Adjectives

Rina GegollajIstog

After nouns and verbs adj. are the largest word class in English. Adjectives are words that go together with the nouns and provide information about them.Adj. can refer to:Quality: a beautiful woman ,a new house Size : a big town, a small car Age : a new book, a young lady,Temp. : a warm day, a cold dayShape : a round table, a square box

Color : blue sky, grey hair, Origin : an American film, a Swiss watch

The form of adjecitves• Adjectives in present day English

have the same form no matter wether they refer to people or things in the singular or plural , masculine or feminine. They do not agree with their noun in number and gender. Examples: * a tall man *a tall men* a tall woman *a tall women

Morphological structureAccording to their morphological structure adjectives can be subdivided into four main groups: 1. Simple 2.Derived 3.Participial 4.Compound

“Simple adjectives Most simple adjectives are of one syllable and none have more than two except a few that begin with derivational prefix like :uncommon , inhuman ..

Derived AdjectivesAre formed with the suffixes :

-able readable -less nameless

-al musical -like manlike

-ary documentary -ly lovely -ate fortunate -ory observatory-ed barbed -ous dangerous-en wooden -some troublesome

-ful careful -y dirty-ic historic-ing amazing-ish bookish-ive sensitive

Participles as adjectivesMany past participles ending in –ed (excited)

and some present participles ending in –ing (excting) can be used as adjectives in present day English . a) Present participles as adjectives

a crying baby a passing car the coming week breaking glass a serving officer boiling water

a burning candle growing boys*some participles take a negative prefix:*uninteresting ,unthinking etc

b) Past participles as adjectives a broken cup a fixed idea a frozen lake a known criminal a hired car paid billsa locked door wasted energy a frightened child last property- ed , - ing amazed-amazing annoyed-annoyingbored-boring enchanted-enchantingexcited-exciting interested-interesting tired-tiring pleased -pleasing

b) Past participles as adjectives a broken cup a fixed idea a frozen lake a known criminal a hired car paid billsa locked door wasted energy a frightened child last property

- ed , - ing amazed-amazing annoyed-annoying

bored-boring enchanted-enchantingexcited-exciting interested-interesting tired-tiring pleased -pleasing

Compound adjectivesA compound adjective is sometimes called

a hyphenated adjective. Definition:

Two or more words (such as part-time or high-speed) that act as a single idea to modify a noun (a part-time employee, a high-speed chase). Also called phrasal adjective or compound modifier.

As a general rule, the words in a compound adjective are hyphenated when they come before a noun (a well-known actor) but not when they come after (The actor is well known).

I saw a man-eating alligator. We are describing the alligator . I saw a man eating alligator. This sentence without the hyphen sounds like a man is eating an alligator.

Syntactic function of adjectivesAdjectives may have different functions in the

sentence. The most common functions are : Attributive&Predicative 1When an adj. comes before a noun, it is Attributive:*She’s an intelligent young woman.*I love strong cheese.2When an adj. is separated from the noun and comes after the verb it is Predicative .(can be followed by verbs;be,become,get,seem,feel)not an object.*The exam was really difficult.*She seems worried.*Hilary made me very angry.

We say that adjective is Predicative or is used Predicatively when it comes after a linking verb (be,seem,etc) or some other state verbs , in which case it function as :Subject complement :

This ticket is old. He is careless.Your sister seems angry