ADJECTIVES (adjectives.doc)

Adjectives can be identified using a number of formal criteria. However, we may begin by saying that they typically describe an attribute of a noun:     

cold weather    large windows    violent storms 

   Some adjectives can be identified by their endings. Typical adjective endings include:        

However, a large number of very common adjectives cannot be identified in this way. They do not have typical adjectival form:  

    As this list shows, adjectives are formally very diverse. However, they have a number of characteristics which we can use to identify them.  

Characteristics of Adjectives

Adjectives can take a modifying word, such as very, extremely, or less, before them:     

very cold weather    extremely large windows    less violent storms 

   Here, the modifying word locates the adjective on a scale of comparison, at a position higher or lower than the one indicated by the adjective alone.  

This characteristic is known as GRADABILITY. Most adjectives are gradable, though if the adjective already denotes the highest position on a scale, then it is non-gradable:  

      As well as taking modifying words like very and extremely,adjectives also take different forms to indicate their position on a scale of comparison:     

big     bigger     biggest

    The lowest point on the scale is known as the ABSOLUTE form, the middle point is known as the COMPARATIVE form, and the highest point is known as the SUPERLATIVE form. Here are some more examples:  

In most cases, the comparative is formed by adding -er , and the superlative is formed by adding -est, to the absolute form. However, a number of very common adjectives are irregular in this respect:   

Some adjectives form the comparative and superlative using more and most respectively:  

Attributive and Predicative Adjectives

Most adjectives can occur both before and after a noun:   

Adjectives in the first position - before the noun - are called ATTRIBUTIVE adjectives. Those in the second position - after the noun - are called PREDICATIVE adjectives. Notice that predicative adjectives do not occur immediately after the noun. Instead, they follow a verb.  

Sometimes an adjective does occur immediately after a noun, especially in certain institutionalised expressions: 

the Governor General   the Princess Royal   times past 

We refer to these as POSTPOSITIVE adjectives. Postposition is obligatory when the adjective modifies a pronoun: 

something useful   everyone present   those responsible 

Postpositive adjectives are commonly found together with superlative, attributive adjectives: 

the shortest route possible   the worst conditions imaginable   the best hotel available 

Most adjectives can freely occur in both the attributive and the predicative positions. However, a small number of adjectives are restricted to one position only. For example, the adjective main (the main reason) can only occur in the attributive position (predicative: *the reason is main). Conversely, the adjective afraid (the child was afraid) can only occur predicatively (attributive: *an afraid child).    

an old man

~a man who is old

difficult questions

~questions which are difficult

round glasses

~glasses which are round

Inherent

Non-inherent

distant hills

distant relatives

a complete chapter

a complete idiot

a heavy burden

a heavy smoker

a social survey

a social animal

an old man

an old friend

calm  careful  cruel  disruptive  foolish  friendly  good  impatient

mannerly  patient  rude  shy  suspicious  tidy  vacuous  vain 

Nominal Adjectives

Certain adjectives are used to denote a class by describing one of the attributes of the class. For example, the poor denotes a class of people who share a similar financial status. Other nominal adjectives are:  

the old   the sick   the wealthy
the blind   the innocent 

A major subclass of nominal adjectives refers to nationalities:  
 

the French   the British   the Japanese 

However, not all nationalities have corresponding nominal adjectives. Many of them are denoted by plural, proper nouns: 
 

the Germans   the Russians   the Americans   the Poles 

Nominal adjectives do not refer exclusively to classes of people. Indeed some of them do not denote classes at all:  
 

the opposite   the contrary   the good 

Comparative and superlative forms can also be nominal adjectives: 
 

the best is yet to come   the elder of the two   the greatest of these   the most important among them 

We refer to all of these types as nominal adjectives because they share some of the characteristics of nouns (hence `nominal') and some of the characteristics of adjectives. They have the following nominal characteristics: 

1. they are preceded by a determiner (usually the definite article the) 
2. they can be modified by adjectives (the gallant French, the unfortunate poor) 

They have the following adjectival features: 
 

1. they are gradable (the very old, the extremely wealthy) 
2. many can take comparative and superlative forms (the poorer, the poorest)  

Adjectives and Nouns

We have seen that attributive adjectives occur before a noun which they modify, for example, red in red car. We need to distinguish these clearly from nouns which occur in the same position, and fulfil the same syntactic function. Consider the following:   

rally car   saloon car   family car 

Here, the first word modifies the second, that is, it tells us something further about the car. For example, a rally car is a car which is driven in rallies. These modifiers occur in the same position as red in the example above, but they are not adjectives. We can show this by applying our criteria for the adjective class.

Firstly, they do not take very:   

*a very rally car   *a very saloon car   *a very family car 

Secondly, they do not have comparative or superlative forms:   

*rallier *ralliest / *more rally / *most rally   *salooner *saloonest / *more saloon / *most saloon   *familier *familiest / *more family / *most family 

  And finally, they cannot occur in predicative position:   

*the car is rally   *the car is saloon   *the car is family 

So although these words occupy the typical adjective position, they are not adjectives. They are nouns.

However, certain adjectives are derived from nouns, and are known as DENOMINAL adjectives. Examples include:    

a mathematical puzzle [`a puzzle based on mathematics']   a biological experiment [`an experiment in biology']   a wooden boat [`a boat made of wood'] 

  Denominals include adjectives which refer to nationality:   

a Russian lady [`a lady who comes from Russia']   German goods [`goods produced in Germany'] 

  Denominal adjectives of this type should be carefully distinguished from nominal adjectives denoting nationalities. Compare:    

Nominal Adjective: The French are noted for their wines   Denominal Adjective: The French people are noted for their wines 

Participial Adjectives

We saw in an earlier section that many adjectives can be identified by their endings. Another major subclass of adjectives can also be formally distinguished by endings, this time by -ed or -ing endings:   

Remember that some -ed forms, such as misunderstood and unknown, do not end in -ed at all. This is simply a cover term for this form. Adjectives with -ed or -ing endings are known as PARTICIPIAL ADJECTIVES, because they have the same endings as verb participles (he was training for the Olympics, he had trained for the Olympics). In some cases there is a verb which corresponds to these adjectives (to annoy, to computerize, to excite, etc), while in others there is no corresponding verb (*to renown, *to self-centre, *to talent). Like other adjectives, participial adjectives can usually be modified by very, extremely, or less (very determined, extremely self-centred, less frightening, etc). They can also take more and most to form comparatives and superlatives (annoying, more annoying, most annoying). Finally, most participial adjectives can be used both attributively and predicatively:   

Many participial adjectives, which have no corresponding verb, are formed by combining a noun with a participle:    

alcohol-based chemicals   battle-hardened soldiers   drug-induced coma   energy-saving devices   fact-finding mission   purpose-built accommodation 

These, too, can be used predicatively (the chemicals are alcohol-based, the soldiers were battle-hardened, etc).   

When participial adjectives are used predicatively, it may sometimes be difficult to distinguish between adjectival and verbal uses:     

[1] the workers are striking 

In the absence of any further context, the grammatical status of striking is indeterminate here. The following expansions illustrate possible adjectival [1a] and verbal [1b] readings of [1]:     

[1a] the workers are very striking in their new uniforms (=`impressive', `conspicuous')   

[1b] the workers are striking outside the factory gates (=`on strike') 

Consider the following pair:    

[2] the noise is annoying   [3] the noise is annoying the neighbours 

In [2], we can modify annoying using very:    

[2a] the noise is (very) annoying 

But we cannot modify it in the same way in [3]:    

[3a] *the noise is (very) annoying the neighbours 

The acceptability of [2a] indicates that annoying is an adjective in this construction. In [3], the verbal nature of annoying is indicated by the fact that we cannot add very , as in [3a]. It is further indicated by the presence of the neighbours (the direct object) after annoying. Notice also that we can turn [3] into a passive sentence (the neighbours were annoyed by the noise). In this case, annoying is the main verb of the sentence, and it is preceded by the progressive auxiliary verb is. In [2], there is only one verb, the main verb is.   

We can distinguish between the following pairs using the same criteria:  

We can also identify -ing forms as verbal if it is possible to change the -ing form into a non-progressive verb:  

Compare these changes from progressive to non-progressive with the following:  

In these instances, the inability to produce fully acceptable non-progressive sentences indicates adjectival use.   

Similar indeterminacy occurs with -ed forms. Again, we can generally use very to determine whether the -ed word is adjectival or verbal:   

The inability to supply very in these cases indicates a verbal rather than an adjectival construction. However, this test is less reliable with -ed forms than it is with -ing forms, since very can sometimes be supplied in both the adjectival and the verbal constructions:   

The presence of a by-agent phrase (by your behaviour, by my reaction) indicates that the -ed form is verbal. Conversely, the presence of a complement, such as a that-clause, indicates that it is adjectival. Compare the following two constructions:   

Here are some further examples of adjectival constructions (with complements) and verbal constructions (with by-agent phrases):   

If the -ed form is verbal, we can change the passive construction in which it occurs into an active one:   

For more on active and passive constructions, see...     

As we have seen, discriminating between adjectival and verbal constructions is sometimes facilitated by the presence of additional context, such as by-agent phrases or adjective complements. However, when none of these indicators is present, grammatical indeterminacy remains. Consider the following examples from conversational English:   

And you know if you don't know the simple command how to get out of something you're sunk [S1A-005-172]  

But that's convenient because it's edged with wood isn't it [S1A-007-97] 

With -ed and -ing participial forms, there is no grammatical indeterminacy if there is no corresponding verb. For example, in the job was time-consuming, and the allegations were unfounded, the participial forms are adjectives.   

Similarly, the problem does not arise if the main verb is not be. For example, the participial forms in this book seems boring, and he remained offended are all adjectives. Compare the following:     

John was depressed    John felt depressed 

The Ordering of Adjectives

When two or more adjectives come before a noun, their relative order is fixed to a certain degree. This means, for instance, that while complex mathematical studies is grammatically acceptable, mathematical complex studies is less so. Similarly:   

Here we will discuss some of the most common sequences which occur, though these should not be seen as ordering rules. Counter examples can often be found quite easily.   

Central adjectives, as we saw earlier, are adjectives which fulfil all the criteria for the adjective class. In this sense, they are more "adjectival" than, say, denominal adjectives, which also have some of the properties of nouns.   

This distinction has some significance in the ordering of adjectives. In general, the more adjectival a word is, the farther from the noun it will be. Conversely, the less adjectival it is (the more nominal), the nearer to the noun it will be. The relative order of these adjective types, then, is:   

Sequence (1): CENTRAL -- DENOMINAL -- NOUN  

This is the ordering found in complex mathematical studies, for instance, and also in the following examples:  
 

expensive Russian dolls   heavy woollen clothes   huge polar bears 

Colour adjectives are also central adjectives, but if they co-occur with another central adjective, they come after it:  

Sequence (2): CENTRAL -- COLOUR -- NOUN  
 

expensive green dolls   heavy black clothes   huge white bears 

and before denominal adjectives:  

Sequence (3): COLOUR -- DENOMINAL -- NOUN   
 

green Russian dolls   black woollen clothes    white polar bears  

Participial adjectives also follow central adjectives:  

Sequence (4): CENTRAL -- PARTICIPIAL -- DENOMINAL -- NOUN  
 

expensive carved Russian dolls   heavy knitted woollen clothes   huge dancing polar bears 

 (1) - (4) account for many sequences of up to three adjectives, in which each adjective is a different type. In practice it is rare to find more than three attributive adjectives together, especially if they are all different types. However, such a sequence may occur:   
 

certain expensive green Russian dolls 

Here the sequence is:  

Sequence (5): NON-GRADABLE -- CENTRAL -- COLOUR -- DENOMINAL -- NOUN  

Non-gradable adjectives, in fact, are always first in an adjective sequence. Here are some more examples:   

Sequence (5a): NON-GRADABLE -- CENTRAL -- NOUN  
 

certain difficult problems 

Sequence (5b): NON-GRADABLE -- PARTICIPIAL -- NOUN  
 

sheer unadulterated nonsense 

Sequence (5c): NON-GRADABLE -- DENOMINAL -- NOUN   
 

major medical advances 

So far we have looked at sequences in which each adjective is a different type. However, we very often find adjectives of the same type occurring together:   
 

big old buildings    beautiful little flowers   rich young people  

Here all the adjectives are central adjectives, and in sequences like these it is much more difficult to determine the general principles governing their order. Several schemes have been proposed, though none is completely satisfactory or comprehensive.  

The ordering of adjectives is influenced to some degree by the presence of premodification. If one or more of the adjectives in a sequence is premodified, say, by very, then it generally comes at the start of the sequence.   
 

The laryngograph provides us with a very accurate non-invasive physical measure of voice [S2A-056-95] 

It would be unusual, perhaps, to find very accurate elsewhere in this sequence:   
 

?The laryngograph provides us with a non-invasive very accurate physical measure of voice   

?The laryngograph provides us with a non-invasive physical very accurate measure of voice 

Conversely, adjective order restricts the degree to which attributive adjectives may be premodified. Consider the following:   
 

a wealthy young businessman   a very wealthy young businessman 

We cannot modify young in this example, while keeping wealthy and young in the same relative order:  
 

*a wealthy very young businessman 

Nor can we move young to the first position and modify it there, while retaining the same degree of acceptability:  
 

?a very young wealthy businessman