37. What is the order of the prepositive adjectives?

When used as attributes, adjectives generally precede the noun they modify. In postposition they will be found in the following cases:

1. when the adjective is part of an adjectival phrase

It was a book easy to read.

b) when used as attributes to pronouns

something interesting, nothing important

c) in special combinations generally standing for terms in legal language

attorney general, court martial, postmaster general

Note:

The adjectives "absent", "present", "concerned", "involved" are preferably used in postposition.

He asked to have the names and addresses of all the people present.

In cases where there is more than one adjective used as a prepositive attribute to a noun, the order of the adjectives generally depends on the semantics, the following scale being preferable:

1."intensifying" adjectives r

2.adjectives denoting temporary qualities or expressing the subjective attitude of the speaker ''

3. adjectives denoting size and shape

4. adjectives denoting age

5. adjectives denoting colour.

6. adjectives denoting material

7. adjectives denoting nationality or style

The first type of adjectives in this scale is the farthest, the last — the nearest to the noun modified by the adjectives.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a real beautiful big old red woolen Oriental carpet

I can remember [...] the big white shabby untidy house. (Chr.) This made me give the shabby little middle-aged woman a second and longer look. (Pr.)

38. Comparative construction.

39. Substantivized adjectives.

The adjective is sometimes substantivized, it is used in this case to denote a group of objects or an object possessing the quality. The adjectives may be substantivized fully or partially.

Partially substantivized adjectives often denote the following:

• a class of persons possessing the same quality

the old, the young, the rich, the poor, the aged, the unemployed, the wounded, the sick, etc.;

• nationalities

the English, the French, the Dutch;

• abstract notions

the beautiful, the plural, the impossible, the inevitable, etc.

What are the gaieties of the rich, the splendour of the powerful, what is the pride of the great? (Hx.)

They co-occur in the text with the definite article.

Wholly substantivized adjectives may denote:

• persons

a relative, a conservative, a native, a savage, a criminal, a European, a liberal, a progressive, etc.

• nationalities

a Russian, a German, an Italian, an American, etc.

• objects with a collective meaning (used only in the plural)

goods, valuables, sweets, eatables, etc.

They are used in the plural and the genitive case forms and co-occur with articles like nouns.

And now they were in the midst of the Market's clamour. Greeks, Italians, French, Negroes, Indians. (Frb.)

40. Irregular forms of the degrees of comparison of adjectives.

Positive degree	Comparative degree	Superlative degree	Difference in meaning
1	2	3	4
good	better	best
well (relating to health)
bad (ill)	worse	worst
old	older	oldest
	elder	eldest	Used with reference to membership of a human family or social group
late	later	latest	Used with reference to time
	latter	last	Used with reference to the order of events
near	nearer	nearest	Used with reference to distance
		next	Used with reference to order
far	farther	farthest	Both used with reference to distance, though in this sense "farther", "farthest" are preferred. "Further" is preferred in the sense of "another", it shows that something will follow
	furthest	further