The author notes that although Winter (1965) seems correct in finding fault with the original Chomsky-Smith analysis of adjective-noun combinations, the notion "pattern spread," which he proposes as a counter-explanation, is not properly a grammatical explanation. It is instead a speculation about the historical origin of some adjective-noun combinations. A generative grammar makes no historical claims for its derivations. Separate sets of rules must be posited for the interpretation of two adjective-noun combinations like "the late president" and "the tall president." This complication will be necessary despite the fact that in both these conbinations the adjectives seem to bear the same grammatical relation to the head noun. (Author/AMM)