現代英語では，通常，限定用法の形容詞は名詞の前に置かれるが，名詞の後に置かれる例も意外と多くある．形容詞の後置修飾には以下のような様々な種類が認められる．

　(1) 不定代名詞の -thing, -body, -one: ex. something strange, nobody else, everything possible; cf. all things English
　(2) all, any, every, 最上級を伴う -able, -ible: ex. every means imaginable, the latest information available
　(3) フランス語などの影響を受けた慣用的語法: ex. the sum total, from time immemorial, the devil incarnate, bloody royal
　(4) 固有名詞を区別する語法: ex. Elizabeth the Second, Asia Minor, Hotel Majestic
　(5) 修飾語を伴って長くなる場合: ex. a friend worthy of confidence, a meal typical of Japan
　(6) 叙述用法に近い場合: ex. all the people present, the authorities concerned, the person opposite
　(7) 動詞的性質をもつ分詞形容詞: ex. the people arrested, the best car going
　(8) 強調・対照・リズムの関係: ex. America, past and present
　(9) その他の慣用的語法: ex. on Monday next, for ten years past, me included, Poet Laureate, B flat/sharp/major/minor, Longman Group Limited/Ltd (UK), Hartcourt Brace Jovanovich, Incorporated/Inc (US)

　今回注目したいのは (3) のフランス語の影響を受けた慣用的な表現である．Quirk et al. (Section 7.21) によれば，"institutionalized expressions (mostly in official designations)" として次のような例が挙げられている．

　・ attorney general
　・ body politic
　・ court martial
　・ from time immemorial
　・ heir apparent
　・ notary public
　・ postmaster general
　・ the president elect ['soon to take office']
　・ vice-chancellor designate

　これらの表現は慣用表現であるから，通常は分析されずに複合語のようにみなされている．とりわけ法律用語については，「#336. Law French」 ([2010-03-29-1]) を参照．
　英語史の観点から特に重要なのは，Quirk et al. (Section 7.21) の次の注記である．エリザベス朝で流行した語法とは興味深い指摘だが，確認と調査が必要だろう．

The postpositive adjective, as in the president elect and vice-chancellor designate, reflects a neoclassical style based on Latin participles and much in vogue in Elizabethan times.

　フランス語の影響による形容詞後置としてはエリザベス朝よりもずっと新しいものと思われるが，料理の分野に特有の "postposed 'mode' qualifier" と呼ばれる種類もある (Section 17.60) ．

Postposed 'mode' qualifier: Lobster Newburg
There is another French model of postposition in English that we may call postposed 'mode' qualifier, as in Lobster Newburg. Though virtually confined to cuisine (rather than mere cooking), it is moderately productive within these limits, perhaps especially in AmE. In BrE one finds veal paprika and many others, but there is some resistance to this type of postposition with other than French lexical items, as in páté maison, sole bonne femme. Nevertheless (perhaps partly because, in examples like the latter, the French and English head nouns are identical), the language has become receptive to hybrids like poached salmon mayonnaise, English scallops provencal.

　・ Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman, 1985.

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