Re: OT: Merry Christmas!
From: | John Cowan <cowan@...> |
Date: | Sunday, December 26, 2004, 16:16 |
Philip Newton scripsit:
> "L'enfant pauvre" -- "Le pauvre enfant"
> "The poor child (he has no money)" -- "The poor child (he is to be pitied)"
The general pan-Romance principle (which has many exceptions, and is probably
most fully executed in Italian) is that postposed adjectives are normal,
literal, and/or restrictive, whereas preposed adjectives are exceptional,
figurative, and/or incidental.
> Which is particularly interesting to me because both meanings are
> translated as "poor" in English :)
Not too surprising, since E poor < OF povre.
--
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