History of the word adjective

An adjective (abbreviated adj.) is a word that describes a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.

Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the main parts of speech of the English language, although historically they were classed together with nouns.^[1] Nowadays, certain words that usually had been classified as adjectives, including the, this, my, etc., typically are classed separately, as determiners.

Here are some examples:

• That’s a funny idea. (attributive)
• That idea is funny. (predicative)
• Tell me something funny. (postpositive)
• The good, the bad, and the funny. (substantive)

Etymology[edit]

Adjective comes from Latin nōmen adjectīvum,^[2] a calque of Ancient Greek: ἐπίθετον ὄνομα, romanized: epítheton ónoma, lit. ‘additional noun’ (whence also English epithet).^[3][4] In the grammatical tradition of Latin and Greek, because adjectives were inflected for gender, number, and case like nouns (a process called declension), they were considered a type of noun. The words that are today typically called nouns were then called substantive nouns (nōmen substantīvum).^[5] The terms noun substantive and noun adjective were formerly used in English but are now obsolete.^[1]

Types of use[edit]

Depending on the language, an adjective can precede a corresponding noun on a prepositive basis or it can follow a corresponding noun on a postpositive basis. Structural, contextual, and style considerations can impinge on the pre-or post-position of an adjective in a given instance of its occurrence. In English, occurrences of adjectives generally can be classified into one of three categories:

1. Prepositive adjectives, which are also known as «attributive adjectives», occur on an antecedent basis within a noun phrase.^[6] For example: «I put my happy kids into the car», wherein happy occurs on an antecedent basis within the my happy kids noun phrase, and therefore functions in a prepositive adjective.
2. Postpositive adjectives can occur: (a) immediately subsequent to a noun within a noun phrase, e.g. «The only room available cost twice what we expected»; (b) as linked via a copula or other linking mechanism subsequent to a corresponding noun or pronoun; for example: «My kids are happy«, wherein happy is a predicate adjective^[6] (see also: Predicative expression, Subject complement); or (c) as an appositive adjective within a noun phrase, e.g. «My kids, [who are] happy to go for a drive, are in the back seat.»
3. Nominalized adjectives, which function as nouns. One way this happens is by eliding a noun from an adjective-noun noun phrase, whose remnant thus is a nominalization. In the sentence, «I read two books to them; he preferred the sad book, but she preferred the happy», happy is a nominalized adjective, short for «happy one» or «happy book». Another way this happens is in phrases like «out with the old, in with the new», where «the old» means «that which is old» or «all that is old», and similarly with «the new». In such cases, the adjective may function as a mass noun (as in the preceding example). In English, it may also function as a plural count noun denoting a collective group, as in «The meek shall inherit the Earth», where «the meek» means «those who are meek» or «all who are meek».

Distribution[edit]

Adjectives feature as a part of speech (word class) in most languages. In some languages, the words that serve the semantic function of adjectives are categorized together with some other class, such as nouns or verbs. In the phrase «a Ford car», «Ford» is unquestionably a noun but its function is adjectival: to modify «car». In some languages adjectives can function as nouns: for example, the Spanish phrase «un rojo» means «a red [one]».

As for «confusion» with verbs, rather than an adjective meaning «big», a language might have a verb that means «to be big» and could then use an attributive verb construction analogous to «big-being house» to express what in English is called a «big house». Such an analysis is possible for the grammar of Standard Chinese, for example.

Different languages do not use adjectives in exactly the same situations. For example, where English uses «to be hungry» (hungry being an adjective), Dutch, French, and Spanish use «honger hebben«, «avoir faim«, and «tener hambre» respectively (literally «to have hunger», the words for «hunger» being nouns). Similarly, where Hebrew uses the adjective זקוק‎ (zaqūq, roughly «in need of»), English uses the verb «to need».

In languages that have adjectives as a word class, it is usually an open class; that is, it is relatively common for new adjectives to be formed via such processes as derivation. However, Bantu languages are well known for having only a small closed class of adjectives, and new adjectives are not easily derived. Similarly, native Japanese adjectives (i-adjectives) are considered a closed class (as are native verbs), although nouns (an open class) may be used in the genitive to convey some adjectival meanings, and there is also the separate open class of adjectival nouns (na-adjectives).

Adverbs[edit]

Many languages (including English) distinguish between adjectives, which qualify nouns and pronouns, and adverbs, which mainly modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Not all languages make this exact distinction; many (including English) have words that can function as either. For example, in English, fast is an adjective in «a fast car» (where it qualifies the noun car) but an adverb in «he drove fast» (where it modifies the verb drove).

In Dutch and German, adjectives and adverbs are usually identical in form and many grammarians do not make the distinction, but patterns of inflection can suggest a difference:

Eine kluge neue Idee.

A clever new idea.

Eine klug ausgereifte Idee.

A cleverly developed idea.

A German word like klug («clever(ly)») takes endings when used as an attributive adjective but not when used adverbially. (It also takes no endings when used as a predicative adjective: er ist klug, «he is clever».) Whether these are distinct parts of speech or distinct usages of the same part of speech is a question of analysis. It can be noted that, while German linguistic terminology distinguishes adverbiale from adjektivische Formen, German refers to both as Eigenschaftswörter («property words»).

Determiners[edit]

Linguists today distinguish determiners from adjectives, considering them to be two separate parts of speech (or lexical categories). Determiners formerly were considered to be adjectives in some of their uses.^[a] Determiners function neither as nouns nor pronouns but instead characterize a nominal element within a particular context. They generally do this by indicating definiteness (a vs. the), quantity (one vs. some vs. many), or another such property.

Adjective phrases[edit]

An adjective acts as the head of an adjective phrase or adjectival phrase (AP). In the simplest case, an adjective phrase consists solely of the adjective; more complex adjective phrases may contain one or more adverbs modifying the adjective («very strong»), or one or more complements (such as «worth several dollars«, «full of toys«, or «eager to please«). In English, attributive adjective phrases that include complements typically follow the noun that they qualify («an evildoer devoid of redeeming qualities«).

Other modifiers of nouns[edit]

In many languages (including English) it is possible for nouns to modify other nouns. Unlike adjectives, nouns acting as modifiers (called attributive nouns or noun adjuncts) usually are not predicative; a beautiful park is beautiful, but a car park is not «car». The modifier often indicates origin («Virginia reel»), purpose («work clothes»), semantic patient («man eater») or semantic subject («child actor»); however, it may generally indicate almost any semantic relationship. It is also common for adjectives to be derived from nouns, as in boyish, birdlike, behavioral (behavioural), famous, manly, angelic, and so on.

In Australian Aboriginal languages, the distinction between adjectives and nouns is typically thought weak, and many of the languages only use nouns—or nouns with a limited set of adjective-deriving affixes—to modify other nouns. In languages that have a subtle adjective-noun distinction, one way to tell them apart is that a modifying adjective can come to stand in for an entire elided noun phrase, while a modifying noun cannot. For example, in Bardi, the adjective moorrooloo ‘little’ in the phrase moorrooloo baawa ‘little child’ can stand on its own to mean ‘the little one,’ while the attributive noun aamba ‘man’ in the phrase aamba baawa ‘male child’ cannot stand for the whole phrase to mean ‘the male one.’^[7] In other languages, like Warlpiri, nouns and adjectives are lumped together beneath the nominal umbrella because of their shared syntactic distribution as arguments of predicates. The only thing distinguishing them is that some nominals seem to semantically denote entities (typically nouns in English) and some nominals seem to denote attributes (typically adjectives in English).^[8]

Many languages have participle forms that can act as noun modifiers either alone or as the head of a phrase. Sometimes participles develop into functional usage as adjectives. Examples in English include relieved (the past participle of relieve), used as an adjective in passive voice constructs such as «I am so relieved to see you». Other examples include spoken (the past participle of speak) and going (the present participle of go), which function as attribute adjectives in such phrases as «the spoken word» and «the going rate».

Other constructs that often modify nouns include prepositional phrases (as in «a rebel without a cause«), relative clauses (as in «the man who wasn’t there«), and infinitive phrases (as in «a cake to die for«). Some nouns can also take complements such as content clauses (as in «the idea that I would do that«), but these are not commonly considered modifiers. For more information about possible modifiers and dependents of nouns, see Components of noun phrases.

Order[edit]

In many languages, attributive adjectives usually occur in a specific order. In general, the adjective order in English can be summarised as: opinion, size, age or shape, colour, origin, material, purpose.^[9][10][11] Other language authorities, like the Cambridge Dictionary, state that shape precedes rather than follows age.^[9][12][13]

Determiners and postdeterminers—articles, numerals, and other limiters (e.g. three blind mice)—come before attributive adjectives in English. Although certain combinations of determiners can appear before a noun, they are far more circumscribed than adjectives in their use—typically, only a single determiner would appear before a noun or noun phrase (including any attributive adjectives).

1. Opinion – limiter adjectives (e.g. a real hero, a perfect idiot) and adjectives of subjective measure (e.g. beautiful, interesting) or value (e.g. good, bad, costly)
2. Size – adjectives denoting physical size (e.g. tiny, big, extensive)
3. Shape or physical quality – adjectives describing more detailed physical attributes than overall size (e.g. round, sharp, swollen, thin)
4. Age – adjectives denoting age (e.g. young, old, new, ancient, six-year-old)
5. Colour – adjectives denoting colour or pattern (e.g. white, black, pale, spotted)
6. Origin – denominal adjectives denoting source (e.g. Japanese, volcanic, extraterrestrial)
7. Material – denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of (e.g., woollen, metallic, wooden)
8. Qualifier/purpose – final limiter, which sometimes forms part of the (compound) noun (e.g., rocking chair, hunting cabin, passenger car, book cover)

This means that, in English, adjectives pertaining to size precede adjectives pertaining to age («little old», not «old little»), which in turn generally precede adjectives pertaining to colour («old white», not «white old»). So, one would say «One (quantity) nice (opinion) little (size) old (age) round (shape) [or round old] white (colour) brick (material) house.» When several adjectives of the same type are used together, they are ordered from general to specific, like «lovely intelligent person» or «old medieval castle».^[9]

This order may be more rigid in some languages than others; in some, like Spanish, it may only be a default (unmarked) word order, with other orders being permissible. Other languages, such as Tagalog, follow their adjectival orders as rigidly as English.

The normal adjectival order of English may be overridden in certain circumstances, especially when one adjective is being fronted. For example, the usual order of adjectives in English would result in the phrase «the bad big wolf» (opinion before size), but instead, the usual phrase is «the big bad wolf».

Owing partially to borrowings from French, English has some adjectives that follow the noun as postmodifiers, called postpositive adjectives, as in time immemorial and attorney general. Adjectives may even change meaning depending on whether they precede or follow, as in proper: They live in a proper town (a real town, not a village) vs. They live in the town proper (in the town itself, not in the suburbs). All adjectives can follow nouns in certain constructions, such as tell me something new.

Comparison (degrees)[edit]

In many languages, some adjectives are comparable and the measure of comparison is called degree. For example, a person may be «polite», but another person may be «more polite», and a third person may be the «most polite» of the three. The word «more» here modifies the adjective «polite» to indicate a comparison is being made, and «most» modifies the adjective to indicate an absolute comparison (a superlative).

Among languages that allow adjectives to be compared, different means are used to indicate comparison. Some languages do not distinguish between comparative and superlative forms. Other languages allow adjectives to be compared but do not have a special comparative form of the adjective. In such cases, as in some Australian Aboriginal languages, case-marking, such as the ablative case may be used to indicate one entity has more of an adjectival quality than (i.e. from—hence ABL) another. Take the following example in Bardi:^[7]

In English, many adjectives can be inflected to comparative and superlative forms by taking the suffixes «-er» and «-est» (sometimes requiring additional letters before the suffix; see forms for far below), respectively:

«great», «greater», «greatest»

«deep», «deeper», «deepest»

Some adjectives are irregular in this sense:

«good», «better», «best»

«bad», «worse», «worst»

«many», «more», «most» (sometimes regarded as an adverb or determiner)

«little», «less», «least»

Some adjectives can have both regular and irregular variations:

«old», «older», «oldest»

«far», «farther», «farthest»

also

«old», «elder», «eldest»

«far», «further», «furthest»

Another way to convey comparison is by incorporating the words «more» and «most». There is no simple rule to decide which means is correct for any given adjective, however. The general tendency is for simpler adjectives and those from Anglo-Saxon to take the suffixes, while longer adjectives and those from French, Latin, or Greek do not—but sometimes sound of the word is the deciding factor.

Many adjectives do not naturally lend themselves to comparison. For example, some English speakers would argue that it does not make sense to say that one thing is «more ultimate» than another, or that something is «most ultimate», since the word «ultimate» is already absolute in its semantics. Such adjectives are called non-comparable or absolute. Nevertheless, native speakers will frequently play with the raised forms of adjectives of this sort. Although «pregnant» is logically non-comparable (either one is pregnant or not), one may hear a sentence like «She looks more and more pregnant each day». Likewise «extinct» and «equal» appear to be non-comparable, but one might say that a language about which nothing is known is «more extinct» than a well-documented language with surviving literature but no speakers, while George Orwell wrote, «All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others». These cases may be viewed as evidence that the base forms of these adjectives are not as absolute in their semantics as is usually thought.

Comparative and superlative forms are also occasionally used for other purposes than comparison. In English comparatives can be used to suggest that a statement is only tentative or tendential: one might say «John is more the shy-and-retiring type,» where the comparative «more» is not really comparing him with other people or with other impressions of him, but rather, could be substituting for «on the whole» or «more so than not». In Italian, superlatives are frequently used to put strong emphasis on an adjective: bellissimo means «most beautiful», but is in fact more commonly heard in the sense «extremely beautiful».

Restrictiveness[edit]

Attributive adjectives and other noun modifiers may be used either restrictively (helping to identify the noun’s referent, hence «restricting» its reference) or non-restrictively (helping to describe a noun). For example:

He was a lazy sort, who would avoid a difficult task and fill his working hours with easy ones.

Here «difficult» is restrictive – it tells which tasks he avoids, distinguishing these from the easy ones: «Only those tasks that are difficult».

She had the job of sorting out the mess left by her predecessor, and she performed this difficult task with great acumen.

Here «difficult» is non-restrictive – it is already known which task it was, but the adjective describes it more fully: «The aforementioned task, which (by the way) is difficult»

In some languages, such as Spanish, restrictiveness is consistently marked; for example, in Spanish la tarea difícil means «the difficult task» in the sense of «the task that is difficult» (restrictive), whereas la difícil tarea means «the difficult task» in the sense of «the task, which is difficult» (non-restrictive). In English, restrictiveness is not marked on adjectives but is marked on relative clauses (the difference between «the man who recognized me was there» and «the man, who recognized me, was there» being one of restrictiveness).

Agreement[edit]

In some languages, adjectives alter their form to reflect the gender, case and number of the noun that they describe. This is called agreement or concord. Usually it takes the form of inflections at the end of the word, as in Latin:

puella bona		(good girl, feminine singular nominative)
puellam bonam	(good girl, feminine singular accusative/object case)
puer bonus	(good boy, masculine singular nominative)
pueri boni	(good boys, masculine plural nominative)

In Celtic languages, however, initial consonant lenition marks the adjective with a feminine singular noun, as in Irish:

buachaill maith		(good boy, masculine)
girseach mhaith	(good girl, feminine)

Here, a distinction may be made between attributive and predicative usage. In English, adjectives never agree, whereas in French, they always agree. In German, they agree only when they are used attributively, and in Hungarian, they agree only when they are used predicatively:

The good (Ø) boys.		The boys are good (Ø).
Les bons garçons.	Les garçons sont bons.
Die braven Jungen.	Die Jungen sind brav (Ø).
A jó (Ø) fiúk.	A fiúk jók.

Semantics[edit]

This section needs expansion with: other aspects of adjective semantics. You can help by adding to it. (talk) (August 2022)

Semanticist Barbara Partee classifies adjectives semantically as intersective, subsective, or nonsubsective, with nonsubsective adjectives being plain nonsubsective or privative.^[14]

• An adjective is intersective if and only if the extension of its combination with a noun is equal to the intersection of its extension and that of the noun its modifying. For example, the adjective carnivorous is intersective, given the extension of carnivorous mammal is the intersection of the extensions of carnivorous and mammal (i.e., the set of all mammals who are carnivorous).
• An adjective is subsective if and only if the extension of its combination with a noun is a subset of the extension of the noun. For example, the extension of skillful surgeon is a subset of the extension of surgeon, but it is not the intersection of that and the extension of skillful, as that would include (for example) incompetent surgeons who are skilled violinists. All subsective adjectives are intersective, but the term ‘subsective’ is sometimes used to refer to only those subsective adjectives which are not intersective.
• An adjective is privative if and only if the extension of its combination with a noun is disjoint from the extension of the noun. For example, fake is privative because a fake cat is not a cat.
• A plain nonsubsective adjective is an adjective that is not subsective or privative. For example, the word possible is this kind of adjective, as the extension of possible murderer overlaps with, but is not included in the extension of murderer (as some, but not all, possible murderers are murderers).

See also[edit]

• Attributive verb
• Flat adverb
• Grammatical modifier
• Intersective modifier
• List of eponymous adjectives in English
• Noun adjunct
• Part of speech
• Predication (philosophy)
• Privative adjective
• Proper adjective
• Subsective modifier

Explanatory notes[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Dixon, R. M. W. (1977). «Where Have All the Adjectives Gone?». Studies in Language. 1: 19–80. doi:10.1075/sl.1.1.04dix.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (1993). R. E. Asher (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (1st ed.). Pergamon Press Inc. pp. 29–35. ISBN 0-08-035943-4.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (1999). «Adjectives». In K. Brown & T. Miller (eds.), Concise Encyclopedia of Grammatical Categories. Amsterdam: Elsevier. ISBN 0-08-043164-X. pp. 1–8.
• Rießler, Michael (2016). Adjective Attribution. Language Science Press. ISBN 9783944675657.
• Warren, Beatrice (1984). Classifying adjectives. Gothenburg studies in English No. 56. Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. ISBN 91-7346-133-4.
• Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). «What’s in a Noun? (Or: How Do Nouns Differ in Meaning from Adjectives?)». Studies in Language. 10 (2): 353–389. doi:10.1075/sl.10.2.05wie.

External links[edit]

• List of English collateral adjectives at Wiktionary

Historically
the Adjective is a younger class of words as compared to the Noun. So
it has borrowed many of its categories and inflections from the Noun
and the Pronoun. The Adjective had the following categories: Gender:
It
still existed in OE
but was the
first category to disappear
in the 11^th
c. Case: At
the end of OE
Period Instrumental Case fell together with Dative Case due to the
homonymy of inflections (see the table below); All other cases
disappeared by the end of the 13^th
c.
also due to the homonymy of inflections (see the table below). System
of Declensions:
The
system of declension was inherited from PG. Adjectives had two
declensions
that had to do also with the category
of determination
– strong
(definite)
and weak
(indefinite) – and unlike nouns practically all
adjectives could be declined both ways
(by strong and weak declension). So an adjective did not belong to a
particular declension, its declension depended
on several factors. There
were exceptions from the rule: some adjectives were declined always
strong
(eall
(all),
maniζ (many),
ōþer
(other)),
others – always
weak
(ilca
(same)). The endings of the adjectives showed the agreement
between a noun and an adjective.
There were a lot of homonymous
forms

the distinction between the declensions faded in ME
and the declensions disappeared as far as there was no necessity any
more to keep them. Number:
There
were some homonymous
forms
in Singular and Plural in both declensions, so the category of Number
disappeared together with the system of declensions. The Adjective
lost many of its categories in ME as far as all the inflections were
lost. Thus it became an unchangeable
part of speech.
In ME
the following changes happened: 1) In most cases inflections -er,
-est were
used to form the comparative and the superlative degrees; 2)
Root-sound interchange fell into disuse (long
– longer
– longest),
though in some cases it was preserved as an exception from the rule
(e.g. old
– elder – eldest; far – further – furthest);
3)A new
way of formation
of the degrees of comparison appeared:
more + Adj (comparative) || most + Adj (superlative). It
was applicable to all
adjectives
and was interchangeable with -er,
-est way
of formation till 17^th
– 18^th
c. In
NE, during the Normalisation
Period, the modern rule appeared and this way was applicable only to
a certain group of adjectives. In
OE there were 3 ways of formation of degrees of comparison:
1)inflections, 2)root-sound interchange+inflections, 3)suppletion

In ME there
are foll. changes: -er, -est were used to form compare & superl.
Degrees. -root-sound interchange fell into disuse
(long-longer-longest). Exeptions: old, far-furthe-furthest -new
way of form-n: More, most + adj.

18. The development of demonst pronouns

Demonstrative
Pronouns:
Demonstrative
pronouns belong to an ancient class of words that goes back to two
Indo-European roots
– se
and
to.
In OE the sound [Ө] started to dominate over the sound [s] due to
the pressure
of the system
(the forms with the sound [Ө] were more numerous (see the table
below)). Demonstrative pronouns
in OE
changed in Gender,
Number, Case
In
ME
the
Case
system disappeared
due to the fact that there were some
homonymous
forms
and due to phonetic
reduction.
In NE
the
Gender
was lost
due to the fact that there were some
homonymous
and the following changes happened to the pronouns marked with * in
the table above: 1) se
(M,
Sg, Nom) – turned into the definite
article
“the; 2) sēo
(F,
Sg, Nom) – turned into the personal
pronoun
“she”; 3) þæt
(N, Sg, Nom) – remained as the unchangeable demonstrative pronoun
“that”; 4) þis
(N,
Sg, Nom) – remained as the unchangeable demonstrative pronoun
“this”; 5)þý
(M, Sg, Instr) – in OE was used in the comparative constructions
like “the sooner…the better” but in NE was not distinguished
any more phonetically and merged with the unchangeable form of the
definite
article
“the”. The only
category
that was left in the demonstrative pronouns was the Number
(e.g. ModE this
– these, that – those).

Rise of
Articles: The
articles have to do with the category of Determination
(definiteness /indefiniteness). Causes
for Rise of Articles: 1)In
OE the there were two declensions
of adjectives
– strong (definite) and weak (indefinite) – and the inflections
of these declensions indicated whether the noun that followed the
adjective was definite or indefinite. At the end of the ME Period the
declensions of the Adjective disappeared
and there was a necessity to find another
way
to indicate the definiteness/indefiniteness
of a noun. Thus the articles appeared. 2) In OE the word-order was
free because inflections
were employed to show the relations
of the words in a sentence.
In ME and NE the majority of the inflections disappeared
and the word-order
became fixed.
This meant that the first place in a sentence was usually occupied by
the
theme
(information already known 
marked with the definite article) and the second place – by the
rheme
(new information 
marked with the indefinite article).

Definite
Article: As
it was mentioned above, the definite article appeared from
the OE demonstrative pronoun
se
(M, Sg, Nom) from the paradigm of the OE demonstrative pronoun “that”
because it was often used to indicate a definite object or notion.

Indefinite
Article: The
indefinite article appeared from
the OE numeral
ān
(one)
and had the meaning of “oneness” (it still indicates only nouns
in Sg, i.e. nouns indicating one object or notion). In OE ān
had
5-case paradigm that was lost in ME and only one form was left –
oon/one.
Later it was employed in the building of the indefinite article a/an.

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Examples

An adjective is a describing word. That is a big building. I met a very old man. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Most monkeys are arboreal creatures that inhabit tropical or subtropical areas. That’s a very nice dress you are wearing.

An adjective, in grammar, is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun (called the adjective’s subject), giving more information about reference what noun or pronoun. (Some examples can be seen in the box to the right.) Collectively, adjectives form one of the traditional eight parts of speech, though linguists today distinguish adjectives from words such as determiners that used to be considered adjectives but that are now recognized as different. It derives from the Latin words ad and iacere (Latin words that start with an I change to a J in English); literally, to throw to.

Not all languages have adjectives, but most modern languages, including English, use adjectives. (English adjectives include big, old, and tired, among many others.) Those languages that do not employ adjectives typically use other parts of speech, often verbal constructions, to serve the same semantic function. For example, such a language might have a verb that means «to be big,» and would use a construction analogous to «big-being house» to express what English expresses as «big house.» Even in languages that do have adjectives, an adjective in one language might not be an adjective in another’s; for example, where English has «to be hungry» (hungry being an adjective), French has «avoir faim» (literally «to have hunger»), and where Hebrew has the adjective «זקוק» (zaqūq, roughly «in need of»), English uses the verb «to need.»

In most languages with adjectives, they form an open class of words; that is, it is relatively common for new adjectives to be formed via such processes as derivation.

Adjectives and adverbs

Many languages, including English, distinguish between adjectives, which modify nouns and pronouns, and adverbs, which modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Not all languages have exactly this distinction, however, and in many languages (including English) there are words that can function as both. For example, English fast is an adjective in «a fast car» (where it modifies the noun car), but an adverb in «he drove fast» (where it modifies the verb drove).

Classes of adjectives

There are six classes of adjectives in the English language:

Number: ex. six, three hundred

Quantity: ex. more, all, some, half, more than enough

Quality: ex. color, size, smell etc.

Possessive: ex. my, his, their, your

Interrogative: ex. which, whose, what

Demonstrative: ex. this, that, those, these

Adjectives also have different levels of intensity (See, superlative, comparative, nominative)

Determiners

Linguists today distinguish determiners from adjectives, considering them to be two separate parts of speech (or lexical categories), but traditionally, determiners were considered adjectives in some of their uses. (In English dictionaries, which typically still do not treat determiners as their own part of speech, determiners are often listed both as adjectives and as pronouns.) Determiners are words that express the reference of a noun in the context, generally indicating definiteness (as in a vs. the), quantity (as in one vs. some vs. many), or another such property.

Attributive, predicative, absolute, and substantive adjectives

A given occurrence of an adjective can generally be classified into one of four kinds of uses:

• Attributive adjectives are part of the noun phrase headed by the noun they modify; for example, happy is an attributive adjective in «happy kids.» In some languages, attributive adjectives precede their nouns; in others, they follow their nouns; and in yet others, it depends on the adjective, or on the exact relationship of the adjective to the noun. In English, attributive adjectives usually precede their nouns in simple phrases, but often follow their nouns when the adjective is modified or qualified by a phrase acting as an adverb. For example: «I saw three happy kids,» but «I saw three kids happy enough to jump up and down with glee.»
• Predicative adjectives are linked via a copula or other linking mechanism to the noun or pronoun they modify; for example, happy is a predicate adjective in «they are happy» and in «that made me happy.»
• Absolute adjectives do not belong to a larger construction (aside from a larger adjective phrase), and typically modify either the subject of a sentence or whatever noun or pronoun they are closest to; for example, happy is an absolute adjective in «The boy, happy with his lollipop, did not look where he was going.»
• Substantive adjectives act almost as nouns. A substantive adjective occurs when a noun is elided and an attributive adjective is left behind. In the sentence, «I read two books to them; he preferred the sad book, but she preferred the happy,» happy is a substantive adjective, short for «happy one» or «happy book.» Similarly, substantive adjectives occur in phrases like «out with the old, in with the new,» where «the old» means, «that which is old» or «all that is old,» and the same with «the new.» In such cases, the adjective functions either as a mass noun (as in the preceding example) or as a plural count noun, as in «The meek shall inherit the Earth,» where «the meek» means «those who are meek» or «all who are meek.»

Adjectival phrases

An adjective acts as the head of an adjectival phrase. In the simplest case, an adjectival phrase consists solely of the adjective; more complex adjectival phrases may contain one or more adverbs modifying the adjective («very strong»), or one or more complements («worth several dollars,» «full of toys,» «eager to please). In English, attributive adjectival phrases that include complements typically follow their subjects («an evildoer devoid of redeeming qualities«).

Other noun modifiers

In many languages, including English, it is possible for nouns to modify other nouns. Unlike adjectives, nouns acting as modifiers (called attributive nouns or noun adjuncts) are not predicative; a red car is red, but a car park is not «car.» In English, the modifier often indicates origin («Virginia reel»), purpose («work clothes»), or semantic patient («man eater»). However, it can generally indicate almost any semantic relationship. It is also common for adjectives to be derived from nouns, as in English boyish, birdlike, behavioral, famous, manly, angelic, and so on.

Many languages have special verbal forms called participles that can act as noun modifiers. In some languages, including English, there is a strong tendency for participles to evolve into verbal adjectives. English examples of this include relieved (the past participle of the verb relieve, used as an adjective in sentences such as «I am so relieved to see you»), spoken (as in «the spoken word»), and going (the present participle of the verb go, used as an adjective in sentences such as «Ten dollars per hour is the going rate»). In English, these constructions tend to follow the noun that they modify. In other languages, such as Russian, they can either follow or precede the noun. (In English, you do not say the «condemned to death man,» but rather the «man condemned to death.» In Russian, it can be said either way.)

Other constructs that often modify nouns include prepositional phrases (as in English «a rebel without a cause«), relative clauses (as in English «the man who wasn’t there«), other adjective clauses (as in English «the bookstore where he worked«), and infinitive phrases (as in English «pizza to die for«).

In relation, many nouns take complements such as content clauses (as in English «the idea that I would do that«); these are not commonly considered modifiers, however.

Adjective order

In many languages, attributive adjectives usually occur in a specific order; for example, in English, adjectives pertaining to size generally precede adjectives pertaining to age («little old,» not «old little»), which in turn generally precede adjectives pertaining to color («old green,» not «green old»). This order may be more rigid in some languages than others; in some, it may only be a default (unmarked) word order, with other orders permitting a shift in emphasis. Less inflected languages, such as English, (without case endings) tend to have more fixed word order. Those with more case endings may have certain fixed patterns, but they tend to allow greater flexibility for poetic use or for adding emphasis.

Comparison of adjectives

In many languages, adjectives can be compared. In English, for example, we can say that a car is big, that it is bigger than another is, or that it is the biggest car of all. Not all adjectives lend themselves to comparison, however; for example, the English adjective even, in the sense of «being a multiple of two,» is not considered comparable, in that it does not make sense to describe one integer as «more even» than another.

Among languages that allow adjectives to be compared in this way, different approaches are used. Indeed, even within English, two different approaches are used: the suffixes -er and -est, and the words more and most. (In English, the general tendency is for shorter adjectives and adjectives from Anglo-Saxon to use -er and -est, and for longer adjectives and adjectives from French, Latin, Greek, and other languages to use more and most.) By either approach, English adjectives therefore have positive forms (big), comparative forms (bigger), and superlative forms (biggest); however, many languages do not distinguish comparative from superlative forms.

Restrictiveness

Attributive adjectives, and other noun modifiers, may be used either restrictively (helping to identify the noun’s referent, hence «restricting» its reference), or non-restrictively (helping to describe an already-identified noun). In some languages, such as Spanish, restrictiveness is consistently marked; for example, Spanish la tarea difícil means «the difficult task» in the sense of «the task that is difficult» (restrictive), while la difícil tarea means «the difficult task» in the sense of «the task, which is difficult» (non-restrictive). In English, restrictiveness is not marked on adjectives, but is marked on relative clauses (the difference between «the man who recognized me was there» and «the man, who recognized me, was there» being one of restrictiveness).

See also

• Adverb

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Dixon, R. M. W. 1977. Where have all the adjectives gone? Studies in Language, 1, 19-80. ISSN 0378-4177
• Dixon, R. M. W. 1994. Adjectives. In R. E. Asher (ed.), The Encyclopedia of language and linguistics, pp. 29-35. Oxford: Pergamon Press. (Republished as Dixon 1999). ISBN 9780080359434
• Dixon, R. M. W. 1999. Adjectives. In K. Brown & T. Miller (eds.), Concise encyclopedia of grammatical categories, pp. 1-8. Amsterdam: Elsevier. ISBN 0-08-043164-X
• Warren, Beatrice. 1984. Classifying adjectives. Gothenburg studies in English (No. 56). Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. ISBN 91-7346-133-4
• Wierzbicka, Anna. 1986. What’s in a noun? (or: How do nouns differ in meaning from adjectives?). Studies in Language, 10, 353-389. ISSN 0378-4177

External links

All links retrieved April 28, 2021.

• Adjective order in English
• Adjectives and Adverbs

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English adjectif, adjective, from Old French adjectif, from Latin adiectivus, from adiciō + -īvus, from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + iaciō (“throw”). The Latin word adiectivus in turn was a calque of Ancient Greek ἐπιθετικόν (epithetikón, “added”), a derivative of the compound verb ἐπιτίθημι (epitíthēmi), from which also comes epithet.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/, /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɛk.tɪv/, /ˈæd͡ʒ.ək.tɪv/, /ˈæd͡ʒ.ə.tɪv/

Noun[edit]

adjective (plural adjectives)

2. (grammar) A word that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes a noun’s referent.

   The words “big” and “heavy” are English adjectives.
3. (obsolete) A dependent; an accessory.
   • 1648, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge since the Conquest

     it must be an adjective of dain

Synonyms[edit]

• See Thesaurus:adjective

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Adjective[edit]

adjective (not comparable)

1. (grammar) Adjectival; pertaining to or functioning as an adjective.

   Synonym: adjectival

2. (law) Applying to methods of enforcement and rules of procedure.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 10, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     The whole English law, substantive and adjective.

   Synonym: procedural

   Antonym: substantive

3. (chemistry, of a dye) Needing the use of a mordant to be made fast to that which is being dyed.

   Antonym: substantive

4. (obsolete, reflected in the chemical sense, but extinct as a general sense) Incapable of independent function.
   • 1899, John Jay Chapman, Emerson and Other Essays, AMS Press (1969) (as reproduced in Project Gutenberg)

     In fact, God is of not so much importance in Himself, but as the end towards which man tends. That irreverent person who said that Browning uses “God” as a pigment made an accurate criticism of his theology. In Browning, God is adjective to man.

   Synonyms: dependent, derivative

   Coordinate terms: adjunct, adjunctive, adjutant

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

adjective (third-person singular simple present adjectives, present participle adjectiving, simple past and past participle adjectived)

1. (transitive) To make an adjective of; to form or convert into an adjective.
   • 1805, John Horne Tooke, Epea Pteroenta: or The Diversions of Purley Part 2

     Language has as much occasion to adjective the distinct signification of the verb, and to adjective also the mood, as it has to adjective time. It has […] adjectived all three.

   • 1832, William Hunter, An Anglo-Saxon grammar, and derivatives, page 46:

     In English, instead of adjectiving our own substantives, we have borrowed, in immense numbers, adjectived signs from other languages […]

2. (transitive, chiefly as a participle) To characterize with an adjective; to describe by using an adjective.

Synonyms[edit]

• adjectify
• adjectivize

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

(converting into or using as another part of speech:)

• adjectivize/adjectivise, adjective, adjectify
• adverbialize/adverbialise, (rare) adverb
• nominalize/nominalise, substantivize/substantivise, noun, (rare) nounify, (very rare) substantive
• verbalize/verbalise, (colloquial) verb

French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /a.dʒɛk.tiv/

Adjective[edit]

adjective

1. feminine singular of adjectif

Latin[edit]

Adjective[edit]

adjectīve

1. vocative masculine singular of adjectīvus

Romanian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): [ad.ʒekˈti.ve]

Noun[edit]

adjective

1. plural of adjectiv

Scots[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

From Latin (nomen) adjectivum.

Noun[edit]

adjective (plural adjectives)

1. (grammar) adjective