Premier, principal, primordial : des adjectifs qui sortent du rang ?

Catherine Schnedecker : Are premier, principal, primordial falling out of line adjectives? The three adjectival expressions premier, principal, primordial are generally considered as being synonymous. Yet, primordial is close to the so called "qualifiers" whereas premier & principal are not. On the other hand premier & principal present original properties such as bi-valency, "parallel" graduability, partitivity and even performativity, a fact that general studies do not account for preferring giving credence to the idea of an adjectival category. Besides, premier & principal are complementary. Actually, premier comes from a "hierarchy" in the strict sense, unlike principal. It does not only account for the constraints weighing on adjacent nouns but also for the way the relations between a whole and its parts are conceptualized. Premier involving seemingly countables entities connected by a successivity relation whereas principal is operating in a "massiver way on blurred outlined entities".Schnedecker Catherine. Premier, principal, primordial : des adjectifs qui sortent du rang ?. In: Langue française, n°136, 2002. L'adjectif sans qualité(s) sous la direction de Catherine Schnedecker. pp. 89-103