Logical Dimension
The logic of the group in English is recursive, based on successive subsets: working leftwards from the head, the first question that can be asked is "what kind of apples?" (Jonathon apples.) Then, "what kind of Jonathon apples?" (Shiny Jonathon apples.) "What kind of shiny Jonathon apples?" (Beautiful shiny Jonathon apples) "What kind of beautiful shiny Jonathon apples?" (Here the recursive logic changes, since this is a multivariate, not a univariate, nominal group—the question now is "How many beautiful shiny Jonathon apples?" and after that, "How do those five beautiful shiny Jonathon apples relate to me the speaker/writer, now?" ("Those ones".) In contrast, the logical questions of a univariate group would be unchanged right through, typical of long strings of nouns in news headlines and signage ("International departure lounge ladies' first-class washroom").
Read more about this topic: Nominal Group (functional Grammar)
Famous quotes containing the words logical and/or dimension:
“Grammar is a tricky, inconsistent thing. Being the backbone of speech and writing, it should, we think, be eminently logical, make perfect sense, like the human skeleton. But, of course, the skeleton is arbitrary, too. Why twelve pairs of ribs rather than eleven or thirteen? Why thirty-two teeth? It has something to do with evolution and functionalism—but only sometimes, not always. So there are aspects of grammar that make good, logical sense, and others that do not.”
—John Simon (b. 1925)
“By intervening in the Vietnamese struggle the United States was attempting to fit its global strategies into a world of hillocks and hamlets, to reduce its majestic concerns for the containment of communism and the security of the Free World to a dimension where governments rose and fell as a result of arguments between two colonels’ wives.”
—Frances Fitzgerald (b. 1940)