The position of the adjectives in nominal groups: A syntactic, semantic and discoursive issue

In the Portuguese language, the adjective in attributive position can occur before or after the noun, establishing two nominal structures: [N+Adj] and [Adj+N]. On the other hand, in the English language, it only occurs before the noun [Adj+N], even in structures with two or more adjectives: nice tall German girl. According to Quirk and Greenbaun (1973), Leech and Svartvik, (1975), and Kemmerer (2000), these sequences seem to possess definite positions in the English language. The double position of the adjective in Portuguese makes us believe that this freedom of occurrence extends itself even to structures with two adjectives. Questioning the position of the adjectives in this article, we approach nominal phrases built with two adjectives, and working with the syntactic-semantic categories, we try to demonstrate that the Portuguese language, as it happens in the English language, has syntactic-semantic and discoursive principles which rule the position of the adjective in this type of structure.