Adjectives

Adjectives

1. word that modifies a noun or a pronoun

   • answer these five questions
     • -which one? - what kind? - how many? -how much? - whose?

2. they may be

   • proper and common adjectives
     • proper: formed from a proper noun
     • common: a normal adjective

3. characteristics

   • morphological
     • notional
       • functional
         • can have an attributive or predicative function and position
           • attributive: pre modify the head of a noun phrase
             • it goes before the noun
           • Predicative: function as subject complement
             • it goes after the linking verb
           • Postpositive: When they immediately follow the noun por pronoun they modify
         • Semantic-syntactic classification
           • Intensifying adjectives
             • have a heightening or lowering effect on the noun they modify
             • Emphasizers:
               • They have a general heightening effect
             • Amplifiers:
               • They scale upwards from the standards
             • Downtoners:
               • They have a lowering effect
             • Restrictive adjective:
               • They restrict the reference of a noun
       • qualifies things, people and states
       • gradability
         • Gradable
           • They refer to qualities which can be weaker or stronger
         • Non-gradable
           • They indicate extreme or absolute qualities
         • Stative
           • They denote state
         • Dynamic
           • They denote an action or getting to a state
         • Inherent
           • characterize the referent of the noun directly
         • Non-Inherent
           • do not characterize the referent of the noun directly
             • Denominal Adjective
               • They derived from agentive nouns referring to the activity of the noun or to a material
     • they have inflection (-er and -est)

4. COMPOUND ADJECTIVES

   • They are adjectives comprised by two or more different words to describe a noun in termes of age, depth, weight, size, price, etc.
   • Different combinations you can find
     • Noun+Adjective
       • EX: world-famous
       • Noun+Present Participle
         • Noun + Past Participe
           • EX: wind-powered
           • Adjective + Noun
             • EX: last-minute
             • Adjective + Past Participle
               • EX: old-fashioned
               • Adjective + Present Participle
                 • EX: good-looking
                 • Adverb + Past Participle
                   • EX: brightly-lit
                   • Number + Noun
                     • EX: three-week
         • EX: record-breaking
   • To form a compound adjective put a hyphen between the two words

5. The proper order of adjectives is the following

   • NOSASCOMP
     • Number
     • Opinion
     • Size
     • Age
     • Shape
     • Color
     • Origin
     • Material
     • Purpose