Italian adjectives may either follow or precede the noun which they modify (except that ‘specificational’ adjectives [3.29] and demonstrative adjectives always precede). Adjectives following the noun (‘postposed’ adjectives) have a particular delimiting function: they serve to identify, pick out, highlight, place in the foreground, focus attention on, a subset of the entities referred to by the noun. An adjective placed in front of the noun (‘preposed’), in contrast, is simply
‘neutral’ in this respect: it does not necessarily have any delimiting, highlighting, focusing function. The phrase Ho conosciuto uno studioso giovane che lavora sugli insetti ‘I met a young scholar working on insects’ marks the scholar out as being young (and may imply that other scholars in the field are old); Ho conosciuto un giovane studioso che lavora sugli insetti states, simply, both that he is a scholar and also that he is young.
A number of consequences flow from this distinction:
(i) Adjectives follow the noun when there is an explicit or implicit contrast with other entities:
Ho invitato i colleghi giovani, non i colleghi ‘I invited my young colleagues, not my
anziani. old colleagues.’
Apri la scatola grande e prendimi la matita ‘Open the big box [rather than any other
verde. box] and get me the green pencil [rather
than any of the other pencils].’
Mi avevi detto che ti piace la cucina ‘You’d told me you like Indian cooking, indiana, ma io avevo capito ‘cucina italiana’. but I’d thought you’d said “Italian
cooking”.’
(ii) Italian adjectives overwhelmingly follow the noun; this may be viewed as a natural consequence of the fact that adjectives tend to single out a subset of the entities referred to by the noun as possessing some particular property:
A volte il fare uno scherzo cattivo lascia un ‘Sometimes making a bad joke leaves a
gusto amaro. bitter taste.’
Ricordatevi di essere concreti e di parlare ‘Remember to be concrete and to speak con battute brevi e pungenti. in short, pithy phrases.’
È certo una congettura arrischiata, ‘It certainly is a daring speculation, trattandosi di un testo molto complesso. since we’re dealing with a very complex
text.’
(iii) ‘Defining’, ‘delimiting’ functions of the adjective are only possible when there is a possibility of contrast. If there is no such possibility, the ‘defining’ func-tion of the adjective becomes inappropriate, and the adjective tends to precede the noun. This occurs, for example, when the noun denotes an inherent characteristic of a unique individual, or where the adjective expresses some inherent, essential, quality associated with the noun (such as the whiteness of snow – there is no such thing, normally, as snow which is not white):
Aprirà la serie il simpaticissimo ‘The series will be opened by the Braccobaldo, con la storia di Braccobaldo delightful B, with the story of B the
pompiere. fireman.’
Li guardò con materna dolcezza. ‘She looked at them with maternal sweetness.’
Contemplavo la bianca neve delle montagne. ‘I was contemplating the white snow of the mountains.’
If one were to say Aprirà la serie il Braccobaldo simpaticissimo, this might be taken to imply that B is only sometimes simpaticissimo, but that he will be on this occasion, or that there is some rival Braccobaldo who is not simpaticissimo, but that the one opening the series is the one who is simpaticissimo. Li guardò con materna dolcezza tends to imply that the subject actually is their mother, and that her dolcezza is natural to her as a mother; the alternative Li guardò con dolcezza materna merely tells us that the sweetness is of a kind typical of mothers, ‘like a mother’s’. As for a sentence such as Contemplavo la neve bianca delle montagne, its effect would be to especially highlight and emphasize the whiteness of the snow, to draw the reader’s/hearer’s attention to its whiteness, to make it clear that this was snow that was particularly prominent by its whiteness. The sense is not too distant from ‘I was contemplating the snow of the mountains. How white it was!’
In a sentence such as
Gli uomini sono delle disgraziate creature ‘Men are wretched creatures condemned
condannate al progresso. to progress.’
the preposing of disgraziate implies that ‘wretchedness’ is an inherent, necessary characteristic of creature condannate al progresso. An alternative Gli uomini sono delle creature disgraziate condannate al progresso, disgraziate would simply define men as creatures who are ‘wretched’ and also ‘condemned to progress’. In fact, preposing is typical of adjectives expressing properties which the speaker asserts as being inherent or characteristic of the noun, among them particularly those expressing attitudes of sympathy and antipathy: Odio quel maledetto professore ‘I The position of the adjective 49
hate that blasted professor’; Amavo infinitamente il mio santo professore ‘I loved my saintly teacher infinitely’.
In the following example, the effect of postposing eccitatissimo is to indicate that Bendicò (a dog) is, at that moment, in a very excited mood, which is not his inherent state (a fact also indicated by the use of the indefinite article).4But the preposed adjective breve suggests that there is only one ‘flight of steps leading to the garden’, and therefore no possibility of contrast with any other ‘flight of steps leading to the garden’:
Preceduto da un Bendicò eccitatissimo ‘Preceded by a very excited Bendicò, he discese la breve scala che conduceva al came down the short flight of steps
giardino. leading to the garden.’
In the following, the preposing of oscuri probably reflects the fact that ‘pine woods’ tend naturally to be ‘dark’:
Sono saliti per oliveti, poi per terreni ‘They climbed through olive groves, gerbidi, poi per oscuri boschi di pini. then through barren land, then through
dark pine woods.’
Adjectives which indicate common and inherent characteristics, such as bello, brutto, buono, cattivo, grande, piccolo are often placed before the noun:
È una bella ragazza. ‘She’s a beautiful girl.’
Non venga a dirci che è il buon Dio a ‘Let him not try and tell us that the good infilargli la carta falsa nel polsino. Lord is slipping the false card up his
sleeve.’
Ha varcato il portone di Palazzo Chigi di ‘He walked briskly through the front
buon passo. door of Palazzo Chigi.’
Il vecchio contadino inglese pensava a Dio ‘The old English peasant thought of God come a un «buon vecchio», a Cristo come a as a “nice old man”, Christ as a “fine un «bel giovanotto», all’anima come a un young man”, the soul as a “big bone
«grosso osso confitto nel corpo» e all’aldilà stuck in the body” and the afterlife as a come a un «bel prato verde». “nice green meadow”.’
Non modificano un bel niente, perché, un ‘They don’t change a damned thing, bel giorno, tutto andrà a catafascio. because one fine day everything will go
to pieces.’
Ho scoperto un piccolo problema. ‘I’ve discovered a little problem.’
C’è un cattivo odore qui dentro. ‘There’s a bad smell in here.’
The effect of preposing adjectives may require special attention when translat-ing Italian into English. For example, adjectives of place and nationality virtually always follow the noun in Italian, and preposing them creates a highly marked stylistic effect, so that a phrase such as Il lombardo scrittore di queste pagine non avrebbe mai usato una espressione così tipicamente siciliana is not just ‘The Lombard writer of these pages would never have used such a typically Sicilian expres-sion’, but ‘The writer of these pages, as a true Lombard/in his capacity as a Lombard, would never have used such a typically Sicilian expression’ or ‘The
4This example is slightly complicated by the fact that the use of the indefinite article alone would suffice to show that being excited was a temporary state, independently of the position of the adjective. But if we substitute da un Bendicò with dal cane Bendicò, there emerges a clearer distinction between dall’eccitatissimo cane Bendicò which would tend to imply that excitedness was an expected characteristic of the dog, and dal cane Bendicò eccitatissimo which would suggest that on this occasion he was very excited.
essentially Lombard writer of these pages would never have used such a typically Sicilian expression.’
(iv) Because the adjective tends to be preposed when it expresses an inherent quality of the noun, use of a preposed adjective may in turn suggest that the quality expressed by the adjective is inherent to the noun, whilst postposing the adjective could imply that this was not so. This fact is noticeable, for example, in the language of political propaganda and of advertising:
Le nostre eroiche truppe hanno salvato la ‘Our heroic troops have saved the lives
vita a molti bambini. of many children.’
Ammirerete i delicati colori delle bluse ‘You’ll admire the delicate colours of
Armani. Armani blouses.’
To have used a postposed adjective in these examples would have been to suggest that our troops are not all or inherently heroic, that not all the colours of Armani blouses are delicate. Note that the force of a postposed adjective in these examples might well be expressed in English by stressing the adjective: Le nostre truppe eroiche hanno salvato la vita a molti bambini and Ammirerete i colori delicati delle bluse Armani are equivalent to saying ‘Our heroic troops have saved the lives of many children’, ‘You’ll admire the delicate colours of Armani blouses’, possibly leaving the implication that our less-than-heroic troops, on the other hand, did not do so, or that some of the colours are not delicate, and those you won’t admire.
Other examples of a preposed adjective implying that the referent of the noun intrinsically has the quality expressed by the adjective are:
Ho sempre ammirato i tuoi affascinanti ‘I’ve always admired your fascinating
quadri. paintings.’
Odio quegli orribili posti. ‘I hate those horrible places.’
Entrò il terribile dittatore, Stalin. ‘In walked the terrible dictator Stalin.’
On the other hand, there are cases where the effect of preposing the adjective would be strange. Phrases such as la tedesca invasione dell’Austria or l’italiano patto con il nemico are odd in the extreme. But they are not absolutely impossible, and might conceivably be used where the implication or background belief was that there was something characteristically and uniquely German about invading Austria, and Italian about making pacts with the enemy.
(v) Complex adjectival phrases (for example those consisting of an adverb and an adjective, or conjoined adjectives – see 3.27) tend to follow the noun. In fact, the longer the adjectival phrase the more likely it is to follow. Adjectives such as buono which usually precede the noun, tend to follow when they are modified by an adverb. Adjectival phrases containing a preposition (including such things as d’oro ‘golden’, or a fiori ‘flower patterned’ – see 11.23, 25 – which consist of a preposition + noun) always follow the noun they modify:
Una miriade di minuscoli pesci argentati ‘A myriad minute silvery fish swim back
risalgono il flusso. up the stream.’
but
Una miriade di pesci minuscoli e argentati ‘A myriad minute, silvery fish swim back
risalgono il flusso. up the stream.’
The position of the adjective 51
Pin ha due braccine smilze smilze. ‘P has two spindly little arms.’
Aspetta di vederne uscire un colombello ‘He is expecting to see emerging from it nuovo e voglioso di vivere. a new little dove keen to live.’
Si recarono nelle vie solitamente frequentate ‘They made their way into the streets da prostitute, spacciatori e drogati. usually frequented by prostitutes,
pushers and addicts.’
Era una cosa davvero straordinaria a ‘It was a truly extraordinary thing to
vedersi. see.’
È certo una congettura arrischiata, ‘It’s certainly a hazardous conjecture, trattandosi di un testo molto complesso. since we’re dealing with a very complex
text.’
Mi sembra un’idea proprio stupida. ‘It seems a really stupid idea to me.’
Ricordo che comprasti un orologio d’oro. ‘I recall you bought a gold watch.’
Conosco una donna dai capelli rossi. ‘I know a red-haired woman.’
Ho degli amici appassionati di musica. ‘I have some friends [who are] mad keen on music.’
È stato un risultato abbastanza/molto ‘It was a fairly/very good result.’
buono.
In elevated and rather archaic styles adjectival phrases consisting of poco/molto/alquanto/quasi/pressoché/assai/bene + adjective may occasionally precede the noun:
Apprezzo i molto eleganti scritti di Dalmazi. ‘I appreciate D’s very elegant writings.’
i quasi ignoti ruderi di questa zona ‘the all but unknown ruins of this area’
una pressoché totale sintonia di vedute ‘a nearly total harmony of views’