbs sometimes modify whole clauses, that phrases
sometimes modify other phrases or whole clauses, that clauses sometimes modify other clauses,
or that some words we do not normally think of as adjectives or adverbs sometimes perform the
grammatical function of modification.

In analyzing structures of modification, it is sometimes useful to talk about the "head" of a

construction.  The head of a construction is the single word that "gets modified," the word that
could by itself stand for the whole construction in the grammar of the sentence.  It is the word in
the construction that all the modifying elements "depend on."

In diagramming, we indicate the grammatical tie of modification by means of an arrowhead (>)

that points from the modifier to whatever is modified.   All of the arrowheads in a diagram of a
structure of modification point toward the head of the construction.

Here are some examples.

SINGLE-WORD MODIFIERS

Notice the difference in the first two examples between adjectives in a series (tall red) and
coordinated adjectives (big, black).  There is subtle shade of difference in the meaning.  One
could be talking about a barn that is (1) tall, and (2) red, in which case there would be a comma
between tall and red to indicate the structure of modification.   Or, as in the example given, one
could be talking about a red barn that is tall.   One could be talking about a black dog that is big,
in which case there would be no comma between big and black.  Or, as in the example given, one
could be talking about a dog that is (1) big, and (2) black.

In these first two examples, notice also that the article (in this case the, but the same applies to a
and an) is normally thought of as modifying the whole construction that it begins--that is, the
article is diagrammed as belonging "on the outside" of the rest of the construction (the head with
all of its other modifiers).  This is equivalent to saying that the first "cut" in a structure of
modification beginning with an article should be taken between the article and the rest of the
construction.

Notice how in the third example the diagram indicates that the adverb Recklessly modifies not
just the verb flew, but the whole predication.   This makes sense if we notice that the adverb is
movable.  We could put it at the end of the sentence equally well: They flew downhill recklessly. 
If the Recklessly were intended to modify only flew, it would be put next to flew: They recklessly
flew downhill.  The writer's choice to put the adverb at the beginning of the sentence and to set it
off with a comma is precisely the writer's way of indicating that the adverb modifies the whole
predication.

Similarly, notice how the comma in the fourth example actually separates the modifier dancing
from hippos, the head of its construction.    The comma here is a way of indicating that dancing
modifies not just the head hippos, but instead the whole construction Disney's manic hippos.    If
the writer had intended for dancing to modify only hippos, the writer would have written
Disney's manic dancing hippos.

MODIFYING PHRASES

These examples illustrate how "prepositional phrases" (by the people, into the back yard, down
Main, for that) work syntactically like adjectives or adverbs.  Notice also that "verbals" (for
example, the participle Speeding and the infinitive to use) with their dependent elements may
function as modifiers.

MODIFYING CLAUSES
The normal way of treating "introductory subordinate clauses" in structural grammar is to
construe them as modifying the predication in the "main clause," as in the first example.  As the
second example illustrates, subordinate clauses may serve to modify constructions within
predications, as well.