OUTLINE

1. Adjective
a. Categorial characteristics
b. Classifications
c. Degrees of comparison
d. Homonymy of Adjectives and Adverbs
Categorial characteristics
1. Grammatical meaning
Describes features and qualities (property) of substance
(people, animals, and things) denoted by nouns or
pronouns
Property of a substance:
Permanent :
 Material (wooden)
 Color (red)
 Dimensions (big)
Temporary:
 Position (left)
 State (hungry)
Relations between things and objects (similar, same, fond)
Unlike nouns, adj do not possess a full nominative
value (only in collocations) <= semantically
bound
In self-dependent position, adj substantivize: The rich
will never understand the poor.
Features and phases of a substantivized adj.
Adjectival - noun words (M.Blokh)
1. The definite article The rich and the poor
(were…)
The incredible , the
evident, the abstract

2. The indefinite article An Afro-American

A dusty pink

In greens, Afro-

3. The plural -s
Americans
2. Derivational features
Suffixes: -ful (grateful), -less (needless), -ish (foolish), -
ous (dangerous), -ive (decorative), -ic (basic), -able
(readable), -al (musical), -ic (heroic), -like (childlike), -
y (sandy)
Prefixes: un- (unhappy), in-/im-/ir-
(inaccurate/immaculate/irresponsible), a- (asystemic),
pre- (prehistoric)
More-most/-er,-est
3. Syntactic characteristics:
combinability and position
Adj + N (dry wine)
Vlink + Adj (is ill)
Adv + Adj (a very lively child)
Order of adjectives
 Evaluation (determiner)
 Size
 Shape
 Age
 Physical quality
 Color
 Origin
 Material
 Type
 Purpose head noun
A nice long new black Chinese wooden pen
???
woolen
• old
shabby
lady

 A lady’s old shabby woolen hat

Syntactic characteristics:
Functions
Attribute This is a beautiful picture.
Predicative / This picture is beautiful.
Complement + prep + N I am fond of English.
Object complement He made his wife happy.
They painted the wall
white.
Position restrictions
Some adj resist being used in predicative roles:

a firm friend – * a friend is firm

Other adj are restricted to the predicative roles:

 The boy was afraid .
? - The child is ill.
Classifications
Semantico-morphological
(V. Vinogradov)
Quantitative measure:
A very big house
Rather an amusing event
Too difficult a problem

A big house – a bigger house – the biggest house

Cases of contradiction
Substances can possess such qualities incompatible
with the idea of degrees of comparison:
Extinct, final, pregnant, round,

Today some relative adj. can form degrees of

comparison:
a military design – a less military design
 the most grammatical of the suggested topics
Collocational and morphological
classification ( CGE)
Semantico-morphological
Structural
 Compounds

People usually become tongue-tied during attending an

interview.
 Proper adjectives
 Turkey……………………………………….?
 Portugal……………………………………
 Israel………………………………………..
 Iraq………………………………………….
 Holland…………………………………….
 Denmark………………………………….
 Sweden…………………………………….
 Switzerland……………………………….
Wales………………………………………..
 Venice………………………………………..
Thailand……………………………………..
 Degrees of comparison
Meaning of the category
The category of comparison expresses the
quantitative characteristic of the quality of a noun
referent;
a difference of degree in the same property.
Opposition of Forms
2 or 3 numbers of the
opposition?
- The basic form does not express any comparison
and should be excluded from the category.

+ This form is necessary for the expression of the

category as such.
It is included in the syntactic comparative
constructions: as high as..., not so big as… (The
Rockies are not so high as the Caucasus. = The
Caucasus mountains are higher than the Rockies.)
 Double forms
Friendly – friendlier/more friendly – friendliest/most
friendly

(Common, clever, early, likely, pleasant, simple, stupid,

handsome, mature)
Factors of variation
Syllabic structure: bigger/ more beautiful
Variety of English (analytical forms: AmE )
Form of speech (synthetical: writing )
 Irregular Forms
(semantic shift)
Old - older/elder – oldest/eldest
(Late, near, far)
Superlative or elative?
1. He showed a most interesting performance.
2. The most interesting project was John’s.
3. It was the most beautiful car imaginable.

*Elation - psychological state of pride, optimism and

euphoria.
Categorial characteristics
The most heterogeneous of all word classes in English
grammar > a “catch-all” (‘dustbin’) class.
Grammatical meaning
Either property of an action or property of another
property or circumstances in which the action
occurs.
I walked quietly.
Most adverbs are fairly easy to recognize.
They ran very quickly.
Morphological form
Invariable/ degrees of comparison
Derivative forms ( suffixes)
-ly (bravely)
-ways (sideways)
-wise (clockwise)
-ward(s) (afterwards)

a- (away, ahead, across)

homonymy
Adj or Adv?
Timely, weekly, daily
Fast, late, high,….
It was a fast train. - It went fast.
It is timely advice.
 I get my paper weekly. – It’s a weekly edition.
She has a friendly smile. She smiled…..
We went deep to the forest. We worked deep in the
night. He gave a deep sigh. The submarine sank
deeply. He was deeply offended.
homonymy
Adv. or Prep. or Conj.?
 Before,
round,after (never before – never before our
meeting)

Defined positionally
 We parted and I haven’t seen him since.
 We haven’t seen each other since last year.
 I haven’t seen him since we parted last year.
Syntactic features: functions
Adverbial modifier (of manner, time, place):
I stayed quietly at home all day.
Parenthesis (Discourse markers) :
Moreover, he had to resign.
Sentence adverbs (viewpoint /attitude adverbs)
scientifically, economically, biologically
Interestingly, basically, initially, incidentally
Syntactic features:
combinability
V + Adv: study diligently
Adv + Adj: really beautiful
Adv + Adv: very heavily
Adv + Pron: almost everyone

Adv + N: rather a mess

N + Adv: the sentence below; the day before
Classifications
Structural
Semantic (A.Smirnitsky, I.Ivanova)
Semantic (CGE)
Manner Those flowers grow quickly.
Place Many locally owned bookshops…
Time He came in very early.
Duration I am not staying there permanently.
Frequency I often go and see them.
Degree I was greatly relieved…
Modal She most probably thinks I am joking.
Evaluative I stupidly forgot to mention it.
Viewpoint I personally don’t think so.
Linking However, her younger sisters are
studying now.
Degrees of comparison
soon – sooner – soonest
energetically – more energetically – most energetically

well – better – best; badly – worse – worst

 often ?
Thank you!