Steve, 
 
I agree with David.  But the process viewpoint of deep structure may be
helpful.  It is of some interest that "colored" is an adjective built from a
verb and called a participle.  The -ly on "brightly" is normally a formative for
making a manner adverb so that there seems to be a covert relation to the verb
phrase "color in a bright manner," but this is deceptive.  
 
The names for the various colors in English are structured as nouns.  But they
often appear as attributes: "the dress is red" instead of "the dress is of red."
 When we say "bright red" we are describing a noun with an adjective, but the
phrase again appears as an attribute: "the dress is bright red" instead of "the
dress is of bright red."  (This is a predicate adjective rather than a predicate
noun, which would imply equivalence.)
 
I belive that the locution "the bright colored dress" is saying that the dress
is bright and that it is colored, and that it is not necessarily the brightness
of the colors that make it so.  In fact we could be asking for two conflicting
attributes here; that the dress be colored, but also bright.  (A dress that is
bright red might fill both requirements.)
 
The dress could be "colored red."   This construction is often called an
objective complement: "someone colored the dress red."  It is possible to extend
this construction to: "someone colored the dress bright red."  There might be a
blending with another objective complement: "someone colored the dress bright." 
But the manner interpretation does not really seem possible: ??"someone colored
the dress brightly."  I believe the -ly does not form a manner adverb here, but
comes from the adverbalization of "bright" (was objective complement) in
conjunction with the adjectivalization of the verb "color" to its participle
form.  
 
Bruce 

>>> [log in to unmask] 11/3/2005 7:24:34 AM >>>

On Thu, 3 Nov 2005 12:12:31 +0900
  Steve Cornwell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This may be a very simple question for this list, but a 
>student asked me why we can 
> use "brightly" before "color" as in "the brightly 
>colored dress," but we use "bright" before "red" as in 
>"the bright red dress."  We cannot/do not normally say 
>the "brightly red dress."
> 
> Any insights will be appreciated.
> 
> thanks,
> 
> steve c.

In my opinion, Steve, "brightly" is an adverb modifying 
"colored," and "bright" is an adjective modifying "red.

Peace,

David Brown
ESL/EFL Teacher
Long Beach, CA
USA

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