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I am wondering what is the difference between using particles as in (1) and (2) in terms of meaning.

(1) We need to revise the plans devised.

(2) We need to revise the devised plans.

There are some other examples same above, I don't know what we call them grammatically; for examples available in:

there are some planes available.

which is equivalent to (if so):

there are some available plans.

What I have made out is sometimes the adjective is a phrase which would not be able to precede the noun it modifies. for example in:

We need to revise the plans devised for this kind of problems.

But is there really any subtle semantic difference between this kind of expressions?

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    Of your five sample sentences, the only one that a native English speaker would be at all likely to say is ”There are some plans available.” It’s hard to discuss subtle semantic differences between constructions that aren’t actually used in practice.
    – Mike Scott
    Aug 29, 2020 at 12:45
  • @MikeScott you mean there is no usage of something like We need to revise the plans devised for this kind of problems.? I've seen this kind of structure a million times.
    – GorgMish
    Aug 29, 2020 at 14:06
  • They differ in the sense that "We need to revise the plans devised" is like "...We need to revise the plans (that is/ that has been) devised.
    – Ram Pillai
    Aug 29, 2020 at 14:19
  • @AliRasaii No, it would either be “We need to revise the plans for this kind of problem” or “We need to revise the plans that have been devised for this kind of problem”.
    – Mike Scott
    Aug 29, 2020 at 15:07

1 Answer 1

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This is a complex topic which can be researched further, for example here.

The researchers, through the present research, have investigated the different uses of both attributive-only and predicative-only adjectives. The present research aims at finding out the problematic areas faced by those who have, or like, to deal with the two subclasses of adjectives. As a matter of fact, most adjectives can function both attributively and predicatively, but some have to be used either in an attributive position or in a predicative position.

Your examples are using predicative adjectives, and therefore the attributive applications are incorrect, including:

We need to revise the plans devised.
We need to revise the devised plans.
There are some available plans.

Actually, I'm not sure if the above mentioned rule is categorical, there may very well be situations where you can use those adjectives as attributes. However not in those sentences.

The others have reduced relative clauses. "Which are" or "which have been" are implied but omitted.

there are some planes available.
We need to revise the plans devised for this kind of problems.

Is there really any subtle semantic difference between these kinds of expressions?

It’s hard to discuss subtle semantic differences between constructions that aren’t actually used in practice.

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