Attributive and predicative position of an adjective
I have some difficulty understanding the position of adjectives. In English I have to put the adjective before the referred name (e.g., I'm an Italian man).
In some languages (as Italian or Ancient Greek), the adjective (or another grammatical element) can have two positions:
- attributive: "gli uomini buoni" (the set of men who are good).
- predicative: "i buoni uomini" (the men who are inherently good: all the men are good).
How do you translate?
- the good men
- ????
The terms seem appropriate and may be traditional for Italian grammar, but they're not standard or useful for English. Forget the terms.
In Spanish, there's a similar phenomenon, with occasional modification of form, and usually some of meaning:
- un hombre grande 'a big man'
- un gran hombre 'a great man'
The Italian case seems to be a way of ensuring a generic interpretation of the noun phrase; English normally uses articles for this, but English article use is very different from Italian.
If I've understood the distinction correctly, one might use a generic NP in English to translate; i.e,
- gli uomini buoni ~ the good men (referential NP)
- i buoni uomini ~ good men (generic NP)
In English, adjectives may have three different positions. But, using any adjective at any position is not possible.
1) Attributive position - before noun. Most adjectives go before noun.
Green tree
Happy girl
2) Predicative position - after verbs.
The tree is green.
The girl is happy.
3.Postpositive - after nouns.
After certain nouns:
Two meters tall
Two kilometers wide
Some fixed expressions:
Court martial
Heir apparent
If there is an superlative adjective modifying noun, adjectives ending in -able / -ible may come after that noun.
worst choice imaginable
the best hotel available
Some adjectives can be used both at "attributive" or "predicative" position. E.g;
Happy girl
The girl is happy.
Some adjectives may have different meaning when used attributively and/or predicatively. E.g;
My friend is poor.
My poor friendRobin Harris was late.
The late Robin Harris
Some adjectives, such as afraid, alive, alone can only be used at predicative position. E.g;
John is alone.