- •General characteristics of the noun
- •2. Case. Саse theories
- •3. Number
- •4. Gender
- •5. Article Determination
- •5.1 Semantic evaluation
- •As for the various uses of nouns without an article, from the semantic point of
- •5.2 Situational estimation of article uses
- •5.3 Analysis of article categorial features in the light of
- •6. Realisation of Adjectival Categories
6. Realisation of Adjectival Categories
The form-derivation system of English adjectives, i. e. their paradigm, is very poor, it is even poorer than that of nouns. In the history of the English language development the morphology of English adjectives underwent great changes which were caused by the crucial changes in all the classes of nouns. The reduction of the paradigm led to the obliteration of case, number and gender distinctions in the forms of English adjectives. As a result, it is only the category of Degree that is realized in the form-derivation of adjectives.
The category of Degree of English adjectives is restricted in its realization by the implicit meaning of Qualitativeness/Non-Qualitativeness inherent in adjectives, the latter being classed accordingly into qualitative and non-qualitative adjectives. Only qualitative adjectives, due to their meaning, are associated with Graduality. The quality denoted by such adjectives is conceived as being gradual. That is why qualitative adjectives in English are inflected for Degree. The paradigm of adjectives in Modern English is very much reduced and consists of the three categorial forms through which the category of Degree is realized.
The comparative and the superlative degree categorial forms can be marked synthetically by the inflections as in longer, longest; easier, easiest and by suppletivity as in better, best; less, least. The question whether the degree categorial forms of English adjectives can or cannot be derived analytically remains open because the combinations like more interesting or most doubtful are not unanimously recognized as analytical adjectival forms. Some scholars are inclined to treat them as lexico-syntactical devices of expressing the conceptual category of Graduality. Such a view is probably justified because, by strict definition, analytical markers are binary units consisting of the auxiliary element and, what is extremely important, of the particular unchangeable form of the notional word as in: Vbe + Ving (the Continuous markers), Vhave + Ven (the Perfect marker). So far as the above combinations like more interesting or most doubtful are concerned, they do not satisfy the requirements for analytical formations. They are likely to be lexico-syntactical combinations of words.