Descriptive adjective Limiting adjective

Semantic Characteristics

Morphological Composition

THE ADJECTIVE

Adjectives are words expressing properties and characteristics of objects (e.g. blue, simple, progressive, etc.) and, hence, qualifying nouns. Grammatically, four features are generally considered to be characteristic of

adjectives:

1) their syntactic function of attributes;

2) their syntactic function of predicatives;

3) their taking of adverbial modifiers of degree (e.g. very);

4) their only grammatical category — the degrees of comparison.

Adjectives in English do not change for number or case.

Simple adjectives — old, kind, bad, good, etc.

Derived adjectives. Many adjectives are formed from other parts of speech by

adding different suffixes:

-able: comfortable; -ic: atomic;

-ible: visible; -ish: childish;

-ant: elegant; -ive: attractive;

-ent: dependent; -ful: careful;

-al: cultural; -less: careless;

-ly: brotherly, friendly; -ous: dangerous;

-y: dirty, sleepy

Some past participles ending in -ed (e.g. excited) and some present participles

ending in -ing (e.g. exciting) are used as adjectives. Common pairs of -ed/-ing adjectives are: amazed / amazing; annoyed / annoying; bored / boring, enchanted / enchanting.

Compound adjectives. They are used with hyphens: grass-green, deaf-mute, blue-eyed; long-legged; fair-haired.

Semantically adjectives can be divided into two groups.

1. Qualitative adjectives denote properties of a substance directly ― great, cold, beautiful. According to their meaning they may be further differentiated as:

a) descriptive ― denoting a quality in a broad sense ― cold, light, wonderful;

b) limiting ― denoting a category, a section of a whole, a number, i.e. specifying the substance (noun) ― the previous page, an equestrian statue, medical aid, the left hand, several pages.

2. Relative adjectives describe properties of a substance through relation to material: woollen, wooden, feathery; ― time: daily, weekly, monthly; place: Northern, European, Italian; some action: defensive, preparatory.

Relative adjectives are limiting in their meaning.

Many adjectives reveal a descriptive or limiting meaning depending on the head-word or the context.

little finger ― just a small finger little finger ― the last finger of a hand

fast actions fast train

foreign manners foreign languages

musical voice musical instrument

dramatic scene dramatic performance

Adjectives are also distinguished as gradable and non-gradable. Most adjectives are gradable. That means that they can be modified by adverbs of degree and themselves change for degrees of comparison. Non-gradable adjectives admit no comparison on account of their meaning.

All dynamic adjectives are gradable. Most stative adjectives are gradable too. Non-gradable adjectives are participle adjectives and adjectives describing origin, material, type and purpose: perfect, unique, full, empty, square, round, wooden, upper.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27