Wednesday, November 8, 2017

adjectives - "Turquoise-haired"—(-ed) suffix attached to a noun


I found this sentence on Complex



Amber Rose hangs out with (a) turquoise-haired mystery girl.



I couldn't find 'turquoise-haired' in any dictionary, but a similar construction, "dark-haired", has its place in Collin dictionary.


I don't understand how it's possible to attach the -ed suffix to a noun. Do we have a fancy term for this?




Answer



This is referred to as a pseudo-participial in English Grammar: A University Course (Downing and Locke, 2006). It's a form of participle derived from a noun. This participle is often modified to represent some non-essential feature.



The true -en participial epithet derived from a verb [...] must be distinguished from pseudo-participials, which are derived from nouns [...]


Such pseudo-participials are often modified, as the modification represents some non-essential feature. We don’t say *a leaved plant, *a haired girl, because plants normally have leaves and girls have hair. Not all leaves are big and not all girls’ hair is dark, however, allowing the formation of big-leaved and dark-haired: a dark-haired girl. In a camera’ed bystander, by contrast, no modifier is needed because carrying a camera is not an essential feature of a bystander.


(p 436)



According to StoneyB, this - ed suffix is a participle form with a passive sense "supplied with" or "equiped with".


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