2. The adjective is a modifier that has the
grammatical property of comparison.
It is often identified by special derivational
endings or by special adverbial modifiers that
precede it. Its most usual position is before the
noun it modifies, but it fills other position as well.
ADJECTIVES
3. SPECIAL USAGES OF
ADJECTIVES
FUNCTION OF ADJETIVES
DISCUSSION
MARKERS OF ADJECTIVES
TYPES OF ADJECTIVES FORM OF ADJECTIVES
POSITION OF ADJECTIVE
THANKS FOR ATTENTION
5. Determiners consist of a small group of structure words without characteristic form.
1. Articles the, a an
2. Demonstrative adjectives this, plural these
that, plural those
3. Possessive adjectives
a. from pronouns my, your, one’s, etc.
b. from nouns john’s, the girl’s, etc.
4. Numeral adjectives
a. cardinal four, twenty-five. One hundred, etc.
b. ordinal fourth, twenty-fifth, one hundredth, etc.
5. Adjective ofindefinite quantity some, few, all, more, etc.
6. Relative and interrogative adjectives whose, what, which
DETERMINERS
6. Descreptive adjective usually indicate an inherent quality (beautiful, intelligent), or physical
state such as age, size, colour. Inflectional and derivational endings can be added only to this
type of adjective. Some descriptive adjective take the form of :
1. Proper adjectives a catholic cruch, a french dish, a shakespearian play
2. Participials adjectives
a. present participle an interesting book, a disappointing experience, a
charming view, a trifling gift.
b. past participle a bored student, a worn tablecloth, a tired house-wife, a
spoiled child.
3. Adjective compounds
a. with participles
(1) present participle a good looking girl, a heart-breaking story, a
spanish-speaking student, a long suffering widow.
past participle a turned-up nose, a broken-down house, new-
born kittens, ready-made clothes.
b. with –ed added to nouns functioning as the second element of a compound. The first
element is usually a short adjective absent-minded, ill-tempered, tear stained,
far-sighted.
such compounds especially common with nouns that denote parts of the body-left-handed,
kind-hearted, blue eyed, barefooted (or barefoot).
DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES
7. Adjectives tell us more about a noun. They can:
Describe feelings or qualities: He is a lonely man,They are honest people.
Give nationality or origin: Pierre is French, This clock is German, Our house
is Victorian.
Tell more about a thing's characteristics: A wooden table, The knife is sharp.
Tell us about age: He's a young man, My coat is very old.
Tell us about size and measurement: John is a tall man, This is a very long
film.
Tell us about color: Paul wore a red shirt, The sunset was crimson and gold.
Tell us about material/what something is made of: It was a wooden table, She
wore a cotton dress.
Tell us about shape: A rectangular box, A square envelope.
Express a judgment or a value: A fantastic film, Grammar is boring.
FUNCTION OF ADJECTIVES
8. POSITION OF ADJECTIVE
Adjective occur most frequently before the nouns they refer to or after linking verbs.
However, they also appear in several other position, not only in relation to nouns and
verbs, but also in relation to pronouns. All the possible position of adjectives will
therefore be described here.
1. Position of adjectives in relation to nouns (attributive position).
In this section we will be concerned chiefly with the position of single-word
modifiers that precede or follow a noun head.
1. Adjectives preceding, a noun head (pre-position)
2. Adjectives following, a noun head (post-position)
2. Position of adjectives in relation to verbs.
A. after the linking verbs be, seem, appear, look ( as subjective
complements in predicate position).
The boy is tall.
B. after certain verbs and their objects, as objective complements.
the storm has made me uneasy.
all his friends concidered him intelligent.
9. C. in the special verb-adjective combinations that
express a state hold tight, stand still, lie quiet, break
loose, open wide, slam shut.
she held the child tight.
the ship broke loose from its moorings.
3. Position of adjectives in relation to pronouns
A. after the pronoun
he is looking for something new and exciting to do.
B. before the pronoun (only wirh one)
did you buy the green dress or the blue one?
10. 1. Inflectional form
Determiners do not change their form except for the possessive of nouns and
pronouns used adjectivally (‘s for the singular and ‘for the plural are added)
and the demonstratives, which have separate forms for the plural
(these.those). Descriptive adjectives have special forms only for comparison.
These forms are given below.
2. Derivational form of adjectives
Most adjective derivational suffixes have little semantic content; they merely
serve as part-of-speech indicators. Adjective suffixes are usually added to
nouns or verbs.
FORM OF ADJECTIVES
11. Adjectives are signaled by adverbs of degree like very, quite,
rather, extremely (very quite, rather useless, quite pretty).
These adverbs also mark other adverbs.
Adverbs of degree are used with –ing adjectives but not with
participles or with gerunds. Since these two verbal forms occur in
the same position as participial adjectives, the adverbs of degree
help to distinguish the participial adjectives from these other
forms.
MARKERS OF ADJECTIVES
12. Some-any
some is used in positive statements, any in negative
statements.
I have some money.
I don’t have any money.
SPECIAL USAGES OF ADJECTIVES
