Post by the OmrudPost by LanarcamOn Monday, July 23, 2018 at 9:01:40 AM UTC-4, Athel
Post by Athel Cornish-BowdenAs Isabelle has been seen here recently, maybe she can offer a
rationale why "feu", the French for "late", behaves so oddly.
Uniquely (I believe) among French adjectives, it precedes the
possessive, thus "feu votre père", not "votre feu père" or
"votre père feu".
I remember learning that a handful of adjectives have a different
meaning if they precede their noun, but I don't remember what
any of them are.
"Grand homme", "homme grand" for instance.
Also "ancien", which sometimes throws me for a moment.
As I recall it, such examples generally involve a few common adjectives.
Athel's example is a horse of a different colour, which contradicts the
known fact that all horses have the same colour.
The idea that "feu" can function as an adverb in some situations, which
of course allows it to move to a different part of the sentence, makes
sense to me. After all, English has plenty of examples of words which
can be adjectives in some situations and adverbs in others.
--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW, Australia