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jmnixon95
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26 Aug 2011, 10:43 am

Do you think it makes more sense to place an adjective before or after the noun that it modifies?

I had a discussion about this yesterday and I believe that it makes much more sense to put it after, which is clearly the opposite of what we do when we speak English.
Languages like Spanish, from what I understand, have the adjective succeed the noun, and that makes more sense: when it precedes, you have to anticipate what the object actually is... especially if there is an extensive list of adjectives. ('The big, red, old, and rather rusty bicycle was rolled out.' seems less efficient when compared to 'The bicycle of big, red, old, and rather rusty was rolled out.' We're not used to that sort of grammar in English, so it doesn't make much "sense", but it does at the same time.)

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the_curmudge
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26 Aug 2011, 12:10 pm

I think either placement works. I did notice that when reading "The big, red, old, and rather rusty bicycle..." my eyes darted ahead to see what the noun was going to be, then returned to read the adjectives more carefully. In terms of reading speed that's not efficient. On the other hand, the English placement emphasizes the unique characteristics of objects, rather than their broad classification. Having heard the key word "bicycle" first in Spanish, are you as likely to pay attention to the fact that it is also "big, red, old, and rather rusty"?



chrissyrun
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26 Aug 2011, 3:19 pm

I know in ASL, you can put it before or after the noun and so long as it is attached to the noun, it is fine.


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Zen
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26 Aug 2011, 6:34 pm

I think it makes more sense to put them after, because you immediately have an idea of what's being talked about and then refine the image as you go along, instead of thinking of a million big things, half a million big, red things, etc.

I picture the first way as starting with a black and white plain image and then embellishing it. I picture the 2nd way as the pictures on a slot machine flipping through until you finally get to what you want.