ADJECTIVES.
Attributive and Predicate Position
The word attributive comes from Latin attribuere meaning: 'to attribute, give to'. In other words, the adjective qualifies, is given to the noun directly:
the beautiful housethe long roadthe complicated Greek languageAs you can see, in English the attributive adjective always precedes the noun.
What about Greek? How did they deal with attributes?
| the beautiful house | ἡ καλὴ οἰκία
(like English)or ἡ οἰκία ἡ καλή (unlike English) |
| the long road | ἡ μακρὰ ὁδός or ἡ ὁδός ἡ μακρά |
| the Greek language | ἡ ἑλληνικὴ φωνή or ἡ φωνὴ ἡ ἑλληνικὴ |
| the difficult Greek language | ἡ χαλεπὴ ἑλληνικὴ φωνή or ἡ φωνὴ ἡ ἑλληνικὴ ἡ χαλεπὴ orἡ ἑλληνικὴ φωνὴ ἡ χαλεπὴ |
In Greek the adjective can either directly precede the noun it qualifies, or follow it, but if there is a definite article, this definite article must always precede the attribute and is therefore used twice if the attribute follows the noun.
What do the Greek actually say?
- The brave boy kills the wolf.
either, like English: ὁ ἀνδρεῖος παῖς τὸν λύκον ἀποκτείνει.
or, like not so usual English: the boy, the brave one, kills the wolf.
ὁ παῖς ὁ ἀνδρεῖος ἀποκτείνει τὸν λύκον.
As you can see, both Greek and English have to add something if the adjective follows the noun: Greek repeats the article, English has to follow the adjective up with a "one(s)". Why?Because in both languages the adjective is changed into a noun, and, while Greek adjectives only need an article to function as nouns, an English adjective is just that, an adjective. And can't be used on its own. That's why we have to add the pronoun, "one(s)" to it.
- the difficult Greek language: ἡ χαλεπή ἑλληνικὴ φωνή or:
the Greek language, the difficult one: ἡ ἑλληνικὴ φωνὴ ἡ χαλεπή or:
the difficult language, the Greek one: ἡ χαλεπὴ φωνὴ ἡ ἑλληνική or
the language, the Greek one, the difficult one: ἡ φωνὴ ὴ ἑλληνικὴ ἡ χαλεπὴ.