---------------------------- 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 To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/