Skip to main content
English Language Learners

Return to Question

Post Deleted by CommunityBot
Post Locked by CommunityBot
Post Migrated Away to english.stackexchange.com by user230
Post Closed as "Not suitable for this site" by user230
edited tags
Link
Jasper
Jasper
  • 24.4k
  • 4
  • 55
  • 86
added 36 characters in body
Source Link
Færd
Færd
  • 2k
  • 4
  • 18
  • 33

Consider these sentences:

  1. If you haven't got a fresh chicken, I'll take a frozen.
    2. If you haven't got a fresh chicken, I'll take the frozen.
    3. If you haven't got fresh cream, I'll take canned.
    4. If you haven't got (any) fresh cream, I'll take some canned.
    5. If you haven't got fresh cream, I'll take the canned.

As you see, frozen and canned are adjectives that are used attributively but their accompanying nouns are left out. Is it grammatical to do so? Under what conditions? Does the phrase remain a noun phrase?

Of course, the problem can be detoured by adding back the omitted nouns (frozen chicken/one, canned cream), but the question is, cannot the adjectives do alone?

You can also share your native impression and tell us (preferably in the comment section) which of the sentences above you find acceptable and which unnatural.

Consider these sentences:

  1. If you haven't got a fresh chicken, I'll take a frozen.
    2. If you haven't got a fresh chicken, I'll take the frozen.
    3. If you haven't got fresh cream, I'll take canned.
    4. If you haven't got (any) fresh cream, I'll take some canned.
    5. If you haven't got fresh cream, I'll take the canned.

As you see, frozen and canned are adjectives that are used attributively but their accompanying nouns are left out. Is it grammatical to do so? Under what conditions? Does the phrase remain a noun phrase?

Of course, the problem can be detoured by adding back the omitted nouns (frozen chicken/one, canned cream), but the question is, cannot the adjectives do alone?

You can also share your native impression and tell us which of the sentences above you find acceptable and which unnatural.

Consider these sentences:

  1. If you haven't got a fresh chicken, I'll take a frozen.
    2. If you haven't got a fresh chicken, I'll take the frozen.
    3. If you haven't got fresh cream, I'll take canned.
    4. If you haven't got (any) fresh cream, I'll take some canned.
    5. If you haven't got fresh cream, I'll take the canned.

As you see, frozen and canned are adjectives that are used attributively but their accompanying nouns are left out. Is it grammatical to do so? Under what conditions? Does the phrase remain a noun phrase?

Of course, the problem can be detoured by adding back the omitted nouns (frozen chicken/one, canned cream), but the question is, cannot the adjectives do alone?

You can also share your native impression and tell us (preferably in the comment section) which of the sentences above you find acceptable and which unnatural.

Tweeted twitter.com/StackEnglishLL/status/798926305844744192
Source Link
Færd
Færd
  • 2k
  • 4
  • 18
  • 33

"If you don't have a fresh chicken, I'll take a frozen (one)." – When can an adjective act on behalf of a whole noun phrase?

Consider these sentences:

  1. If you haven't got a fresh chicken, I'll take a frozen.
    2. If you haven't got a fresh chicken, I'll take the frozen.
    3. If you haven't got fresh cream, I'll take canned.
    4. If you haven't got (any) fresh cream, I'll take some canned.
    5. If you haven't got fresh cream, I'll take the canned.

As you see, frozen and canned are adjectives that are used attributively but their accompanying nouns are left out. Is it grammatical to do so? Under what conditions? Does the phrase remain a noun phrase?

Of course, the problem can be detoured by adding back the omitted nouns (frozen chicken/one, canned cream), but the question is, cannot the adjectives do alone?

You can also share your native impression and tell us which of the sentences above you find acceptable and which unnatural.