Sleep medicine

Almost every adjective in this list sits behind its noun — l’apnea notturna, la sonnolenza diurna, il bruxismo notturno, il sonno pesante — and the second entry does not: il forte russamento. In Italian the position is a choice, and the choice says something. After the noun, the adjective narrows: it picks out which sort of snoring is meant and sets it apart from the other sorts. Before the noun it narrows nothing; it colours, and it reads as the writer leaning on the word. So il russamento forte sorts snorers into the loud ones and the quiet ones, while il forte russamento takes the loudness as given and puts weight on it. The same pair runs right through the language: un povero uomo is a man to be pitied and un uomo povero is one without money; un grande uomo and un uomo grande are not the same person either. English has no such choice, since the adjective always comes first, and what Italian does with position we have to do with a different word or with the voice.