Grammatical question?

Question

The man should increase retail investments for his shareholders.

looking at the sentence from a purely grammatical standpoint...

cite why "for his shareholders" refers to "investments" rather than "retail"

Please don't pay attention to the content of the sentence because it is not necessary or helpful for the intent of the question.

Answer 1

Retail is used as a modifier or adjective describing investments, so investments is what is referred to, and not retail.  

Answer 2

Because investments is the noun.  Retail is merely the adjective.

Answer 3

Because retail is an adjective that modifies investments.  Grammatically, the shareholders are not interested in retail; they're interested in investments.

Answer 4

Investments is the noun; retail is the adjective describing the noun

Answer 5

Retail is not the direct object in the sentence - rather it is working as an adjective to describe the type of investments (retail investments). Investments are what the man needs to increase for his shareholders, not retail.

Answer 6

The man should increase retail for shareholders. Incomplete and doesn't make sense.

The man should increase INVESTMENTS for shareholders.  Incomplete but does make sense.

'Investments' is the direct object of 'shareholders'.

'Retail' is the adjective that modifies the noun 'investments'. It answers the question: what kind of investments?