---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------


Johanna has asked me to forward this to the list.  It seems a very
thoughtful contribution, so I'll send it on and maybe reply later.

Craig


Thanks!
----
Seems like the posting I wrote yesterday on this subject has not gone
through.

I suggested that "bright red" is a compound, similar to other color
compounds such as "navy blue" and "fire-engine red". These are
noun-noun compounds, but English has adj-noun compounds, such as "blind
alley" and "dead end". The pattern of combining adjectives with color
terms is so entrenched in English, that I think we are safe to consider
it "lexicalized" -- that is, terms like "bright red" are stored as
vocabulary items in our mental dictionary. The fact that certain
adjectives are more likely than others in this position supports this
idea -- "dark, pale, light, bright, deep".

As to whether the "red" of "bright red" is a noun or adjective, the
phrase fails a main structuralist adjective test:

The dress seems bright red.

I need "to be" in front of "bright red" to make this fly. As to the
other adjective test, acceptance of comparative suffixes, these attach
to the "bright" rather than the "red" :

This dress is brighter (paler, lighter, darker) red than the other one.

I don't like this much. I prefer

This dress is _a_ brighter (paler, lighter, darker) red than the other
one.

This is another argument for considering the phrase to be a noun rather
than an adjective.

(Note that I'm defining "adjective" by class, not function of modifying
a noun.)
----

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel.: 805.756.2184
Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

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