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Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education
City University of New York (CUNY)
Adjective; noun; word-order; English; characterization; modification
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The Communicative Function Of Adjective-Noun Order In English, Kelli Hesseltine, Joseph C. M. Davis
The Communicative Function Of Adjective-Noun Order In English, Kelli Hesseltine, Joseph C. M. Davis
Publications and Research
The problem undertaken here is to account for the relational placement in English of words traditionally known as adjectives and nouns. Two distinct orders are examined as signals of discrete meanings: one where the characterizing word is preposed to the characterized word, as in long hair, and the other where it is postposed, as in hair long. Distribution of the two signals in attested text is accounted for under the hypothesis that an Assertion of Characterization is made WEAKER or STRONGER, respectively, through this word order. With these meanings, a writer draws a distinction between Characterization the writer assumes the …