Query Details

Query Subject:	"Corporate Noun-Phrase Reversal"
Author:	Dan Stowell
Submitter Email:	click here to access email

Linguistic LingField(s):	Syntax

Query:	Dear Linguistlist, I've spotted a small trend in English which confuses me. I don't know if I've named it perfectly, but I'm calling it ''Corporate Noun-Phrase Reversal'', because it's a weird little tendency for some corporate language, in particular product-names, to put the adjective after the noun. My evidence: - The yoghurt product I know as ''Fruit Corner'' now seems to be called ''Corner Fruit'', judging by the container. - I saw an advert in a Sock Shop for ''sock toes'', which my best guess led me to expect them to be tiny little socks, one for each toe. (''I'd like a sock toe, please.'' ''Certainly sir, for which toe?'' ''The little toe.'') Closer inspection... they were actually advertising the things I refer to as ''toe socks'', socks which are shaped so that each toe has its own little section of sock. If there is an explanation for this I'd love to hear it. Is there some internationalisation effect (''je veux un corner fruit''...)? As a native British English speaker it retards my understanding, so I'm most perplexed by it. Dan Stowell University College London UK -
LL Issue:	13.2209
Date posted:	03-Sep-2002
Back

Sums main page

New from Cambridge University Press!