Noun adjunct or adjective?

Question

What influences the choice between noun adjunct or adjective in British English? My intuition is that a noun adjuct

is used when the concept is familiar, e.g. music treatise, musical treatise (which may explain why the first phrase carries two accents & the second one)
can be jargon, e.g. choirbook (choral book is not used)
is more modern, e.g. luxury hotel, luxurious hotel
is more working-class, e.g. England team, English team
refers to something more specific, e.g. music stand vs. musical tradition.

Any ideas or supporting references would be welcome.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Hi

This is very interesting but also difficult

These are just my brief thoughts - you must check out the references..

I think there are two main influences..

To begin with, English comes mainly from Anglo-Saxon and Norse. However, in the second millenium it combines with Norman, Greek and Latin languages. The first group have adjectives, but not a simple conventional way of turning a noun into an adjective; The second group add suffixes to nouns to turn them into adjectives. So adjunct phrases tend to be very old; whereas adjective + noun becomes fashionable later

Also, much later, there is the influence of twentieth century commerce, which tends to favour noun-based phrases because they are shorter and more "punchy"

To answer your questions..

Speakers of Old English would have prefered adjunct phrases like music stand and choirboy (and they would have been the performers). The audience, more well-off, would refer to musical entertainment and choral evensong

Luxurious, I would guess is coined 17 - 18 century. But later, in advertisements, it would seem more exciting to say "Luxury Hotel!". I think, when people coin advertisement phrases, the noun tends to dominate: "A new drink experience"; "More road miles to the gallon"; "A bigger chocolate taste"

Possibly, "England Team" is influenced by both ideas. As an adjunct phrase, it is more earthy and relates to Old English. And also it is a brand name, so more likely to be adjunct

Hope this gives some ideas, Dave

Noun adjunct or adjective?

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