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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2015-Mar-16 5:42 PM, Fred Ridder
wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr">Yes, there are restrictive [and non-restrictive]
adjectives, which is what I assume you are referring to as
"limiting adjectives" (a term I failed to find in any of my
handy grammar/linguistics references).<br>
<br>
But I don't think that's what we are dealing with here in the
non-possessive case, because I don't believe we're dealing with
adjectives at all. <br>
<br>
Most people remember that adjectives modify nouns, but forget
that they are not the *only* things that modify nouns. In some
cases verbs modify nouns (e.g., the sitting president), and in
many cases -- particularly in technical writing -- nouns modify
nouns. Nouns that modify nouns are referred to as "attributive
nouns" or "noun adjuncts". They almost always appear before the
noun they modify (an attributive or prepositive position) and
they typically identify a property or attribute of the noun that
follows rather than directly modifying the noun itself. <br>
<br>
The classical example of an attributive noun phrase in English
is "chicken soup". Both words are nouns, but it is undeniable
that the first noun modifies our understanding of what the
second noun represents. Exactly what the relationship is varies
widely; the second noun could be made from the first (e.g.,
chicken soup), intended for the first (e.g., user manual),
composed of the first (e.g., butterfly migration), dependent on
the first (e.g., church wedding) -- basically any semantic
relationship other than simple possession by. And you can string
a bunch of them together without any of the usual concerns about
commas in adjective series. (E.g., The chicken soup tureen ladle
handle was covered with schmaltz.)<br>
<br>
Both "user manual" and "butterfly migration" fit this pattern.
Both "user" and "butterfly" are nouns that modify the sense of
the nouns that follow them. And they are unlike adjectives
because they cannot be used predicatively. <br>
<br>
-FR<br>
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Fred wins the Internet again!<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
3781 Victoria Park Avenue, Unit 3
Toronto, ON, Canada M1W 3K5
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.phoenix-geophysics.com">http://www.phoenix-geophysics.com</a>
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