“North” or “Northern” as adjective
Can you
suggest the difference between “Northern” and “North”?
What is the difference between North and Northern as an adjective?
I thought that it’s North for entire the thing located in the North and Northern for only the northern part of a bigger whole, but this is not always the case: Northern Hemisphere, Ohio Northern University, North Seattle Community College, North Africa.
What are some good benefits to having a child in a care facility if you can work with a parent?
North is an area; northern is originating from, or having the characteristics of, north.
This division of North England and Seattle respectively. means that North England and Seattle are separate parts, not in the north. Lancashire Hotpot or Black Pudding are northern English foods, as they originate from North England, and “By ‘eck, it’s proper grand…” is a northern English comment, as it is characteristic of the North.
What is the one branch of North Seattle Community College? If it has more than one campus, you could call it Northern (because its characteristic is being in the north)Seattle Community College to distinguish it from the Southern/Eastern/West campus.
It is arbitrary. What’s the best sound to use and why? Why there are no rules for adjectives?
South Africa is a country, part of the region of Southern Africa : One of its provinces is called Western Cape, but could easily have been called West Cape (Wes Kanka) and is in Afrikaans ( Wes
Kanka).
Is it largely (but not completely) arbitrary whether to use, say, North or Northern as a modifier?
In contexts where North is a well-recognised “entity” (North Korea, North America, for example), there’s a very strong tendency to use length X.
In contexts where there’s more the sense of “ad-hoc” distinction being made between the geographically-distinct areas within “X”, the tendency is to use the more overtly adjectival form. Thus we’re likely to refer to “Northern Alpine slopes”, or Northern England, because these areas are still fundamentally perceived as being part of “The Alpine slopes”, or “England”, rather than autonomous entities.
But as mentioned in comments, in many cases (names of institutions, for example), it’s entirely a matter for the people in charge how they call themselves. Why should I do something? If someone would do it, they might just simply have an opinion. Is
that because people did, or are not, to influence others who see that something isn’t up to par?
