2. The position of attributes

The usual place of the attribute expressed by an adjective, noun, pronoun, or participle is before the word it modifies.

If a noun is modified by a number of attributes their order can be fixed depending on their meaning:

1. Determiners (articles or pronouns: my, this, every, each)

2. Ordinal numerals (first, 974^th)

3. Cardinal numerals (two, 544,625)

4. Adjectives denoting:

a) opinion (horrible, bad, ugly, fearful)

b) size (tremendous, tiny, microscopic)

c) shape (round, heptagonal, quadrilateral)

d) age (young)

e) colour (mauve, yellow)

f) origin or nationality (Zimbabwean, Honduran, Quebecois)

g) material (wooden)

5. Nouns or gerunds in the function of the attribute.

She has bought three horrible huge high modern orange Dutch tarpaulin walking shoes and doesn’t know what to do with them.

NOTE: The adjective little often corresponds to the Russian diminutive suffix and in this case is placed immediately before the noun.

There are some instances when attributes follow the nouns they modify, i.e. are used in post-position.

1. Most adjectives in –able and –ible are generally placed after the nouns, especially when the noun is preceded by the adjective only or an adjective in the superlative degree: E.g. the only person visible, with all the solemnity possible, the most interesting thing imaginable, sufferings unspeakable.

2. Attributes are postmodifying when expressed by extended phrases or complexes:

He found himself in a situation difficult from his point of view.

3. Two or more adjectives are often placed after the word modified for the sake of emphasis. When we say: Mary has many green and yellow pencils, we take for granted that the quality denoted by the adjectives belongs to the noun. By placing the adjectives in post-position: Mary has many pencils, green and yellow, we want to communicate something new about the head noun in the sentence itself. It is similar in meaning to: Mary has many pencils; these pencils are green and yellow.

It was a summer night, warm and starlit.

4. Postmodifying attributes are found in traditional phrases. mostly borrowed from French or Latin:

wealth untold from times immemorial generations unborn (next) sum total situations vacant decree absolute several years running the first person singular court martial a poet laureate fee simple decree absolute heir apparent heir presumptive

Postmaster General God Almighty Secretary General Attorney General Prosecutor General notary public president elect prince consort prince charming princess royal astronomer royal blood royal Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal

The abbreviation AA stands for the name of the organization Alcoholics Anonymous.

5. Some adjectives can only be used in post-position: galore, designate, awake, alive, afraid, etc.

There have been accidents galore this week.

6. Some adjectives change their meanings depending on the position they are in:

1. a proper answer – “подобающий ответ”

architecture proper – “собственно архитектура”

2. a present task – “данная задача”

the people present – “присутствующие люди”

с) the concerned students – “обеспокоенные студенты”

the students concerned – “студенты, которых это касается”

d) an involved solution – “запутанное решение”

the people involved – “люди, которые были вовлечены”

e) an adopted child – “усыновлённый ребёнок”

the decision adopted – “принятое решение”

7. Participles in the function of the Attribute cannot always be used before nouns. We can say a broken window, but it is not normal usage to say a climbing man, and it is not possible to say the discussed problem.

When we put a participle before a noun, it usually expresses some more permanent characteristic. If we talk about a broken window, we may just be thinking of the way the window looks and we are not thinking of the action. On the other hand, if we talk about a man climbing a rock, or the window broken last night, we are thinking more of the actions.

Failure is a job unfinished.

8. The stylistic device of putting an attribute after the noun is called ANASTROPHE (rhyming with catastrophe):

Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time

future, and time future contained in time past. (Eliot)

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small.

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,

Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty. (Shakespeare)