subject and verb in “The average bundle price paid”?

Question

I found this sentence really confusing:

The average bundle price paid was a little over $8.

So, the average is the subject. Paid is the verb. What about the bundle price?

Can we use this form instead?

The average paid bundle price was a little over $8.

Answer 1

In “The average bundle price paid was a little over $8”, price or bundle price is the subject and was is the verb. Average modifies bundle price or bundle price paid. In any case, “average bundle price paid” is a noun phrase forming the subject of the sentence.

Answer 2

Thanks for putting in the rest of the sentence - it makes analysis possible.

Leaving out the word 'paid' leaves us with the sentence

The average bundle price was a little over $8.

Here, it is obvious that the subject is 'The average bundle price'. There follows a copular structure; the verb involved is be ('was').

A 'bundle price' is a collocation possibly best regarded as a compound noun:

"...savings based on comparison of Bundle price with price of same services sold separately. ..." (Google)

and 'average' is an adjective in attributive position (actually a rather difficult type of adjective to classify - but that's not germane here).

Putting 'paid' back into the reduced sentence, it is seen to be relating to the noun group ('bundle price'); if we had 'paid by the people in the showroom' we would see it is an adjectival non-finite clause postmodifying the noun group. The shorter version 'paid' is syntactically the same.

Answer 3

“The average bundle price paid”
1) Price is the subject.
2) Bundle is a noun used as an adjective.
3) Average can be a noun or an adjective. In this sentence it is an adjective.
I see nothing wrong with that sentence.
I mean, there are two adjectives (average + bundle) giving qualities to one noun (price).