And þan it wole be a good oynement restoratif… Pre- and Postnominal Adjectives in Middle English Medical Recipes*

The present paper concentrates on the use of adjective modifiers in Middle English medical recipes. Although the study of the position of attributive adjectives in Middle English nominal phrases has attracted attention of many scholars (e.g. Norri 1989; Raumolin- Brunberg 1994; Fischer 2004; 2006; Moskowich 2009), there are no studies that would address the use of pre- and postnominal adjectives in the material representing only one genre (here, medical recipes). This paper will investigate several factors that might have determined the position of attributive adjectives in nominal phrases. Hence, the following questions will be considered: (i) was there a direct link between the origin of the adjective and its position in the noun phrase?, (ii) did the use of attributive adjectives only aim to identify the specific referents of the noun phrases or (iii) were there other reasons for their uses (the intended audience, technicality of source texts)?