Or maybe In groups social. English has got some postpositive adjectives, but -s ending is too ambiguous. (socials = plural of a social, of adj. social, or 3rd person sing. of to social?)
Agreed. I tend to think where English has simplified choices compared to the “partner” language, it will hold on more stubbornly. For instance, English used to have a much wider variety of which words had inflectional endings and how many, but relying on word order was a simpler concept to memorize for a learner and more forgiving when used “sloppily”, so over time it won out, and few loanwords retained any significant number of inflections from their original languages.
We almost never pluralize adjectives, and very rarely gender them, and while not a difficult concept, doing so involves extra effort and choices. Postpositive adjectives, while rare, are not inherently more complex, so I think they could more easily make (further) inroads. All the governmental, legal, and military terms from Norman French may have some new friends in the decades to come, LOL.
Or maybe In groups social. English has got some postpositive adjectives, but -s ending is too ambiguous. (socials = plural of a social, of adj. social, or 3rd person sing. of to social?)
Agreed. I tend to think where English has simplified choices compared to the “partner” language, it will hold on more stubbornly. For instance, English used to have a much wider variety of which words had inflectional endings and how many, but relying on word order was a simpler concept to memorize for a learner and more forgiving when used “sloppily”, so over time it won out, and few loanwords retained any significant number of inflections from their original languages.
We almost never pluralize adjectives, and very rarely gender them, and while not a difficult concept, doing so involves extra effort and choices. Postpositive adjectives, while rare, are not inherently more complex, so I think they could more easily make (further) inroads. All the governmental, legal, and military terms from Norman French may have some new friends in the decades to come, LOL.