A postpositive adjective or postnominal adjective is an adjective that is placed after the noun or pronoun that it modifies, as in noun phrases such as attorney general, queen regnant, or all matters financial. This contrasts with prepositive adjectives, which come before the noun or pronoun, as in noun phrases such as red rose, lucky contestant, or busy bees.
In some languages (Spanish, Welsh, Indonesian, etc.), the postpositive placement of adjectives is the normal syntax, but in English it is largely confined to archaic and poetic uses (e.g., "Once upon a midnight dreary", as opposed to "Once upon a dreary midnight") as well as phrases borrowed from Romance languages or Latin (e.g., heir apparent, aqua regia) and certain fixed grammatical constructions (e.g., "Those anxious to leave soon exited").Rodney Huddleston, English Grammar: An Outline, CUP 1988, p. 109.
In syntax, postpositive position is independent of predicative position; a postpositive adjective may occur either in the subject or the predicate of a clause, and any adjective may be a predicate adjective if it follows a copular verb. For example: monsters unseen were said to lurk beyond the moor (postpositive attribute in subject of clause), but the children trembled in fear of monsters unseen (postpositive attribute in predicate of clause) and the monsters, if they existed, remained unseen (predicate adjective in postpositive position).
Recognizing postpositive adjectives in English is important for determining the correct plural for a compound expression. For example, because martial is a postpositive adjective in the phrase court-martial, the plural is courts-martial, the suffix being attached to the noun rather than the adjective. This pattern holds for most postpositive adjectives, with the few exceptions reflecting overriding linguistic processes such as rebracketing.
Occurrence in languages
In certain languages, including French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Romanian, Arabic, Persian, and Vietnamese, postpositive adjectives are the norm: it is normal for an attributive adjective to follow, rather than precede, the noun it modifies. The following example is from Italian, French and Spanish: , , ; translation:sense-for-sense "the white horse" literal translation:"word-for-word" "the horse white" In particular instances, however, such languages may also feature prepositive adjectives. In French, certain common adjectives, including ("big"), usually precede the noun: "the big horse"; while in Italian and Spanish they can be prepositive or postpositive adjectives: "the big horse", or "the big horse", "the horse big"; and "the big horse", or "the big horse", "the horse big".
When an adjective can appear in both positions, the precise meaning may depend on the position. E.g. in French: "a great man" "a tall man" "a small girl" "a little girl" "a little dog (of a small breed)" "a small dog (for its breed)" And in Spanish: "a great man" "a bulky man" "a small girl" "a little girl" "a little dog (of a small breed)" "a small dog (for its breed)" Prepositive and postpositive adjectives may occur in the same phrase: ; ; "a good white wine" In many other languages, including English, German, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and Tagalog, prepositive adjectives are the norm (attributive adjectives normally come before the nouns they modify), and adjectives appear postpositively only in special situations, if at all.
In modern English General uses Compulsory Adjectives must appear postpositively in English when they qualify almost all compound and some simple indefinite pronouns: some/any/no/every...thing/one/body/where, those; Examples: We need someone strong; those well-baked; Going anywhere nice?; Nothing important happened; Everyone new was shocked.
All adjectives are used postpositively for qualifying them precisely. The user follows the set formula: {|class=wikitable |(optional preposition)||(a if singular)||noun||this||adjective||. (or verb/preposition and continuation) |} This can be replaced by that or so, or, casually to evoke an affected air, yea. Without the preposition the formula is even more intuitive in replies. Examples pointing: "Which of the greyhounds do you like?" "Dogs this big." "A dog that weighty would definitely fit the bill." "A dog that tall to match my friend's." Examples figuratively: "A dog so fast it could win at the track".
Optional Generally to these scenarios: When it is wished to modify adjectives using an adjective phrase in which the head adjective is not final. Such phrases are common in speaking and in writing save for the reflexive which is a bit stark but common in fiction. Examples: (noun/pronoun)...anxious to leave, proud/full of themselves. Comparative forms are positioned before/after the noun, as in we need a box bigger than......a bigger box than... Set compounds and near variations. technology easy-to-use; easy-to-use technology; fruit ripe for (the) picking; ripe-for-picking fruit. The postpositive holds more sway for many of the briefest and simplest of such phrases (e.g. in hand). Examples: job in hand; task underway; a case in point Followed by verbs in the infinitive form for some adjectives, mainly as to size, speed, emotions and probability. Examples: Officers ready to be deployed...Passengers happy to leave...Tourists sad to leave...Team ecstatic with their performance...Solutions likely to work...City large enough...Rocket fast enough; can precede equally if compounded with hyphens. Example: We need numbers of ready-to-deploy officers. {|class=wikitable |Frequently used noun — more usually in plural form||adjective||infinitive of verb (i.e. to...)
The optional positions apply to the debatable pronoun and near synonym pairs any way/anyhow, some way/somehow, as well as to (in) no way, in every way. Examples: It was in some way(s) good; it was good in some ways; it was good somehow; it was somehow good.
Certain adjectives are used fairly commonly in postpositive position. Present and past participles exhibit this behavior, as in all those entering should ..., one of the men executed was ..., but at will this can be considered to be a verbal rather than adjectival use (a kind of reduced relative clause). Similar behavior is displayed by many adjectives with the suffix -able or -ible (e.g. the best room available, the only decision possible, the worst choice imaginable, the persons liable). Certain other adjectives with a sense similar to those in the foregoing categories are customarily found postpositively (all the people present, the first payment due). Their antonyms (absent and undue) and variations of due (overdue, post-due) can be placed in either position. These two words are among the least varied from the original Anglo-Norman and Old French terms, reflected in modern French, themselves all close to common Latin original forms. A third is used in locating places and in mainly dated use for complex objects: Sweden/the village/town/city proper...operating on the heart proper, it means "more narrowly defined", or "as more closely matches its character".
Adjectives may undergo a change of meaning when used postpositively. Consider the following examples: Every visible star is named after a famous astronomer. Every star visible is named after a famous astronomer.
The postpositive in the second sentence is expected to refer to the stars that are visible here and now; that is, it expresses a stage-level predicate. The prepositive in the first sentence may also have that sense, but it may also have an individual-level meaning, referring to an inherent property of the object (the stars that are visible in general). Quite a significant difference in meaning is found with the adjective responsible: Can you direct me to the responsible people? Can you direct me to the people responsible?
Used prepositively, can you direct me to the responsible people?, it strongly connotes "dedicated" or "reliable", and by use of the heavily conditional "should be" it denotes that, otherwise, as in the second sentence, it denotes the far more commonly used meaning in the 21st century of "at fault" or "guilty" unless the qualifying word for is added.
Set phrases There are many set phrases in English which feature postpositive adjectives. They are often loans or loan translations from foreign languages that commonly use postpositives, especially French (many legal terms come from Law French). Some examples appear below:
In culinary arts with foods, drinks, and recipes: spaghetti bolognese; chicken korma, satay, or supreme; whiskey neat; In Christianity and translations of similar Abrahamic religious concepts: Christ/love/life everlasting, the devil/evil incarnate, God Almighty In law: actus reus and mens rea, court-martial, fee simple, force majeure, locus classicus, malice aforethought (also malice prepense), persona non grata In some set phrases: battle royal, body corporate, body politic, corporation sole, date certain, fee tail, heir apparent, heir presumptive, knight errant, letters patent,In most places simply called a Patent now letters testamentary, persons unknown, pound sterling, proof positive, times/centuries past,For emphasis, compare "the past" and "past centuries" which are less emphatic terms trip the light fantastic, time immemorial, treasure troveVery widely replaced with "treasure", "treasure" under a particular Act or "treasure subject to the law of treasure trove", originally pronounced closer to trové, a basic Old French pronunciation for found. In professional or honorary titles: ambassador-designate, bishop emeritus, pope emeritus, professor emeritus, attorney general, consul general, governor general, postmaster general, surgeon general, astronomer royal, princess royal, airman basic, minister plenipotentiary, minister-president, notary public,(a redundancy in many jurisdictions but not France, more often referred to simply as notaries and notarial services) poet laureate, president-elect, prime minister-designate, prince regent, secretary-general, sergeant major, queen consort, queen regnant, prince consort, directorate-general, director-general, etc. In heraldry: with the words "dexter" and "sinister" (as in bend dexter, bend sinister), and several referring to attitude, as in eagle displayed, lion passant guardant, griffin rampant, phoenix rising, bird vigilant, etc. In certain set names of organizations: Alcoholics Anonymous, Amnesty International, Archive Global, Church Universal and Triumphant, Generation Next, Japan Airlines Domestic, Ruritan National, Situationist International, Socialist International, Weather Underground, Workers United In hospital emergency codes: Code Amber, Code Black, Code Orange, Code Red Regnal numbers and other appellations, usually including the definite article before the adjective: Henry the Eighth, Elizabeth the Second, Alexander the Great, Ethelred the Unready, Nero Redivivus etc. Note also the generational titles Junior and Senior used to distinguish namesake parents and children. In terms kept in the original French language: agent provocateur, cause célèbre, femme fatale In mathematics, the analysis terms limes superior and limes inferior
Set adjectives Certain individual adjectives, or words of adjectival type, are typically placed after the noun. Their use is not limited to particular noun(s). Those beginning a before an old substantive word can be equally seen as adverbial modifiers (or nouns/pronouns), intuitively expected to be later (see below). à gogo — as in "fun and games à gogo" ablaze — as in "buildings ablaze" abreast — as in "two penguins abreast" akimbo— as in "arms akimbo" aplenty — as in "food aplenty" emeritus — as in "a bishop emeritus" extraordinaire — as in "athlete extraordinaire" galore — as in "roses and tulips galore" incarnate — as in "demons incarnate" junior/Jr. (when used as a name suffix) — as in "Martin Luther King Jr."