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Chatting about laundry facilities and meal times, Pam led us through an entryway jumble of backpacks and umbrellas. In the kitchen, she poured apple ( From an ACT test)

Please help me understand why nouns " jumble of backpacks and umbrellas" can directly post-modifies another noun " entryway". I think at least a preposition like "with" or others are needed here between "entryway" and " jumble of backpacks and umbrellas".

HypnoticBuggyWraithVirileBevy
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    The noun "entryway" modifies "jumble", which has the preposition phrase "of backpacks and unbrellas" as its complement. – BillJ Oct 09 '20 at 11:59
  • This raises a problem for English speakers when we learn a language which does not allow nouns to act as adjectives. Our way always seems more economical. – mdewey Oct 09 '20 at 14:34
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    @mdewey Not 'adjectives', but 'modifiers'. Not everything that modifies a noun is an adjective!. – BillJ Oct 09 '20 at 15:55

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"Entryway" here is doing duty as an adjective rather than a noun; the jumble is the noun, and entryway is describing it (in this case, it is a jumble that is positioned in an entryway). As such, no preposition is needed. You could make a grammatically correct sentence with a preposition as you say ("Pam led us through an entryway containing a jumble of backpacks and umbrellas") though that changes the meaning of the sentence slightly (now the focus is on the entryway instead of the jumble).

You can read about nouns that act as adjectives here: https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-adjective.htm

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