I can certainly try but I should warn you that I’ve made it past maybe 4 out of the 30 lessons in the book, a few months ago at that. The excerpt I quoted is from lesson 11.
In any case, the labels he gives to the two different orders are not as yet clear to me, but basically, the professor’s saying that if the order is “adjectives+noun”, eg “happy, jolly, merry Christmas”, then the adjectives “happy, etc.” differentiate the noun Christmas from other Christmases that are not “happy, jolly, etc” (“junction”). In the other order “noun+adjectives”, the adjectives would be emphasising that all Christmases happen to be “happy, jolly, etc” (“nexus”).
The argument I’m relaying (actually from a footnote in Acariya Piya Tan’s translation of AN 6.63 which seems no longer available on dharmafarer.org for some reason), is that in the usual definition of the five strands of sensuality we have:
Bhikkhus, there are these five cords of sensual pleasure. What five? Forms cognizable by the eye that are desirable, lovely, agreeable, pleasing, sensually enticing, tantalizing. Sounds cognizable by the ear … Odours cognizable by the nose … Tastes cognizable by the tongue … Tactile objects cognizable by the body …These are the five cords of sensual pleasure.
Pañcime, bhikkhave, kāmaguṇā. Katame pañca? Cakkhuviññeyyā rūpā iṭṭhā kantā manāpā piyarūpā kāmūpasaṃhitā rajanīyā, sotaviññeyyā saddā … pe … ghānaviññeyyā gandhā … pe … jivhāviññeyyā rasā … pe … kāyaviññeyyā phoṭṭhabbā …—ime kho, bhikkhave, pañca kāmaguṇā.
In the English, it’s unclear as to whether the adjectives in the highlighted portion “desirable, lovely, etc.” apply to all forms cognizable by the eye, or whether of all the forms cognizable by the eye, just the “desirable, lovely, etc.” ones qualify as being a part of the five sensuality strands. Common sense would dictate that there are plenty of sights, sounds, etc that aren’t “desirable, lovely, etc.” and so we should read the sentence as the latter.
In the parallel portion in Pali, rūpā is the noun and the other seven words are adjectives. According to the rule, there being no verb in the sentence (the ones in the English are artificial), all seven adjectives, including cakkhuviññeyyā, would be ‘nexus’ adjectives, emphasising that all sights are of such and such characteristic, with particular emphasis on the fact of eye-cognizedness, etc. So this would dictate that we read the sentence as the former.
However, the professor in the footnote cautiously notes that “severe philologists” tend to discount such rules due to some amount of fluidity in context.