Introduction. Adjective categories

Adjective categories

English and Russian adjectives: the main typological characteristics and the category of the degree of quality

4 classes of Rus adj:

1. expressing quality – qualitative (большой, тонкий)

2. expressing quality through its relation to other things and actions, denoting a property of an object through the relation to other object or predicate (e.g.Москва-московский, каменный-стена, весенний день – relative adj)

3. possessive adj - denoting smth belongs to smth (отцов пиджак)

4. evaluating adj (хороший)

3 groups of Eng adj:

1. qualitative (big house)

2. relative (chemical class)

3. evaluative (good student)

Eng relative adj - attributive word-combination N+N, where the 1^st N modifies, serves as an attr. to the second one (a stone wall – каменная стена, gold watch, spring flower – unstable compounds)

possessive adj – no category in Eng. as the E. has possessive case of nouns

Rus adj agree with nouns which they modify

Eng - no agreement of this type (большой дом, большая семья – big house, big boy)

2 forms of Rus qualitative adj: the full and the short form (коварная женщина – женщина коварна)

Qualitative and evaluative adj have degree of comparison in both the languages: positive, comparative and superlative degrees.

Rus comparative degree is formed both synthetically and analytically (храбрый – храбрее – более храбрый, чем…)

Rus superlative degree is formed analytically (самый)

Eng - synthetical and analytical forms to render the degrees of comparison.

Synthetical forms are used with ½ syllable adj (big – bigger – the biggest).

Analytical forms are typical of multisyllable adj (difficult – more d – the most d)

Illative form superlative degree (элатив).

Eng analytical form vs Rus synthetical form

e.g. наимоднейший– a most fashionable dress. Eng. - formed by using indefinite article + the word most + adj.

Direct and indirect speeches are two ways used in reporting what someone has said. They are mostly used in spoken English. Direct speech is speech inside quotation marks. It is used to repeat the exact words that somebody said: My mother told me, "You have to work harder in school, or you'll fail."

While this is okay for sharing stories with friends, this is not the best way to report a conversation, either in speech or in writing. It shows a better education to use reported speech: My mother told me that I had to work harder or that I would fail.

It is important to learn how the transformation goes so as to be accurate in your interactions with the others. The makeover of a direct utterance to indirect speech has to abide to some rules.

If we want to say what other people said, thought or felt, we can use the direct and indirect speech (reported speech).

The direct speech: "I like it," he said. "Irene is late," he thought. "I will pass the exam," she hoped.

The reported speech: He said he liked it. He thought that Irene was late. She hoped she would pass the exam.

The reported speech is typically introduced by verbs such as say, tell, admit, complain, explain, remind, reply, think, hope, offer, refuse etc. in the past tense.

He said (that) he didn't want it.

She explained that she had been at the seaside.

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