The position of "strong enough" in "there is no headache strong enough" [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate:
There is no headache strong enough, that a good coffee won't relieve

There is no headache strong enough, that a good coffee won't relieve.

I know that this sentence is grammatically correct, but I still can't find a suitable grammar rule that would explain why strong enough is used after the noun in this sentence.

Why don't we say "There's no strong enough headache, that a good coffee won't relieve"?

It doesn't look like a reduced relative clause that usually occur with past participles, such as "the people skilled in design" ("the people which are skilled in design"). We usually place such adjectives like possible, available, and few others after the noun. This is not the case.

Can anybody explain the word order to me? It would be even better if someone provides a proof from a grammar book.

Solution 1:

Strong enough means so strong that S, where S represents some clause relating to the strength. This is one example of a broader pattern, where both infinitive and that complement Ss can occur:

X be (Adj enough)/(so Adj) that/to S.

This is an Equative construction (the strength of X is such that S is true), but it works by specifying a minimum value of S, so it can be used with a high minimum to signify excessive degrees, and therefore is often used to boast:

• He's tough enough to chew iron and spit nails. (a conjoined infinitive S here)

• Their beards are so durn tough, it seems, the hair just grows in lumps.

  from "Why Oh Why Did I Ever Leave Wyoming?" by the Vic Jergens band, ca 1948
  (the next line is That's why they shave with broken glass and dynamite the stumps.)

The position of strong enough in this particular sentence is after headache, which is the antecedent of the relative clause which is strong enough.... The which is part gets zapped by the usual Whiz-deletion, leaving only the predicate adjective phrase and its complement. So it's really a clause reduced to a modifying phrase, and that's why it sits after its antecedent.

It can also occasionally occur before the antecedent, especially if it's quantified with enough -- but not if it's quantified with with so or too.

• He has a strong enough headache to kill anybody else.
• He has a headache strong enough to kill anybody else.
• He has a headache so strong that it would kill anybody else.
• *He has a so strong headache that it would kill anybody else.

This phenomenon is also involved in the strangeness of the video title Maru and the too small box.