Adjective
Университет Российской академии образования
Реферат
по теоретической грамматике
на тему: “Adjective”
Факультет
иностранных языков
311
группа
Москва, 2001
The adjective expresses the categorial semantics of property of a
substance. It means that each adjective used in tile text presupposes
relation to some noun the property of whose referent it denotes, such as
its material, colour, dimensions, position, state, and other
characteristics both permanent and temporary. It follows from this that,
unlike nouns, adjectives do not possess a full nominative value. Indeed,
words like long, hospitable, fragrant cannot effect any self-dependent
nominations; as units of informative sequences they exist only in
collocations showing what is long, who is hospitable, what is fragrant.
The semantically bound character of the adjective is emphasized in
English by the use of the prop-substitute one in the absence of the
notional head-noun of the phrase. E.g.:
I don't want a yellow balloon, let me have the green
one over there.
On the other hand, if the adjective is placed in a nominatively self-
dependent position, this leads to its substantivization. E.g.: Outside it
was a beautiful day, and the sun tinged the snow with red. Cf.: The sun
tinged the snow with the red colour.
Adjectives are distinguished by a specific combinability with nouns,
which they modify, if not accompanied by adjuncts, usually in pre-position,
and occasionally in postposition; by a combinability with link-verbs, both
functional and notional; by a combinability with modifying adverbs.
In the sentence the adjective performs the functions of an attribute
and a predicative. Of the two, the more specific function of the adjective
is that of an attribute, since the function of a predicative can be
performed by the noun as well. There is, though, a profound difference
between the predicative uses of the adjective and the noun which is
determined by their native categorial features. Namely, the predicative
adjective expresses some attributive property of its noun-referent, whereas
the predicative noun expresses various substantival characteristics of its
referent, such as its identification or classification of different types.
This can be shown on examples analysed by definitional and transformational
procedures. Cf.:
You talk to people as if they were a group. —> You talk to people as
if they formed a group. Quite obviously, he was a friend. —> His behaviour
was like that of a friend.
Cf., as against the above:
I will be silent as a grave. —> I will be like a silent grave. Walker felt
healthy. —> Walker felt a healthy man. It was sensational. —> That fact was
a sensational fact.
When used as predicatives or post-positional attributes, a
considerable number of adjectives, in addition to the general combinability
characteristics of the whole class, are distinguished by a complementive
combinability with nouns. The complement-expansions of adjectives are
effected by means of prepositions. E.g. fond of, jealous of, curious of,
suspicious of; angry with, sick with, serious about, certain about, happy
about; grateful to, thankful to, etc. Many such adjectival collocations
render essentially verbal meanings and some of them have direct or indirect
parallels among verbs. Cf.: be fond of—love, like; be envious of — envy; be
angry with — resent; be mad for, about - covet; be thankful to — thank.
Alongside of other complementive relations expressed with the help of
prepositions and corresponding to direct and prepositional object-relations
of verbs, some of these adjectives may render relations of addressee. Cf.:
grateful to, indebted to, partial to, useful for.
To the derivational features of adjectives belong a number of suffixes
and prefixes of which the most important are:
-ful (hopeful), -less (flawless),-ish (bluish, -ous (famous), -ive
(decorative), -ic (basic); un- (unprecedented), in- (inaccurate), pre-
(premature).
Among the adjectival affixes should also be named the prefix a-,
constitutive for the stative sub-class which is to be discussed below.
As for the variable (demutative) morphological features, the English
adjective, having lost in the course of the history of English all its
forms of grammatical agreement with the noun, is distinguished only by the
hybrid category of comparison.
All the adjectives are traditionally divided into two large
subclasses: qualitative and relative.
Relative adjectives express such properties of a substance as are
determined by the direct relation of the substance to some other substance.
E.g.: wood — a wooden hut; mathematics — mathematical precision;
history — a historical event;
table — tabular presentation; colour — coloured postcards;
surgery — surgical treatment; the Middle Ages — mediaeval rites.
The nature of this "relationship" in adjectives is best revealed by
definitional correlations. Cf.: a wooden hut — a hut made of wood; a
historical event — an event referring to a certain period of history;
surgical treatment — treatment consisting in the implementation of surgery;
etc.
Qualitative adjectives, as different from relative ones, denote
various qualities of substances which admit of a quantitative estimation,
i.e. of establishing their correlative quantitative measure. The measure of
a quality can be estimated as high or low, adequate or inadequate,
sufficient or insufficient, optimal or excessive. Cf.: an awkward situation
— a very awkward situation; a difficult task — too difficult a task; an
enthusiastic reception — rather an enthusiastic reception; a hearty welcome
— not a very hearty welcome; etc.
In this connection, the ability of an adjective to form degrees of
comparison is usually taken as a formal sign of its qualitative character,
in opposition to a relative adjective which is understood as incapable of
forming degrees of comparison by definition. Cf.: a pretty girl --a
prettier girl; a quick look — a quicker look; a hearty welcome — the
heartiest of welcomes; a bombastic speech — the most bombastic speech.
However, in actual speech the described principle of distinction is
not at all strictly observed, which is noted in the very grammar treatises
putting it forward. Two typical cases of contradiction should be pointed
out here.
In the first place, substances can possess such qualities as are
incompatible with the idea of degrees of comparison. Accordingly,
adjectives denoting these qualities, while belonging to the qualitative
subclass, are in the ordinary use incapable of forming degrees of
comparison. Here refer adjectives like extinct, immobile, deaf, final,
fixed, etc.
In the second place, many adjectives considered under the heading of
relative still can form degrees of comparison, thereby, as it were,
transforming the denoted relative property of a substance into such as can
be graded quantitatively. Cf.: a mediaeval approach—rather a mediaeval
approach — a far more mediaeval approach; of a military design — of a less
military design — of a more military design;
a grammatical topic ~ a purely grammatical topic — the most grammatical of
the suggested topics.
In order to overcome the demonstrated lack of rigour in the
definitions in question, we may introduce an additional linguistic
distinction which is more adaptable to the chances of usage. The suggested
distinction is based on the evaluative function of adjectives. According as
they actually give some qualitative evaluation to the substance referent or
only point out its corresponding native property, all the adjective
functions may be grammatically divided into "evaluative" and
"specificative". In particular, one and the same adjective, irrespective of
its being basically (i.e. in the sense of the fundamental semantic property
of its root constituent) "relative" or "qualitative", can be used either in
the evaluative function or in the specificative function.
For instance, the adjective good is basically qualitative. On the
other hand, when employed as a grading term in teaching, i.e. a term
forming part of the marking scale together with the grading terms bad,
satisfactory, excellent, it acquires the said specificative value; in other
words, it becomes a specificative, not an evaluative unit in the
grammatical sense
(though, dialectically, it does signify in this case a lexical evaluation
of the pupil's progress). Conversely, the adjective wooden is basically
relative, but when used in the broader meaning "expressionless" or
"awkward" it acquires an evaluative force and, consequently, can presuppose
a greater or lesser degree ("amount") of the denoted properly in the
corresponding referent. E.g.:
Bundle found herself looking into the expressionless, wooden face of
Superintendent Battle (A. Christie). The superintendent was sitting behind
a table and looking more wooden than ever.
The degrees of comparison are essentially evaluative formulas,
therefore any adjective used in a higher comparison degree (comparative,
superlative) is thereby made into an evaluative adjective, if only for the
