Post-positive adjectives

Trevor @ Thursday May 20th 2004 19:17

There is – as usual – an interesting discussion over at Transblawg. This time it’s about creaky-sounding (legal) phrases in which the noun precedes the adjective, some of which may be inverted: court martial/martial court, secretary general/general secretary, law merchant/merchant law etc. I assume the post-positives to be Norman-isms, since it was the Normans who did most of the owning after 1066, but I wonder if they actually brought over both forms: my secret drinking expeditions trips besuited to the Channel Islands taught me that you can put adjectives in front of nouns in Norman French dialects like Jèrriais.


Categories: Languages, Splog

« · »

RSS: post comments, blog comments, blog posts

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Share this post
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Meneame
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
See also
    • This feature doesn't work without post tags, and there don't seem to be any for this post.
    • This feature doesn't work without post tags, and there don't seem to be any for this post.
Writing and translation

Check out the services I provide over at Oreneta.com

Google Reader

I share other stuff over here.

Pordiosería

If you're feeling generous, check out my Amazon wishlists for Deutschland, France , and the UK, or use PayPal to

My 5% bookstore - new stuff



Spanish history

Modern Spanish fiction

Spanish classics

On this day

Barcelona

  • March 21 1848 

    En Barcelona como en otras partes comienza hoy la primavera, que en honor de la verdad no suele ser aqui la estacion mas hermosa del año. Cierto que ya los árboles comienzan á echar hoja, y que la linda y olorosa violeta alfombra los jardines y ribazos, y que le hacen cortejo otras flores; per...

Josep Pla, Palafrugell (1918-9)

  • 21 de març de 1918 En aquest paĂ­s tenim un costum molt curiĂłs. Quan ens trobem, al carrer, dues persones, cara a cara, no tenim, a penes, res a dir-nos. Però, una vegada acomiadats i fets set o vuit passos, se’ns ocorren tot d’una una sèrie de coses urgents a dir a la persona que hem deixat fa un moment. [...]
  • 21 de març de 1919 Inici de la primavera. Biblioteca. Tot traduint Renard penso que Ă©s mĂ©s important dominar un ofici qualsevol que posseir una curiositat dilatada, vastĂ­ssima. La curiositat es pot improvisar; un ofici, no. La curiositat Ă©s superficialment agradable, però deixa una certa buidor amarga per dintre. Un ofici Ă©s monòton i pesat, però tĂ© moments d’una voluptuositat [...]

The peepul's choice

Back to top