Noun modifiers and adjective
Hello,
while walking I saw a sign "The Red Flower Barrow" and I started thinking about the use of adjectives together with noun modifiers.
In this sentence the relation between "flower" and "barrow" is obvious: is a barrow used to carry/display flowers. But what about 'red'? What is red? Instinctively I am led to think a 'flower barrow' which is red but, what then if I want to refer to a barrow on which are red flowers?
Is there a correct way of specifying it or the construct with noun modifier plus adjective is intrinsically ambiguous?
Thank you for any opinion on the matter.
Top answer
This construction is intrinsically ambiguous, as you suspect.
- This construction is intrinsically ambiguous, as you suspect.
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The Red Flower Barrow.
This is the name of a florists in Bristol, I believe. The name could mean "a red barrow for flowers" or "a barrow for red flowers", though I think the latter is the most salient interpretation.
In which case, there are two layers of modification. First, the adjective "red" modifies the noun "flower" to form the nominal "red flower" and this in turn mod
0Thank you both for the answers.
It would seem that both interpretations would be literally correct even though, as you pointed out, one of them makes instinctively more sense.
I guess that - wishing to be more precise - one should opt for a less elliptic expression (e.g. the barrow of the red flowers), but this is just a theoretical point.
PS Yes, "The Red Flower Barrow" is a s
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