demonstrative adjectives and "clause + 的"

[Alchemist]

I have a question about the position of demostrative adjectives (and following classifiers) when there's a noun modified by the structure "clause + 的".

Here are some examples from my textbook:

那个唱歌儿的姑娘是谁？

那个穿白衬衫绿裙子的姑娘呢？

我们昨天晚上去的那个剧场很大。

今天下午我们想去看刚从广州来的那个工程师。

In the first two examples the structure "demonstrative + classifier + noun" is split and the structure "clause + 的" is inserted in between. In the last examples, however, the structure "clause + 的" precedes the whole structure "demonstrative + classifier + noun".

So... are both ways equally possible?

Thank you.

[HashiriKata]

The order of modifying elements in a noun phrase is normally not fixed (especially the position of the classifier), and speakers normally arrange them in an order which is the easiest to understand or which has the least possibility of misunderstanding. One thing you need to watch out for in a noun phrase ABCD is whether A, B and C all modifies D; or whether A modifies B and this unit AB in turn modifies D. For example:

那个饭店的人 is different from 饭店的那个人 , so the position of the classifier in this case cannot be freely changed.

With reference to your examples above, I think 那个 can be moved to a different position in some but not in the last example 今天下午我们想去看刚从广州来的那个工程师, because the classifier would then become too far from its head noun.

[bmw_f1_power]

Alchemist, I too was confused by the word order in this type of sentence.

You may find the answers to a few questions I asked useful. Here is the link to my discussion:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=3187&sid=46db9039bae4b889b6087dbb8da6a484