0

In Seattle, Washington, high schooler Light Turner stumbles across the "Death Note," a mysterious leather-bound notebook with instructions that state that by writing a person's name down within it, that person will die in the manner prescribed.

This sentence is from the description of "Death Note" on Wikipedia. It says "in the manner prescribed". Would there be any difference if it were "in the prescribed manner"?

I sometimes see adjectives and participles after nouns. When do you put a participle after a noun? What makes the difference?

Improve this question
2
  • Idiomatically, your example is something of a "frozen form" which has always tended to favour a post-positioned "adjectival" past participle. Because it's a relatively dated/ formal usage, it wouldn't be likely to change today even though in other contexts we increasingly put such adjectival modifiers before the noun.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 12:29
  • By implication (actually, by entailment, since it cannot be otherwise), your cited text means by writing a person's name and a manner of execution down within [the notebook], that person will die in the manner prescribed (i.e. - in that manner).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 15:36

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
0

...that person will die in the manner [prescribed].

Non-finite clauses functioning as modifiers in noun phrase structure are quite common. Here, the past-participial clause "prescribed" modifies the noun "manner".

Such clauses are semantically similar to relative clauses: compare that person will die in the manner that is prescribed.

Past-participial modifiers are bare passives, as evident from the admissibility of a by phrase.

In your example, the modifier "prescribed" could precede the noun with no change in meaning, but it would of course cease to have a passive interpretation.

Improve this answer
-1

Adjectives and participles used as simple adjectives are usually placed before the noun modified.

However, participial phrases or clauses are usually placed after the noun modified

The man looking out the window is the one you want to talk to

In the quoted text “die in the prescribed manner” does not really make sense because there is no obligatory way to die. What is meant is

die in the manner prescribed in the notebook

The ellipsis is indicated by placing “prescribed” after the noun.

Improve this answer
5
  • You seem to be saying the position of modifier prescribed affects the meaning (prescribed by society in general, or just within the book). I don't accept that. It's just a stylistic choice for which the dominant "idiomatically established" version became more or less fixed and immutable centuries ago.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 12:32
  • I am not saying that the meaning is changed. I am saying that it is clarified. I further do not agree that it is mandatory to say “manner prescribed.” The “prescribed manner” is perfectly good English. Moreover, there is no prescribed manner of dying.
    – Jeff Morrow
    Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 12:40
  • Clarified? What possible alternative meaning is "ruled out" by the position of the word prescribed here?
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 12:53
  • You are, I believe, deliberately ignoring my point. Whether you say “prescribed manner” or treat “manner prescribed” as a stock phrase with the same meaning as “prescribed manner,” there is no standard manner of death. It is not good English to say “prescribed by the book manner.” The reason that the stock phrase has hung around is because prescription frequently is meaningful only with reference to a source: “manner prescribed by X.”
    – Jeff Morrow
    Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 15:21
  • I'm not ignoring your point. I'm saying the distinction you're tryinng to make is completely specious. The meaning of OP's text is identical regardless of whether prescribed is pre- or post-positioned - and it always implies reference to a description of the relevant manner of death somewhere within the current [con]text. As you say, there's no such concept as a "generic" default manner of death.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 15:33

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .