Lecture 12. The Adjective.
1.1. Adjectives: General Characteristic
Adjectives belong to an Open-class system. That is this class is open to new membership since there are productive word-building affixes. Adjectives are semantically diversified and can be subgrouped along different lines of semantic classification.
The adjective (fr. two Latin words ad – pertaining to, and jacia – throw) expresses the categorial semantics of property of a substance. Each adjective used in the text presupposes relation to some noun the property of whose referent it denotes (material, colour, dimensions, position, state, and other permanent and temporary characteristics).
Thus adjectives do not possess a full nominative value. They exist only in collocations showing for ex. what is long, who is hospitable, what is fragrant.
Adjectives are a well-defined part of speech in Modern English.
If the adjective is placed in a nominatively self-dependent position, this leads to its substantivisation (the sun tinged the snow with red).
Syntactical function of adjectives:
an attribute
a predicative.
Combinability of adjectives:
with nouns (usu in pre-position);
with link-verbs;
with modifying adverbs.
when used as predicatives or post-positional attributes, certain adjectives demonstrate complementive combinability with nouns (fond of, jealous of, curious of). Such adjectival collocations render:
verbal meanings (be fond of – love, like; be envious of – envy; be angry with – resent).
relations of addressee (grateful to, indebted to, partial to, useful for).
The derivational features of adjectives:
The adjectival suffixes are non-productive (-y, -ish, -ly) and productive (-ful, -less, -ish, -ous, -ive, -ic). Some adjectives exist in two derivative forms, thus differing in style, or in an implication (comical – comic; poetic – poetical).
There are adjectival prefixes proper (un-, il-, a-) and other prefixes belonging to a deriving stem of a corresponding verb or noun (co-operat-ive; super-natur-al).
Compounding is also observed in adjectives and it is considered to be a very productive way of word-building (white-headed, lilly-white).
The variable/demutative morphological features of adjectives:
The English adjective is distinguished by the hybrid category of comparison and have two types of paradigm – a synthetic and an analytic ones.
1.2. Subclasses of Adjectives
The adjectives are traditionally divided into:
1)Qualitative
Qualitative adjectives denote various qualities of substances which admit of a quantitative estimation. The measure of a quality can be estimated as high or low, adequate or inadequate, sufficient or insufficient, optimal or excessive (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).
2) Relative.
Relative adjectives express the properties of a substance determined by the direct relation of the substance to some other substance (wood – a wooden hut; mathematics – mathematical precision; history – a historical event; colour – coloured postcards; the Middle Ages – mediaeval rites).
The ability of an adjective to form degrees of comparison is usually taken as a formal sign of its qualitative character however, in actual speech the described principle of distinction is not at all strictly observed.
In order to overcome the of rigour in the definitions, an additional linguistic division based on the evaluative function of adjectives was introduced:
evaluative (giving some qualitative evaluation to the substance referent)
specificative (only pointing out the corresponding native property of the substance referent).