Kirsten,

I believe that since the modifier "intensely cruel and unusually nasty"
comes before the possessive "neighbor's," one could assume that it modifies
"neighbor's," making it an issue of position in the sentence. If it were to
modify "car" or "shitty car," it would read something like "my
neighbor's intensely
cruel, unusually nasty, (and) shitty car," placing the modifier after the
possessive so that it reads with "car" instead. I think that in some
situations (or maybe all; I'm not sure), adjectival or even adverbial
modifiers come before the nouns, pronouns, phrases, or clauses they modify.
Also, unless the car is being personified or shows up in something like The
Phantom Tolbooth, the reader may find it difficult to believe a car could be
"intensely cruel and unusually nasty."

As far as an unambiguous modifier, something like this may work:

"The late Tony Morrison's genius enabled her to. . . ." or "The beautiful
girl's bedroom was completely at odds with her looks: It was a right
pigsty."

However, there is also the example given by Matthew McConaughey in the movie
"Frailty" that has been bugging me for quite some time now:

"Unless the man who's standing before you's name is Adam Meeks."

This drives me crazy because I can't figure out if "man" should be the only
piece of the possessive, or if he should instead say something like, "Unless
the name of the man standing before you is Adam Meeks," or if the entire
relative clause "who's standing before you's" is part of the whole
possessive. Any thoughts on this one?

Allison

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