14: expression of quality.

Expression of degree and comparison

SUMMARY:
00. INTRODUCTION
01. THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE
02. ADJECTIVES
03. SYNTACTIC SUBCLASSIFICATION OF ADJECTIVES
04. SEMANTIC SUBCLASSIFICATION OF ADJECTIVES
05. INTENSIFYING QUALITY
06. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS
07. THE SUBSTANTIVAL USE OF ADJECTIVES
08. COMPARISON AND DEGREE

00. INTRODUCTION.

A complex sentence has two or more classes, at least one of them being
subordinate to a main clause. A clause is subordinate or dependent, when it
can be replaced by a noun, an adjective, an adverb or a prepositional phrase.

Quality in English is expressed by means of the adjectival phrase which is a

non-clausal structure that may function as subject attribute, object attribute or
premodifier of a noun phrase head. The head of an adjective phrase is typically
a word belonging to the word-class of adjectives, and this head may be
premodified by an adverb or postmodified by several different forms.

By means of the comparative and the superlative we express that a quality is

present to a higher degree in one entity or group of entities than in one or more
others: John is taller than his brother Jim, John is the tallest boy in his
class.

01. THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE.

i) FUNCTIONS.

The adjective phrase is the main linguistic "element" to express quality. We

have mentioned already that the adjective phrase is a non-clausal structure that
it may have three different syntactical functions:
a) as subject attribute: Susan was a little reluctant to accept the offer
b) as object attribute: our proposal made him very happy
c) as premodifier of a noun phrase head: she proved to be an excellent
manager.

ii) MODIFICATION.

The premodification of an adjective phrase is invariably an adverb, the

postmodification may take several different forms. The various structural types
of adjective phrases show us different aspects of the same quality and they are
illustrated in the following examples:

1) When the head of the phrase is a predicative adjective: he was afraid,

he was terribly afraid, he was more afraid than yesterday.
 2) When the head of the phrase is as attributive adjective: you've made
me happy, your have made me extremely happy, you've made me
the happiest of all.

Although we may exceptionally come across a structure such as they have

published a very easy to read manual, adjective phrases functioning as
phrase elements normally have no postmodification; they either contain only a
head or they consist of a premodifying adverb and a head.

The postmodification of an adjective phrase may take the following forms:

1) prepositional phrase: he was afraid of ghosts
2) finite clause: he was afraid that he might be late
3) to-infinitive clause: he was afraid to leave the house
4) the adverb "enough": he was afraid enough

02. ADJECTIVES: GRAMMATICAL DELIMITATION OF ADJECTIVES.

The head of an adjective phrase is typically a word belonging to the word-class

of adjectives.

Traditional definitions of an adjective are: it says what somebody or something

is like, a word used to describe or give more information about a noun or, rather
more fully, a word that qualifies a noun, adds to its meaning but limits its
application. For example the noun house can be used to signify any house: the
big house tells more about the house but limits the application (it rules out all
small houses); the big new house tells still more, but narrows the field still
further.

In spite of this definition, it is sometimes difficult to draw a distinction between

adjectives and some other parts of speech, especially adverbs: - the suffix "-ly"
which may the formal distinction: a cheerful face/ he spoke cheerfully is
missing in many cases: a fast train/ he ran fast, while in others the suffix is
found in both the adjective and the adverb: leisurely movements/ he works
leisurely.

The distinction between these two parts of speech must be based upon function
so that we can say that an adjective is usually attached to a noun in attributive
usage, in apposition or as predicatibe complement, while the fuction of the
adverb is to be a qualifier of a sentence, a verb, an adjective or another adverb.
Nevertheless, adjectives often have a function approaching that of an adverb,
eg, a dark blue dress ("dark" is qualifier of the adjective "blue").

Therefore, modern grammarians prefer to define adjectives, like other major

word-classes, by position/ function and form/ inflection in order to make a more
clear distinction of this part of speech. We must take into account its form,
function and content together.

FORM.
Adjectives in English have only one form, which is used with singular and plural,
masculine and feminine nouns. Adjectives can only have the inflexional endings
-er and -est (greater/greatest): these suffixes are also found in the
comparative and the superlative forms of certain adverbs. Among adjectives,
many cannot be inflected thus, either because they are compared with
more/most instead for phonetic or other reasons (more/most valuable), or
because they are not compared for reasons of content (only, previous).

FUNCTION.

The major syntactic functions of adjectives are attributive and predicative so

that a word that cannot function in either of these ways is not recognized as an
adjective.

a) adjectives are attributive when they premodify a noun: an honest boy, a new
powerful and very expensive car.

b) Adjectives are used predicatively when they predicate with the verb to be or
other verbs of incomplete predication. Predicative adjectives can be:

- SUBJECT COMPLEMENT, when there is coreference between subject and

adjective: that house is new, Tom has fallen asleep.

- OBJECT COMPLEMENT, there is co-reference between direct object and

adjective: I thought him very intelligent, he made his wife happy.

Attributive adjectives usually precede the noun qualified by them, but there are
occacions when they come after the noun as we shall see later. OTHER
FUNCTIONS assigned to adjectives are:

c) adjectives used substantivally, ie, when they function as nouns. In this usage
they can be subject of a sentence, complement, object and complement of a
preposition: the rich will help only the humble poor, the wise look to the wiser for
advice.

d) Adjectives can be used as equivalents to a relative clause. In this case, the

adjective usually precedes or (less usually) follows the subject of the sentence:
the man, nervous, opened the letter (the man, who was nervous, ...) Unhappy,
she returned to work.

CONTENT.

As regards content, SCHIBSBYE, tells us that adjectives denote a quality, on

the one hand: wonderful, glorious and a category, a section of a whole or a
number: alien, various, previous. On the other hand. The latter are called
LIMITING ADJECTIVES, the former DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES. Many
adjectives can be used with both these associations: a musical voice
(descriptive), a musical instrument (limiting).
 QUIRK makes a more exhaustive division of adjectives according to content as
we shall see below.

Anyhow, we can say that the majority of adjectives denote quality. In other
words, they often have a sort of "descriptive meaning".

02.1. CHARACTERISTICS.

Summarising, four features or criteria are commonly considered to be

characteristic of adjectives:

a) they can freely occur in Attributive function premodifying a noun and

appearing between the determiner (including zero article) and the respective
noun head. an ugly painting, the round table.

b) they can freely occur in Predicative function as subject complement or object

complement: the painting is ugly (subject complement), he thought the painting
ugly (object complement).

c) they may be modified by intensifiers: a very pretty girl, a rather useful

instrument.

d) they can take comparative and superlative forms. The comparison may be by
means of inflections or by the addition of premodifiers: the children are happier
now, they are the happiest people I know.

02.2. CENTRAL AND PERIPHERAL ADJECTIVES.

Not all the words regarded traditionally as adjectives possess all these features.
It is, for example, only in exceptional cases that afraid can occur attributively
and utter can occur predicatively: *afraid people, utter nonsense; people are
afraid, *this nonsense is utter.

Adjectives that fit the predicative or attributive positions that can also be
inflected by comparison and can be premodified are central or "core"
adjectives, eg.: small, large, wet, dry. Others, that fit only one position or
cannot be compared (utter, afloat) are more marginal or peripheral.

02.3. KINDS OF ADJECTIVES.

Quirk offers us three subclassifications of adjectives, based on different points

of view:

■ From a MORPHOLOGICAL POINT OF VIEW he divides adjectives according

to the most common suffixes they take. In this way we have adjectives ending in
-al, -esque, -ful, -ic, -ish, -ive, -less, -like, -ly, -ous, -y, ...

■ A better way in which adjectives can be classified is according to the

SYNTACTIC FUNCTION they can perform. As we have already studied, the
two main syntactic functions of adjectives are their use as attributives and as
 predicatives. He thus classifies adjectives according to whether they can
function as:

1. Both attributive and predicative: a hungry man/ the man is hungry

2. Attributive only: joint efforts/ an utter fool
3. Predicative only: the woman is loath to admit it/ he stood alone

Most adjectives can be both attributive and predicative. They constitute what
Quirk calls “the central adjectives”, while those that are limited to one or other
function constitute what he calls “the peripheral adjective”.

■ From a SEMANTIC POINT OF VIEW, Quirk distinguishes three scales of

adjectives: STATIVE/ DYNAMIC, GRADABLE/ NON-GRADABLE, INHERENT/
NON-INHERENT.

02.4. POSITION OF ADJECTIVES.

Most adjectives are to be found in the three chief usages of this part of speech,
ie, as an attributive adjective preceding or following the noun it qualifies, and as
a predicative complement: an insane man/ he behaved like a man insane/ he is
insane.

Of the two main adjectival values, the descriptive and the limiting, the former
may belong to adjectives in all three positions while the latter belongs primarily
to adjectives used attributively. Certain adjectives however do not have all three
usages, and some differ considerably as to content in the different usages, as
we shall see at the end of this subject.

A. Position of attributive adjectives. First when there is only one adjective,

second when there are two or more adjectives qualifying a noun:

An attributive adjective usually precedes the noun it qualifies: a large house/ an

interesting book/ numerous mistakes. But there are occasions, especially in
literary English when it comes after the noun that it qualifies. These are:

■ 1. When accompanied by nouns denoting measure: a road fifty feet wide, a wall
six feet high.

■ 2. For most adjectives postposition is possible if there is complementation of the

adjective, ie, when the adjective is followed by a prepositional phrase: he is a
man greedy for money, I know the actor suitable for the part, they have a house
larger than yours.

■ 3. A number of Romance adjectives (especially Norman French legal terms) are

used in this way: Poet Laureate, Bishop elect, Court Martial, Time immemorial.

■ 4. Due to Latin influence we have some expressions with postpositive

adjectives; some of which refer to grammatical terms: Gold Almighty/ Lord
Spiritual /Verb passive.
■ 5. Compound indefinitive pronouns ending in body, one, thing, where can be
modified by adjectives used only postpositively ; this word order is often found
in combinations with the wards  "things" and  "matters": something big about
to happen, anyone intelligent can do it, her predilection for things French came
from childish recollections.

■ 6. When the adjective is in apposition to a proper name: William the Conqueror,

Charles the Bold.

■ 7. Verbal adjectives (i.e. adjectives derived from or connected with verbs) follow
their noun when they are distinctly verhal in meaning (i.e., when they express
an action or an occurrence, rather than a state or a quality). They include
especially participles and adjectives in -able, -ible. With a singular noun,
postposition is common in a construction with “only”: He gave us a clear idea of
the problems involved, a penny saved is a penny gained, the only actor
suitable, all the accommodation available was put at our disposal.

■ 8. "all" and "both" (though they are determiners they can be treated here)
always follow a personal pronoun: we all (both) hope you will be successful.

■ 9. "enough" normally comes before the noun, but can come after it with no
difference of meaning: We haven't enough time, we haven't time enough.

■ 10. An adjective preceded by "so", "more", "most" may follow the noun it
qualifies: Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep.

Now we come to deal with cases where a noun is preceded by two or more
adjectives. In these cases the question of the relative position of these
adjectives arises. Does one say "a little nice house" or  "a nice little house".
Schibsbye gives us a practical rule, and says that if several adjectives precede
the noun to which they are attached, the descriptive adjectives precede the
limiting: A naughty 1ittle boy, a nervous young man, a beautiful French girl.

But since many adjectives may have both values their order can vary according
to the context. We normally say "a living vertebrate anirnal", since "vertebrate"
is essentially an adjective indicating a category (limíting); but the word order can
be changed if we want to give more emphasis to the adjective "vertebrate”.

For a more exhaustive explanation we shall follow Christophersen in his book

An Advanced English Grammar. Acccording to him, one fairly general rule is
that noung when functioning as adjectives come immediately before the
nounthey qualify so that the adjectives come first. Example: the blue April sky
(not *the April blue sky), a lovely silk dress, a loyal party supporter

The above rule does not apply where two adjectivals (i.e. adjectives or nouns
used as adjectives) are linked by “and”, “or” or a similar linking word: one finds
both stone and wooden houses in that part of the country.
With regard to other adjectives no hard and fast rules can be given, but certain
tendencies should be noted:

adjectives tend to be ranged according to meaning in conformity

with the following scheme: 

OTHER ADJS.
ADJS. ADJS.
ADJS. ADJS. DENOT ADJS.
ADJS. DENOTINGNA DENOT
THAN DENOTING ING DENOT NO
DENOTINGC TIONAL OR ING
THOSE TEMPERA SHAPE ING UN
OLOUR REGIONAL MATER
FOLLO TURE AND AGE
ORIGIN IAL
WING SIZE

OTHER ADJS.
ADJS. ADJS.
ADJS. ADJS. DENOT ADJS.
ADJS. DENOTINGNA DENOT
THAN DENOTING ING DENOT NO
DENOTINGC TIONAL OR ING
THOSE TEMPERA SHAPE ING UN
OLOUR REGIONAL MATER
FOLLO TURE AND AGE
ORIGIN IAL
WING SIZE

Examples: a large old white wooden house, an undersized young French

engineer.

When the adjectives “little” and “old” are emotionally charged /and the original
meaning is partially or completely lost), they are closely associated with the
succeeding noun so that other adjectives precede them: a brave little woman, a
rich old man.

But “little” and “old” are separated from the noun by adjectives denoting “colour”
and “material” or nationality, and as regards the mutual relation of these two
adjectives, “little” precedes “old”. Examples: the little red town was huddled
down in the valley, old wooden furniture, a charming little Italian girl, we went
into the little old church.

On the other hand, an emotionally charged “old” is sometimes added to the

word “same” and placed before other adjectives: the same old edifying stories.

When “poor” and “nice” are emotionally charged they tend to precede
adjectives: I like to soak in a nice long hot bath, poor little homeless,
defenceless child.

If an adjective and a noun form a fixed collocation with a meaning which is

different from the sum of their meanings, they cannot be separated by other
adjectives. Examples are: a general practitioner (a doctor who is not a
specialist), a hot dog (a sausage served in a roll of bread). Obviously no one
would think of asking for a “hot small dog”.

All the tendencies mentioned above may be crossed by others of different

kinds, such as rhythm, syntax, and morphology. For example, a short adjective
will often precede a long one: new insuperable difficulties arose; he gave me a
cold, suspicious look.
B. Adjectives are used predicatively when they form the predicate with verb
“to be”, or other verbs of incomplete predication: seem, become, get, keep,
feel, lie, and with a number of verbs of movement. of course, predicative
adjectives, like attributive ones, qualify nouns, but, unlike them, they are not
subordinated to them. For this reason predicative adjectives are always put in
the sentence after the noun they qualify without any exception: the children
were nice, my father has fallen asleep, Mary is feeling miserable, the cheese
went bad. We do not include here examples of the type unhappy, the man
returned home, since the adjective functions not as a predicative but as an
equivalent to a clause, which is different.
 
03. SYNTACTIC SUBCLASSIFICATION OF ADJECTIVES.

We turn to consider the characteristics of the peripheral adjectives, those that

are restricted to attributive or to predicative use. The restrictions are not always
absolute, and sometimes vary with individual speakers.

03.1. ATTRIBUTIVE ONLY.

Attributive-only does not mean that the adjectives cannot occur in a noun
phrase in the predication of a sentence: what you say is utter nonsense. What it
does man is that such adjectives cannot stand without a noun:*this nonsense is
utter.

Adjectives restricted to predicative position -the dynamic, verbal position in a

sentence- are, by contrast, more verbal and/or they refer to a more temporary
state (asleep, alight).

Some adjectives have a descriptive meaning which may be both attributive and
predicative, plus an attributive-only intensifying or limiting meaning: a strong
man, he is strong but a strong possibility (attributive only).

We can distinguish the following six types of attributive only: 

a) RELATIONSHIP (-er). Certain wrods in -er indicate relationships of contrast,

not degree, as true comparatives do. So we cannot say *former than. They only
take attributive position. There are superlative forms related to these adjectives
(foremost, innermost) but the meanings do not correspond in a very regular
way. The principal of them are: former, latter, inner, outer, upper, utter, elder, ...
in the same way as a number of Latin comparatives such as major, minor,
exterior, interior, ulterior; EX: In former times people lit their homes by gas, not
electricity (past not recent), The latter is considered safer (last-mentioned), it's a
major problem, ulterior motives.

b) INTENSIFYING. it is a general label that includes intensigying upwards

(very) and downwards (mere). The principal of them are: mere, merest, utter,
very (extreme), outright, out-and-out: EX: the mere mention of fire alarmed him
(the mention by itself), I've only got the merest idea (the smallest), my very own,
it's utter nonsense, that's the very end, yours is a outright/ out-and-out lie.
Other intensifying adjectives (which with other meanings van be both attriutive
and predicative) include: absolute, certain, clear, close, complete, definite, firm,
great, perfect, pure, real, strong, sure, thorough.

c) LIMITING. They are not concerned with inherent characteristics. Lone means
without occupation rather than lonely. Predicative is alone. Only is a word
functioning normally as an adverb. The principal of them are: joint, lone, only,
sole, chief, main, principal, very (=that and no other). EX: many couples have
jing bank accounts, Tom is an only child and the sole heir, the chief/ main/
principal reason is ..., a holiday is the very thing you need.

Other limiting adjectives (which with other meaning can be both attributive and
predicative) are certain, exact, particular, precise, principal, same, specific, ... 

d) NOUN-RELATED. Many noun-related adjectives occur in predicative

position and not everyone will agree with the examples given here. However,
actual nouns in attributive position usually occur immediately before the head
noun and are felt to be so much a part of the head that they cannot be
separated off to occur in predicative position. Noun-related adjectives also
have a tendency to be interpreted in the same way and are often felt to be like
noun compounds (the defences were coastal). Some of them are: chemical,
earthen, maritime, nuclear, solar, ...; EX: a chemical formula, coastal defences,
an earthen pot, maritime law, a nuclear submarine, solar energy.

e) ALTERNATIVE PAST-PARTICIPLES. Some verbs that have two alternative

past participles use thier old irregular form only in attributive position. Some of
them are drunken, shrunken, sunken. EX: a sunken garden, a drunken sailor,
shrunken limbs. drunken can also be used predicatively in the sense of
habitually drunk.

f) MISCELLANEOUS. The close relationship between adjectives and adverbs

is further shown by indoor, outdoor, uptown, downtown, inside, outside. In
predicative position all six (two with added -s) are felt to be adverbs: he was
indoors/ outdoors/ inside/ outside/ downtown/ uptown.

g) ADJECTIVES ENDING IN "-ic" AND "-ical". As one of the differences

between these two groups of adjectives is that those of the former type have a
limiting value and those of the latter a descriptive value, it is to be expected that
adjectives in -ic should be used attributively. Nevertheless only a few of these
are used solely in this way: arithmetic, lyric, stoic, theoretic. EX: a lyric poet/ he
was quite lyrical, the stoic virtues/ they were stoical about the bombings.

In other cases of adjectives in -ic & -ical the distinction is less clear so that
adjectives in -ic can have other uses besides the attributive; this is the case of
academic, comic, mystic, ...

h) ADJECTIVES ENDING IN "-en". which are still used of material are only
found before a noun when they have their literal meaning: earthen, woolen,
golder as predicative complement their respective concept is expressed by of +
noun: they bought some wooden articles (=these articles are of wood), an
earthen jar, woollen sock.

Most of them are, however, used figuratively, and have a descriptive value; in
this case, they can be used both predicatively and attributively: the evening had
been golden, this government is wooden in its methods.

03.2. PREDICATIVE ONLY.

a) A-SERIES. All the words in this series can fit into the slot after linking verbs,
but some are more adjective-like nad more adverb-like than others. It is not
always possible to find an attributive equivalent to these adjectives, for the
obvious reason that attributive and predicative positions to some extent have
their own meaning. For example, alone is usually emotionally neutral, referring
to an action or temporary state (without other people, by oneself); the nearest
attributive adjective is the limiting lone. Related adjectives that can appear in
both positions suggest a more inherent characteristic: lonely (and unhappy) or
solitary (=deliberately avoidig company). The principal of them are afloat, afraid
(that/of/to), aghast, agog, akin (to), alert, alight, alike, alive, alone, aloof,
amenable (to), amiss, asleep, ashamed (of/to/that), averse (to), awake, aware
(of/that), awash.

b) HEALTH ADJECTIVES. Strictly speaking these words should not be

included in this table, as, with the exception of poorly, they can all appear in
attributive position, at least in American English. But in attributive position in
British English (a fine man, a better person) their meaning is not related to
health. Usage is a bit complicated.

In BrE all these words refer to a possibly temporary condition of health and are
only predicative. To make a comment on someone's more long-term health we
could say: he is a sick man/ a healthy/unhealthy person. In AmE ill/well are
used attributively: an ill/well woman.

The principal of them are faint, fine, ill, poorly, well, unwell. EX: I feel ill/ fine/
poorly/ well/ unwell.

The corresponding adjective to poorly in attributive position is ailing (an ailing

child) while healthy corresponds to well in the same use.

c) ADJECTIVES WITH COMPLEMENTATION. On the whole adjectives with

complementation do not go in attributive position and do not precede a noun, so
that any adjective that obligatorily takes complementation is likely to be
predicative only (or possibly in post-position). Content is possibly the
commonest of those adjectives that do not have to take complementation, but
which are nevertheless predicatively only. The principal of them are bound,
content, devoid, inclined, liable, opposed, prone, tantamount, ...; EX: he is
bound to lose his money, I'm perfectly content to stay at home, the road is liable
to get muddy in winter.

03.3. DIFFERENT CONTENT ACCORDING TO POSITION.

Since the prepositive adjective often has limiting value (indicating a category)
while adjectives used as predicative complement are normally descriptive, we
frequently find that the same adjective had different meanings according to its
position. But in some cases this can be done; a number of these are mentioned
below: 

APPARENT. 1) seeming attributively: the reason for the apparent contradiction

becomes obvious. 2) evident predicatively: the importance of these industries is
not apparent from a bare enumeration of figures. 

DUE. 1) suitable, right attributively: after due consideration he accepted the

proposal. 2) payable, appointed to arrive predicatively: When is the train due?. 

ILL. 1) bad, evil attributively: it's and ill wind that blows nobody good. 2) unwell,
in bad health predicatively: the man is very ill. 

PROPER. 1) suitable right attributively: After a proper interval .... 2) according to

definition predicatively: Shellfishes do not belong to fish proper.

PRESENT. 1) existing now attributively: the present king, the present plan. 2)
being in the place referred to predicatively: The ministers present will agree. 

SORRY. 1) sad, pitiful attributively: It was a sorry sight, he came to a sorry end.
2) regretful, unhappy predicatively: I feel sorry for you. 

04. SEMANTIC SUBCLASSIFICATION OF ADJECTIVES.

Three semantic scales are applicable to adjectives: stative/ dynamic,

gradable/ non-gradable & inherent/ non-inherent. It is important to realize
that we are dealing with scales rather than with a feature that is present or
absent. That is to say, not all the realizations of a feature are available in each
case. Furthermore, there may be idiolectal variations in the recognition of a
feature or in the acceptability of its realizations.

04.1. STATIVE/ DYNAMIC.

The first class does not imply change (tall) and the second refers on occasions
to transitory conditions of behaviour or activity (careful).

Adjectives are characteristically stative, they describe fairly permanent inherent

qualities. Many adjectives, however, can be seen as dynamic. In particular,
most adjectives that are susceptible to subjective measurement are capable of
being dynamic. Stative and dynamic adjectives differ syntactically in a number
of ways. For example, a stative adjective such as tall cannot be used with the
progressive aspect or with the imperative: *he’s being tall, *be tall.

On the other hand, we can use careful as a dynamic adjective: he is being

careful, be careful.
A general semantic feature of dynamic adjectives seems to be that they denote
qualities that are thought to be subject to control by the possessor and hence
can be restricted temporally.

Adjectives that can be used dynamically include: awkward, brave, calm,

careful, careless, cheerful, clever, conceited, cruel, dull, enthusiastic,
extravagant, faithful, foolish, friendly, funny, generous, gentle, good,
greedy, hasty, helpful, impatient, jealous, kind, naughty, nice, noisy,
patient, playful, reasonable, rude, sensible, serious, shy, slow, stubborn,
stupid, talkative, thoughtful, tidy, timid, troublesome, vain, vicious, vulgar,
wicked, witty, ...

04.2. GRADABLE/ NON-GRADABLE. 

Most adjectives are gradable. Gradability is manifested through comparison:

tall, taller, tallest; beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful.

Gradability is also manifested through modification by intensifiers, ed. adverbs

which convey the degree of intensity of the adjective: very tall, so beautiful,
extremely useful.

All dynamic and most stative adjectives are gradable; some stative adjectives
are not, principally denominal adjectives like atomic, scientist and adjectives
denoting provenance as British.

These categories are called “descriptive” and “limiting” by Knud Schibsbye and
we shall use these terms all through this chapter. Examples: a wonderful
weather/ a tall man (descriptive or gradable) & the previous page/ medical
assistance (limiting or non-gradable).

04.3. INHERENT/ NON-INHERENT.

Most adjectives are inherent, that is, they characterize the referent of the noun
directly. For example, the inherent adjective in a wooden cross applies to the
referent of the object directly: a wooden cross is also a wooden object. On the
other hand, in a wooden actor the adjectives is non-inherent: a wooden actor is
not a wooden man. Some other examples are:

inherent non-inherent

a black coat an old friend

a firm a firm friend
handshake a perfect
a perfect alibi stranger
a certain result a certain winner
a true report a true scholar

For practical purposes it is better to recognize only two types of adjectives from
a semantic point of view: descriptive and limiting.
 05. INTENSIFYING QUALITY.

One of the characteristics of the adjectives is that they may be modified by

intensifiers. By intensifiers we mean adverbs that indicate the degree of
intensity of the quality denoted by the adjective: an extremely useful instrument,
a rather interesting document.

The most used intensifier is very: a very good book.

All adjectives may be modified by intensifiers except those whose meaning is

incompatible with the notion of “degree of intensity”.

Adjectives not taking intensifiers are, for instance, those listed as “adjectives
which are exclusively used attributively”. The only exception here seems to be
same, which may take very to emphasize identity: on the very same day. Note
that same does not take other intensifiers: *the most same day, *the rather
same day.

On the whole, adjectives not taking intensifiers are those denoting a quality
which is either fully present or not at all. Apart from the ones mentioned above,
they include noun-related adjectives and adjectives denoting provenance.

06. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN ADJECTIVE AND ADVERB.

Open-class adverbs regularly, though not invariably, derived from adjectives by

suffixation. there is another sense in which adjectives and adverbs are related,
apart from this morphological relationship. A correspondence often exists
between constructions containing adjectives and constructions containing the
corresponding adverbs. The simplest illustration is with adverbs equivalent to
prepositional phrases containing a noun or noun phrase that is a generic term
and the corresponding adjective as premodifier: he liked Mary considerably/ he
liked Mary to a considerable extent; he spoke to John sharply/ he spoke to John
in a sharp manner; he wrote frequently/ he wrote on frequent occasions.

We have also noted some instances where either the adjective or the adverb
forms appear, with little or no semantic difference. But normally, the adjective
and its corresponding adverb appear in different environments: his frequent
visits (his visits are frequent, he visits frequently), her incredible beauty (her
beauty is incredible, she is incredibly beautiful).

There are many other cases of nominalization where a construction with the
adverb form seems basic to an understanding of the corresponding construction
with the adjective form:

■ a. The adjective-noun sequence may imply a process or a time relationship, a

corresponding clause containing an adverb: a hard worker = someone who
works hard, a frequent visitor = someone who visits frequently, a heavy eater =
someone who eats heavily. We should include here cases where the agential
noun lacks an agential suffix: a former student, a clever liar. Similarly, there are
 instances where the noun normally lacks a corresponding verb, but where the
reference is to the process part of the noun’s meaning: a poor soldier (“one who
acts poorly as a soldier”), a good mother (“one who cares well for the children”).
Many of these adjectives can occur only attributively in this use. They belong to
the noninherent class of adjectives.
■ b. Analogous correspondences do not have this restriction to attributive
position: he loved her deeply = his deep love for her, his love for her was deep;
she answered quickly = her quick answer, her answer was quick.
■ c. The adjective may refer to an implied process associated with a concrete
object: a fast car (“a car that can go fast), a slow road (a road on which one can
only drive slow).
■ d. Most intensifying adjectives can be seen as related to adverbs: total
nonsense = it is totally nonsense, a clear failure = it is clearly a failure, a real
idiot = he is really an idiot. Many of these can occur only attributively in this use.
■ e. Many restrictive adjectives can be seen as related to adverbs: the main
reason = the reason was mainly that ...; the precise argument = the argument
was precisely that ... or the argument was precise.

07. THE SUBSTANTIVAL USE OF ADJECTIVES.

The following things should be noted about the use of adjectives as nouns or
nominals. Look at these examples:

■ 1. The best is hardly good enough for him. The bad in the book completely
overshadows the good. --- The long and the short of it ís that ...

■ 2. The strong are more to be pitied than the weak. --- The old are well provided
for nowadays ---  The poor were oppressed by the rich.

1. In the first examples the adjective is used in the neuter, and it hardly ever
denotes a person (unless it is combined with one of the suffixes er and est).
Usually it denotes an abstract notion. It should also be noted that the concept
expressed by the adjectives is in the generic sense; the construction cannot
normally be used to denote specific, individual manifestations of the quality
denoted by the adjective: Don’t expect me to do the impossible.

When we want to connote a specific sense, we have three ways of expression:

■ a. By means of a corresponding noun: The beauty of the existing system

(instead of "the beautiful").

■ b. By means of a combination or adjective + noun such as “thing, part, feature,

aspect ...”: The singular thing of the battle was that no one could say what had
happened (instead of "the singular").

■ c. By means of other exnressions: Do what is right (instead of "the right")

In a number of cases the word is found as a noun in the plural: Training in

fundamentals, greens and potatoes.
 Thus, in the same way: sundries, goods, necessaries, theatricals, woollens, ...

2. In the second examples the adjectives are used in the common gender,
and thus usually denotes persons; but it is important to realize that these
persons are viewed as a group. “The strong/ old/ poor/ ...” means “all strong/
old/ poor people”, or at least "all that we are concerned with at the moment".
With a few exceptions the construction cannot indicate a single individual or a
small number of people. The most important exceptions are:

■ If an adjective is preceded by the determiner THE in the nominal position

traditionally known as “apposition" after a proper name, it may refer to a single
person, e.g.: Charles the Bold.

■ If one of the suffixes er or est is added to adjectives, the construction with THE
may indicate a single individual: Which of the two brothers do you like best? -
Oh, the younger without question. This construction may also be used in
reference to inanimate objects: what sort of soap would you like, sir? - Oh, the
cheapest you have got.

■ The adjectives "poor" and "young" and a few others may be used with reference
to individual living beings (with a meaning different from "the whole
group").They are also exceptional in that they may be preceded by other
determiners than THE; indeed "poor" may be used without a determiner: Look,
the sparrow is feeding its young -- I have my poor to attend to. Other adiectives
belonging to this groun are: The Almighty, the accused, the deceased, the
departed, my beloved, my betrothed ..

In addition to the many words that are commonly both noun and adjectives: His
only son was an imbecile (noun), Imbecile conduct (adjective) (ancient,
Christian, male, native, private, untouchable ...), there are others that are
nouns only in a particulartype of language: He is a dear (colloquial), you are a
silly (colloquial).

Among adjectives that can function as nouns an important group is formed by

those denoting nationality. Schibsbye distinguishes the following groups:

■ the largest group of these is formed by words that are commonly both nouns
and adjectives: German, American, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, ...; He
looked an unmistakable German (noun), There were Germans in our front
trench (noun); The German naval challenge was immediate (adjective).
■ In another paragraph the nouns and adjectives are distinct: Dane/ Danish,
Finn/ Finnish, Pole/ Polish, Swede/ Swedish, Turk/ Turkish, Spaniard/
Spanish, ...: Gunnar Franck was a Dane from Copenhagen (noun); The
integrity of the Danish monarchy.

■ A third group comprises a number of adjectives that act unchanged as nouns:

"Swiss", "Cingalese", “Indonese", "Japanese", "Portuguese ...": The
landlady was a blond Swiss (noun), Both the Germans and the Swiss guarded
the frontier (noun), On the walls were pictures of Swiss Lakes (adjective).
■ A fourth group consists of regular adjectives, and can therefore only be used
substantivaly in the common gender plural of the whole nation (or group
representing the nation) and sometimes an indefinite number of individuals; in
the case of a single individual, and certain individuals in the plural a noun is
added; if this is "man (men)” or “woman (women)" it normally forms a compound
with the adjective. In this group we have: "Cornish", "Dutch", "French",
"Irish", "Manx" , "Scotch”, "Welsh": A little old English-woman (a single
individual), Many Englishmen abroad did credit to England (certain individuals),
The English lost at Hastings (the whole nation), The  preponderance of English
and Americans (the whole nation), 7000 men fought on the English side
(adjective).

08. COMPARISON AND DEGREE.

By means of the comparative and the superlative we express that a quality is

present to a higher degree in one entity or group of entities that in one or more
others: John is taller/ more intelligent than his brother, John is the tallest/ most
intelligent boy in class.

The comparative (taller, more intelligent) is used for ocmparison between two
entities or groups of entities, the superlative (tallest, most intelligent) when
more than two entities or groups of entities are compared.

Since the comparative and the superlative express the degree to which a quality
is present they cannot be used with adjectives whose meaning is incompatible
with “the notion of degree”.

Traditionally the comparative and the superlative are referred to as Degrees of

Comparison. the unmarked form of the adjective is often included in the “three
genres of comparison” and referred to as the Positive or absolute degree.

08.1. THREE DEGREES OF COMPARISON.

With gradable adjectives and adverbs three types of Comparison are possible:
to a higher degree, to the same degree, to a lower degree. The three types of
comparison are expressed by the following means:

■ 08.1.1. COMPARISON IN RELATION TO A HIGHER DEGREE. It is expressed

by the “inflected forms” in -er and -est or their “periphrastic equivalents” with
more and most: Anna is cleverer/ more clever than Susan.
■ 08.1.2. COMPARISON IN RELATION TO THE SAME DEGREE. It is
expressed by as (or sometimes so) ... as: Anna is as tall as Bill, Anna is not so
tall as Bill.
■ 08.1.3. COMPARISON IN RELATION TO A LOWER DEGREE. It is expressed
by less and least: this problem is less difficult than the previous one, this is the
least difficult problem of all.

08.2. DEGREES AND INFLECTIONAL CONTRAST.

 For higher degree comparisons, English has three-term inflecional contrast
between Absolute, Comparative, and Superlative degrees for many adjectives
and for a few adverbs, the absolute being realized by the base form of the item.
This can be seen in the following table which also gives the parallel periphrastic
constructions:

DEGREES

ABSOLUTE COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE

INFLECTION

adjective high higher highest

adverb soon sooner soonest

PERIPHRASIS

adjective complex more complex most complex

adverb comfortably more most
comfortably comfortably

08.3. IRREGULAR FORMS OF COMPARISON.

■ 08.3.1. good/ bad/ far. A small group of highly frequent adjectives have
comparative and superlative forms with stems which are different from the base:

goo better best

d worse worst
bad further/ furthest/
far farther farthest

The two sets further/ farther, which are both adjectives and adverbs, are used
interchangeably by many speakers to express both physical and abstract. In
fact, however, the use of farther and farthest is chiefly restricted to
expressions of physical distance, and, in all senses, further and furthest are
the usual forms found: Nothing could be further from the house, my house is
furthest from the station.
Note: the most common uses of further are not as comparative form but in the
sense of “more”, “additional”, “later”: that’s a further reason for deciding now,
any further questions?, the school will close until further notice, we intend to
stay for a further two months.

■ 08.3.2. COMPARISON OF “OLD”. It is regularly inflected as older - oldest. In

attributive position, particularly when referring to the order of birth of members
of a family, the irregular forms elder - eldest are normally substituted
(especially in British English): my elder/ older sister is an artist; his eldest/
oldest son is still at school.
 However, elder is not a true comparative in that it cannot be followed by than:
my brother is three years older/ *elder than me.
Elder also requires personal reference: this viola is the older/ *elder.

■ 08.3.3. COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES RELATED TO HEALTH. Well (“in

good health”) & ill (“in bad health”) are inflected like good & bad, respectively,
for the comparative: he feels better/ worse. He is better is ambiguous between
“he is well again” and “he is less ill”. In the first use, we can have intensifiers
expressing absolute degree: he is completely better.

In the second use we can have expressions with a comparative sense: he is a

little/ a bit/ somewhat better.
There is no superlative best in the health sense: *he is best. He is worse
corresponds to the second use (“less well”). There is no positive periphrastic
comparsion corresponding to the negative comparison less well: * he is more
well today.
Compounds with good, well and ill + participle can have either form of
comparison: good-looking (better-looking & more good-looking), (best-
looking & most good-looking).

■ 08.3.4. COMPARISON OF “LITTLE” & “SMALL”. Little shares the

comparative with small (smaller/ smallest) as an adjective modifying count
nouns: Anna is only a little/ small child, she is smaller than Susan, she is the
smallest child in her playgroup.

Lesser is used attributively in the sense of “less important”: to a lesser degree

(extent), lesser men than Churchill.
Least can also be the head of a noun phrase: that is the least we can do.
Note: lesser also denotes “of smaller size” in Geography: the Lesser Antilles.

08.4. CHOICE BETWEEN INFLECTIONAL AND PERIPHRASTIC

COMPARISON.

The choice between inflectional and periphrastic comparison is largely

determined by the length of the adjective.

■ a. Monosyllabic adjectives normally form their comparison by inflection: low,

lower, lowest. Real, right, wrong and the preposition like take only periphrastic
forms: she is more like (*liker) her mother. However, most other monosyllabic
adjectives can take either inflectional or periphrastic comparison.

■ b. Many disyllabic adjectives can also take inflections, though they have the
alternative ofthe periphrastic forms: her children are politer/ more polite or her
children are (the) politest/ (the) most polite.

Disyllabic adjectives that can most readily take inflected forms are those ending
in an unstressed vowel: 

-y early, easy, funny, happy, noisy, pretty,

 -ow healthy
-le mellow, narrow, shallow
-er able, feeble, gentle, noble, simple
-ure clever
mature, obscure

■ c. Trisyllabic or longer adjectives can only take periphrastic forms: beautiful,

more beautiful (*beautifuller), the most beautiful (*beautifullest). Adjectives
with the negative un- prefix, such as unhappy, and untidy are exceptions:
unhappier/ unhappiest, untidier/ untidiest.

■ d. Participle forms which are used as adjectives regularly take only

periphrastic forms: interesting, more interesting, most interesting;
wounded, more wounded, most wounded; worn, more worn, most worn.

Most adjectives that are inflected for comparison can also take the periphrastic
forms with more and most. With more, they seem to do so more easily when
they are predicative and are followed by a than-clause: john is more mad than
Bob is; it’s not easy to find a man more brave than he is; he is more wealthy
than I thought.

APPENDIX I. A FEW WORDS MORE ABOUT ATTRIBUTIVE ADJUNCTS.

By "double attributives" we understand that a noun may be qualified by two

adjectives. Then, what has been said about "two or more attributive adjectives"
is valid here. Nevertheless; we think it is convenient to add here a few words
about what Jespersen calls  "two adjuncts"  in order to see , the relation
between certain determiners functioning attributively. Here are the main points:

1  Adjuncts indicating quantity or number ("quantifiers") precede other adjuncts:

much red wine/ many black hats/ half this army. This explains the tendency to
place numerals before "first", “last", "next": the two first dances (Austen), the
two first books (Stevenson) but there is a conflicting tendency in such cases to
place the numeral last and thus connect it with the substantive: the first three
strollers (Swift), our last four Prime Ministers (Shaw).

2  A similar tendency exists with regard to the relative position of "other" and a
numeral;  the usual order is to place the numeral first: the two others, the
pleased looks of the tree, others standing round him. But the opposite order is
frequent: to mention the other two (Franklin), one of the other four (Stevenson).

3 - Pronominal adjuncts (i.e. pronouns used attributively) generally precede

other adjuncts, as in: my new dress, this black ball.

4  Finally, in such combinations as "how great a man" the wordorder must be

explained from the fact that "how" must necessarily be placed first (like any
interrogative or relative work), and that the adjective "great" is naturally
attracted to "how" and therefore comes to be placed before "a" in spite of the
general tendency to place these pronominal adjuncts before other adjuncts. A
similar explanation holds for the wordorder in "so great a man"; "too great a
 sum" from which the same word-order has spread to other instances in which a
subjunct of degree attracts an adjective and makes it precede the article: how
sincere a friend he was to me, such a lovely morning, so young a woman, no
less remarkable a man

APPENDIX II. ATTRIBUTIVE FUNCTION OF PARTICIPLES, INFINITIVES

AND OTHER WORDS.

Many words or wordgroups belonging to different parts of speech can be used

as adjectives. So they can modify a noun directly and then they are said to have
an attributive function. Here are the most  commonly used:

a. Participles and participial groups: Many participles, both present and past,
have all characteristics of adjectives; thus, they can be used attributively (or
predicatively); they can be modified by adverbs; and some of them may even
take the comparative and superlative forms.

1. Present Participle: the ing form of a verb is perfectly normal in attributive

position: an interesting book, a sleeping child, a charming woman, a hunting
lion.
This construction should not be confused with another in which the ing form is 
used before a noun with which it forms a compound: the hunting season, a
dancing master.

The difference between the first construction ("a hunting lion") and the second
one ("the hunting season") is one of stress and intonation.

Besides, there is a difference in ineaning between these two constructions: "a

lion which is hunting"  and "the season for hunting".

Present participles forming a group with other words are also used with
attributive function:

■ With the other word after the participle (not very common): dining-out snobs, a
going-about body.

■ With the word before the participle. Among the most commonly used we have
such combinations  as "everlasting, everrunning, neverending" and the form
"looking" preceded by an adjective: slowmoving car, quickdrying ink, a
neverending queue, a goodlooking boy.

2. Past participle: Like the ed form the past participle is often found
attributively: the hunted lion, the broken bottle, the escaped prisoner.

But there are certain restrictions on their use in attributive position so that past
participles from intransitive verbs are rarely used in this function. (We cannot
say: "a swum animal" or "a slept child").

Like the ing form, the past participle is sometimes used preceded or followed by
some other words with which it forms a compound adjectival:
■ Past participles with preceding subjuncts are not very common as attributives;
except when the subjunct is an adverb of degree (including "well"): a
manytimesrepeated kiss, a muchneeded reform, a wellread man, an
airconditioned house, a terrorstricken boy

■ Sometimes the attributive group consists of a pastparticiple followed by=a

subjunct that makes up a necessary part of the verbal idea: a cleanedout
gambler, a walledin maze, a builtout bathroom.

Finally, we must be careful with the use of participles such as "excited,

exciting", "absorbed, absorbing", "bore, boring", "amused, amusing", "annoyed,
annoying". It should be remembered that the past participles describe the
feeling, the present participles the quality: It was a boring lecture, bored
students do not pay  attention.

b. Infinitives: An infinitive may have an attributive function and qualify a noun

or a nominal. It may occur as follows:

■ Attributive infinitives placed before the noun are frequent, but only if they are
preceded by an adverb such as "not" or "never", more rarely another adverb:
this nevertobeforgotten day, His nottobealineated inheritance. We have rare
and hardly natural prenominal groups containing infinitives: Coleridge's
abouttobe published poems, an impossibletoberealised wish.

■ Infinitives with "to" are very often used as attributive adjuncts placed after a
substantive. The infinitive may be active or passive in form, but the former in
some instances has an active, in others a passive signification: she was not the
kind of girls to encourage lovers (active meaning), A black tie was the proper
thing to wear (passive meaning), The next thing to be considered was food
(passive form passive meaning).

An infinitive used attributively in post-nominal position may denot the following

things:

■ The infinitive denotes simple futurity and stands as a kind of future participle.
This is found with few verbs only, most frequently with "to come": That I might
escape the wrath to come, In the older days of travelling, now to return no more.

■ Other infinitives denote "that might, would or should, or what can or may....": He
had been the first to listen and to pity her, we may find something to interest us
in the town.

■ "With" after the infinitive approaches the function of a present participle: that
has nothing to do with me, everything to do with origins.

c. Nouns: Nouns can be  attributive i.e. fill a position in which the adjective is
very oftenfound; the noun used attributively and the principal noun preserve
their stress and are therefore felt as separate units: 'gold 'coin, 'stone 'wall,
'week 'end, 'lady 'friend, ‘London 'papers.
 According to Jespersen, these combinations are different from such compounds
in which one part is accentually subordinated to the other so that the first
element has primary stress, while the second has secondary stress. Examples
of this type are: teatime, bedroom, postman, waistcoat.

That the noun works as an attributive adjective is seen in various ways:

■ Both nouns have even stress such as the combination adjective + noun: 'stone
'wall, 'old 'house.

■ The attributive nouns may be coordinated with adjectives by means of "and",

“or", “nor"; or else  without any conjunction. In these cases, the attributive noun
can be placed before or after the adjective with which ít is coordinated: home
and foreign affairs/ London and provincial papers, her Christian and family
name, her gay and butterfly existence, an evening radical newspaper (without
any joining word).

■ The propword "one" may be used with attributive substantives. In this case, the
substantive is felt like an adjective and is no longer simply the first element of a
compound: two gold watches and a silver one, that muslin dress is my best
summer one.

■ The attributive noun may be preceded by an adverb. As long as the

combination of two nouns is felt to be a comnound substantive, it can only be
preceded by an adjective like any other noun. If therefore we find an adverb as
a subjunct before it, this shows that the first element is felt to be analogous to
an adjective: with a somewhat vinegar aspect, on merely business grounds.

■ Another thing that should be noted about attributive nouns is that, like
adjectives, they often occur in the singular form even when they express a
plural concept: a fivepound note, a twohorse  carriage. But they may also occur
in the plural ("a sports car", "a two weeks holiday" ...).

According to Zandvoort, there are two groups of attributive nouns that often
correspond to adjectives in other languages, viz. Place names and material
nouns.

1. Place names: names of countries usually have adjectives derived from them:
"English, Welsh, German,  Italian ..." By the side ot these, we sometimes find
the name of the country itself used attributively, often with a slight difference of
meaning: a Turkey (or Turkish) carpet, The East India docks (in London), The
East Indian docks (in India).

■ Among names of English counties, those in the four corners ("Cornwall, Kent,
Northumberland and Cumberland") as well as "Lancashire" form adjectives:
“Cornish, Kentish, Northumbrian, Cumbrian, Lancastrian". Of these only
"Cornish" seems to be in regular use; "Kentish" often has an emotional value
absent in the attributive "Kent". The others are substituted by their
 corresponding nouns: a Kentish orchard, the Kent Country Council, a
Cumberland cottage.

■ A few names of foreign towns have adjectives derived from them such as
"Parisian, Viennese,  Venetian, Roman ...”; but the names themselves (Paris,
Vienna, Venice, Rome) are often used attributively. As with names of countries,
there may be a slight difference of meaning: our Rome correspondent (Rome
denotes place), the Roman school of painting (Roman denotes connection with
Rome).

2. Material nouns: material nouns are often used attributively: an 'iron 'bar,
‘brick 'houses, 'silver 'wedding. As regards stress, these groups have even
stress. When the material noun is not used in the sense of "made of" (either
literally or figuratively); we usually have uneven stress, and tne two words
practically form a compound: ("ivory dealer", "wool prices"). Finally, like
attributive adjectives, nouns used attributively may also be postpositive.
Example: schools, both voluntary and state.

d. Adverbs: some adverbs can be used as attributive adjuncts before nouns.

This is especially the case with such short and everyday adverbs as have no
corresponding adjective:

■ adverbs of time: the then duke of Norfolk, the once Miss Day, you now mistress

■ adverbs of place: his downward progress, this here boy, the above letter.

e. Group Adjuncts: two or more words belonging to different parts of speech

and forming a group can be used in attributive function. Here are some of them:

■ A (formless) verb plus its object (without any article) may be made into a
substantive. Such substantives like any other substantives may be used as
adjuncts. In recent time, these combinations have become very frequent
indeed: a catchcold weather, delicious donothing days, such a telltale face, a
short and takeleave call.

The power of forming attributive adjuncts of this type is extended to other verbal
phrases, in which there is no object: a standup fight, a regular sitdown supper,
just a pickup lunch, what a goahead nation it is.
In one case it is not the infinitive that enters the combination: a would-be critic.

■ Another  roup is formed by compound substantives or substantival groups takin 

the place of simple substantives: two substantives connected with "and" may
together form an attributive adjunct: a cat and dog life, a horse and cow doctar,
a church and king man.

A substantive plus prepositlon plus substantive may be used as an attributive

adjunct if they form a natural unity: at that endofthecentury time, a
pennyintheslot machine.
■ A preposition with its object may be used as an attributive adjunct: the before
Alfred remain of our language, an offshore wind.

In some cases the preposition in such combinations is preceded by an adverb;

thus especially "out of" and "up to": outofdoors party, outofdate kinsfolk, the
uptotheminute capital of German East Africa.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
LESTER, M. Introductory Tansformation Grammar of English. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
New York, 1971.
HALLIDAY, M. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Hodder and Stoughton. London, 1990
JAKOBSEN, B. Transformational Generative Grammar. North Holland, 1984
EK, VAN J, and ROBAT, N. The Student's Grammar of English. Basil Blackwell. Oxford, 1984.
QUIRK, GREENBAUM, LEECH and SVARTVIK. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English
Language. Longman, London, 1985
CLOSE, R.A. A Reference Grammar for Students of English. Longman, London, 1982.
MURPHY, R. English Grammar in Use Cambridge University Press, 1987.
THOMSON AND MARTINET A Practical English Grammar OUP, 1989.

OTHER ADJS.
ADJS. ADJS.
ADJS. ADJS. DENOT ADJS.
ADJS. DENOTINGNA DENOT
THAN DENOTING ING DENOT NO
DENOTINGC TIONAL OR ING
THOSE TEMPERA SHAPE ING UN
OLOUR REGIONAL MATER
FOLLO TURE AND AGE
ORIGIN IAL
WING SIZE

Examples: a large old white wooden house, an undersized young French

engineer.

When the adjectives “little” and “old” are emotionally charged /and the original
meaning is partially or completely lost), they are closely associated with the
succeeding noun so that other adjectives precede them: a brave little woman, a
rich old man.

But “little” and “old” are separated from the noun by adjectives denoting “colour”
and “material” or nationality, and as regards the mutual relation of these two
adjectives, “little” precedes “old”. Examples: the little red town was huddled
down in the valley, old wooden furniture, a charming little Italian girl, we went
into the little old church.

On the other hand, an emotionally charged “old” is sometimes added to the

word “same” and placed before other adjectives: the same old edifying stories.

When “poor” and “nice” are emotionally charged they tend to precede
adjectives: I like to soak in a nice long hot bath, poor little homeless,
defenceless child.

If an adjective and a noun form a fixed collocation with a meaning which is

different from the sum of their meanings, they cannot be separated by other
adjectives. Examples are: a general practitioner (a doctor who is not a
specialist), a hot dog (a sausage served in a roll of bread). Obviously no one
would think of asking for a “hot small dog”.
All the tendencies mentioned above may be crossed by others of different
kinds, such as rhythm, syntax, and morphology. For example, a short adjective
will often precede a long one: new insuperable difficulties arose; he gave me a
cold, suspicious look.

B. Adjectives are used predicatively when they form the predicate with verb
“to be”, or other verbs of incomplete predication: seem, become, get, keep,
feel, lie, and with a number of verbs of movement. of course, predicative
adjectives, like attributive ones, qualify nouns, but, unlike them, they are not
subordinated to them. For this reason predicative adjectives are always put in
the sentence after the noun they qualify without any exception: the children
were nice, my father has fallen asleep, Mary is feeling miserable, the cheese
went bad. We do not include here examples of the type unhappy, the man
returned home, since the adjective functions not as a predicative but as an
equivalent to a clause, which is different.
 
03. SYNTACTIC SUBCLASSIFICATION OF ADJECTIVES.

We turn to consider the characteristics of the peripheral adjectives, those that

are restricted to attributive or to predicative use. The restrictions are not always
absolute, and sometimes vary with individual speakers.

03.1. ATTRIBUTIVE ONLY.

Attributive-only does not mean that the adjectives cannot occur in a noun
phrase in the predication of a sentence: what you say is utter nonsense. What it
does man is that such adjectives cannot stand without a noun:*this nonsense is
utter.

Adjectives restricted to predicative position -the dynamic, verbal position in a

sentence- are, by contrast, more verbal and/or they refer to a more temporary
state (asleep, alight).

Some adjectives have a descriptive meaning which may be both attributive and
predicative, plus an attributive-only intensifying or limiting meaning: a strong
man, he is strong but a strong possibility (attributive only).

We can distinguish the following six types of attributive only: 

a) RELATIONSHIP (-er). Certain wrods in -er indicate relationships of contrast,

not degree, as true comparatives do. So we cannot say *former than. They only
take attributive position. There are superlative forms related to these adjectives
(foremost, innermost) but the meanings do not correspond in a very regular
way. The principal of them are: former, latter, inner, outer, upper, utter, elder, ...
in the same way as a number of Latin comparatives such as major, minor,
exterior, interior, ulterior; EX: In former times people lit their homes by gas, not
electricity (past not recent), The latter is considered safer (last-mentioned), it's a
major problem, ulterior motives.
b) INTENSIFYING. it is a general label that includes intensigying upwards
(very) and downwards (mere). The principal of them are: mere, merest, utter,
very (extreme), outright, out-and-out: EX: the mere mention of fire alarmed him
(the mention by itself), I've only got the merest idea (the smallest), my very own,
it's utter nonsense, that's the very end, yours is a outright/ out-and-out lie.

Other intensifying adjectives (which with other meanings van be both attriutive
and predicative) include: absolute, certain, clear, close, complete, definite, firm,
great, perfect, pure, real, strong, sure, thorough.

c) LIMITING. They are not concerned with inherent characteristics. Lone means
without occupation rather than lonely. Predicative is alone. Only is a word
functioning normally as an adverb. The principal of them are: joint, lone, only,
sole, chief, main, principal, very (=that and no other). EX: many couples have
jing bank accounts, Tom is an only child and the sole heir, the chief/ main/
principal reason is ..., a holiday is the very thing you need.

Other limiting adjectives (which with other meaning can be both attributive and
predicative) are certain, exact, particular, precise, principal, same, specific, ... 

d) NOUN-RELATED. Many noun-related adjectives occur in predicative

position and not everyone will agree with the examples given here. However,
actual nouns in attributive position usually occur immediately before the head
noun and are felt to be so much a part of the head that they cannot be
separated off to occur in predicative position. Noun-related adjectives also
have a tendency to be interpreted in the same way and are often felt to be like
noun compounds (the defences were coastal). Some of them are: chemical,
earthen, maritime, nuclear, solar, ...; EX: a chemical formula, coastal defences,
an earthen pot, maritime law, a nuclear submarine, solar energy.

e) ALTERNATIVE PAST-PARTICIPLES. Some verbs that have two alternative

past participles use thier old irregular form only in attributive position. Some of
them are drunken, shrunken, sunken. EX: a sunken garden, a drunken sailor,
shrunken limbs. drunken can also be used predicatively in the sense of
habitually drunk.

f) MISCELLANEOUS. The close relationship between adjectives and adverbs

is further shown by indoor, outdoor, uptown, downtown, inside, outside. In
predicative position all six (two with added -s) are felt to be adverbs: he was
indoors/ outdoors/ inside/ outside/ downtown/ uptown.

g) ADJECTIVES ENDING IN "-ic" AND "-ical". As one of the differences

between these two groups of adjectives is that those of the former type have a
limiting value and those of the latter a descriptive value, it is to be expected that
adjectives in -ic should be used attributively. Nevertheless only a few of these
are used solely in this way: arithmetic, lyric, stoic, theoretic. EX: a lyric poet/ he
was quite lyrical, the stoic virtues/ they were stoical about the bombings.
In other cases of adjectives in -ic & -ical the distinction is less clear so that
adjectives in -ic can have other uses besides the attributive; this is the case of
academic, comic, mystic, ...

h) ADJECTIVES ENDING IN "-en". which are still used of material are only
found before a noun when they have their literal meaning: earthen, woolen,
golder as predicative complement their respective concept is expressed by of +
noun: they bought some wooden articles (=these articles are of wood), an
earthen jar, woollen sock.

Most of them are, however, used figuratively, and have a descriptive value; in
this case, they can be used both predicatively and attributively: the evening had
been golden, this government is wooden in its methods.

03.2. PREDICATIVE ONLY.

a) A-SERIES. All the words in this series can fit into the slot after linking verbs,
but some are more adjective-like nad more adverb-like than others. It is not
always possible to find an attributive equivalent to these adjectives, for the
obvious reason that attributive and predicative positions to some extent have
their own meaning. For example, alone is usually emotionally neutral, referring
to an action or temporary state (without other people, by oneself); the nearest
attributive adjective is the limiting lone. Related adjectives that can appear in
both positions suggest a more inherent characteristic: lonely (and unhappy) or
solitary (=deliberately avoidig company). The principal of them are afloat, afraid
(that/of/to), aghast, agog, akin (to), alert, alight, alike, alive, alone, aloof,
amenable (to), amiss, asleep, ashamed (of/to/that), averse (to), awake, aware
(of/that), awash.

b) HEALTH ADJECTIVES. Strictly speaking these words should not be

included in this table, as, with the exception of poorly, they can all appear in
attributive position, at least in American English. But in attributive position in
British English (a fine man, a better person) their meaning is not related to
health. Usage is a bit complicated.

In BrE all these words refer to a possibly temporary condition of health and are
only predicative. To make a comment on someone's more long-term health we
could say: he is a sick man/ a healthy/unhealthy person. In AmE ill/well are
used attributively: an ill/well woman.

The principal of them are faint, fine, ill, poorly, well, unwell. EX: I feel ill/ fine/
poorly/ well/ unwell.

The corresponding adjective to poorly in attributive position is ailing (an ailing

child) while healthy corresponds to well in the same use.

c) ADJECTIVES WITH COMPLEMENTATION. On the whole adjectives with

complementation do not go in attributive position and do not precede a noun, so
that any adjective that obligatorily takes complementation is likely to be
predicative only (or possibly in post-position). Content is possibly the
commonest of those adjectives that do not have to take complementation, but
which are nevertheless predicatively only. The principal of them are bound,
content, devoid, inclined, liable, opposed, prone, tantamount, ...; EX: he is
bound to lose his money, I'm perfectly content to stay at home, the road is liable
to get muddy in winter.

03.3. DIFFERENT CONTENT ACCORDING TO POSITION.

Since the prepositive adjective often has limiting value (indicating a category)
while adjectives used as predicative complement are normally descriptive, we
frequently find that the same adjective had different meanings according to its
position. But in some cases this can be done; a number of these are mentioned
below: 

APPARENT. 1) seeming attributively: the reason for the apparent contradiction

becomes obvious. 2) evident predicatively: the importance of these industries is
not apparent from a bare enumeration of figures. 

DUE. 1) suitable, right attributively: after due consideration he accepted the

proposal. 2) payable, appointed to arrive predicatively: When is the train due?. 

ILL. 1) bad, evil attributively: it's and ill wind that blows nobody good. 2) unwell,
in bad health predicatively: the man is very ill. 

PROPER. 1) suitable right attributively: After a proper interval .... 2) according to

definition predicatively: Shellfishes do not belong to fish proper.

PRESENT. 1) existing now attributively: the present king, the present plan. 2)
being in the place referred to predicatively: The ministers present will agree. 

SORRY. 1) sad, pitiful attributively: It was a sorry sight, he came to a sorry end.
2) regretful, unhappy predicatively: I feel sorry for you. 

04. SEMANTIC SUBCLASSIFICATION OF ADJECTIVES.

Three semantic scales are applicable to adjectives: stative/ dynamic,

gradable/ non-gradable & inherent/ non-inherent. It is important to realize
that we are dealing with scales rather than with a feature that is present or
absent. That is to say, not all the realizations of a feature are available in each
case. Furthermore, there may be idiolectal variations in the recognition of a
feature or in the acceptability of its realizations.

04.1. STATIVE/ DYNAMIC.

The first class does not imply change (tall) and the second refers on occasions
to transitory conditions of behaviour or activity (careful).

Adjectives are characteristically stative, they describe fairly permanent inherent

qualities. Many adjectives, however, can be seen as dynamic. In particular,
most adjectives that are susceptible to subjective measurement are capable of
being dynamic. Stative and dynamic adjectives differ syntactically in a number
of ways. For example, a stative adjective such as tall cannot be used with the
progressive aspect or with the imperative: *he’s being tall, *be tall.

On the other hand, we can use careful as a dynamic adjective: he is being

careful, be careful.

A general semantic feature of dynamic adjectives seems to be that they denote

qualities that are thought to be subject to control by the possessor and hence
can be restricted temporally.

Adjectives that can be used dynamically include: awkward, brave, calm,

careful, careless, cheerful, clever, conceited, cruel, dull, enthusiastic,
extravagant, faithful, foolish, friendly, funny, generous, gentle, good,
greedy, hasty, helpful, impatient, jealous, kind, naughty, nice, noisy,
patient, playful, reasonable, rude, sensible, serious, shy, slow, stubborn,
stupid, talkative, thoughtful, tidy, timid, troublesome, vain, vicious, vulgar,
wicked, witty, ...

04.2. GRADABLE/ NON-GRADABLE. 

Most adjectives are gradable. Gradability is manifested through comparison:

tall, taller, tallest; beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful.

Gradability is also manifested through modification by intensifiers, ed. adverbs

which convey the degree of intensity of the adjective: very tall, so beautiful,
extremely useful.

All dynamic and most stative adjectives are gradable; some stative adjectives
are not, principally denominal adjectives like atomic, scientist and adjectives
denoting provenance as British.

These categories are called “descriptive” and “limiting” by Knud Schibsbye and
we shall use these terms all through this chapter. Examples: a wonderful
weather/ a tall man (descriptive or gradable) & the previous page/ medical
assistance (limiting or non-gradable).

04.3. INHERENT/ NON-INHERENT.

Most adjectives are inherent, that is, they characterize the referent of the noun
directly. For example, the inherent adjective in a wooden cross applies to the
referent of the object directly: a wooden cross is also a wooden object. On the
other hand, in a wooden actor the adjectives is non-inherent: a wooden actor is
not a wooden man. Some other examples are:

inherent non-inherent

a black coat an old friend

a firm a firm friend
 handshake a perfect
a perfect alibi stranger
a certain result a certain winner
a true report a true scholar

For practical purposes it is better to recognize only two types of adjectives from
a semantic point of view: descriptive and limiting.

05. INTENSIFYING QUALITY.

One of the characteristics of the adjectives is that they may be modified by

intensifiers. By intensifiers we mean adverbs that indicate the degree of
intensity of the quality denoted by the adjective: an extremely useful instrument,
a rather interesting document.

The most used intensifier is very: a very good book.

All adjectives may be modified by intensifiers except those whose meaning is

incompatible with the notion of “degree of intensity”.

Adjectives not taking intensifiers are, for instance, those listed as “adjectives
which are exclusively used attributively”. The only exception here seems to be
same, which may take very to emphasize identity: on the very same day. Note
that same does not take other intensifiers: *the most same day, *the rather
same day.

On the whole, adjectives not taking intensifiers are those denoting a quality
which is either fully present or not at all. Apart from the ones mentioned above,
they include noun-related adjectives and adjectives denoting provenance.

06. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN ADJECTIVE AND ADVERB.

Open-class adverbs regularly, though not invariably, derived from adjectives by

suffixation. there is another sense in which adjectives and adverbs are related,
apart from this morphological relationship. A correspondence often exists
between constructions containing adjectives and constructions containing the
corresponding adverbs. The simplest illustration is with adverbs equivalent to
prepositional phrases containing a noun or noun phrase that is a generic term
and the corresponding adjective as premodifier: he liked Mary considerably/ he
liked Mary to a considerable extent; he spoke to John sharply/ he spoke to John
in a sharp manner; he wrote frequently/ he wrote on frequent occasions.

We have also noted some instances where either the adjective or the adverb
forms appear, with little or no semantic difference. But normally, the adjective
and its corresponding adverb appear in different environments: his frequent
visits (his visits are frequent, he visits frequently), her incredible beauty (her
beauty is incredible, she is incredibly beautiful).
 There are many other cases of nominalization where a construction with the
adverb form seems basic to an understanding of the corresponding construction
with the adjective form:

■ a. The adjective-noun sequence may imply a process or a time relationship, a

corresponding clause containing an adverb: a hard worker = someone who
works hard, a frequent visitor = someone who visits frequently, a heavy eater =
someone who eats heavily. We should include here cases where the agential
noun lacks an agential suffix: a former student, a clever liar. Similarly, there are
instances where the noun normally lacks a corresponding verb, but where the
reference is to the process part of the noun’s meaning: a poor soldier (“one who
acts poorly as a soldier”), a good mother (“one who cares well for the children”).
Many of these adjectives can occur only attributively in this use. They belong to
the noninherent class of adjectives.
■ b. Analogous correspondences do not have this restriction to attributive
position: he loved her deeply = his deep love for her, his love for her was deep;
she answered quickly = her quick answer, her answer was quick.
■ c. The adjective may refer to an implied process associated with a concrete
object: a fast car (“a car that can go fast), a slow road (a road on which one can
only drive slow).
■ d. Most intensifying adjectives can be seen as related to adverbs: total
nonsense = it is totally nonsense, a clear failure = it is clearly a failure, a real
idiot = he is really an idiot. Many of these can occur only attributively in this use.
■ e. Many restrictive adjectives can be seen as related to adverbs: the main
reason = the reason was mainly that ...; the precise argument = the argument
was precisely that ... or the argument was precise.

07. THE SUBSTANTIVAL USE OF ADJECTIVES.

The following things should be noted about the use of adjectives as nouns or
nominals. Look at these examples:

■ 1. The best is hardly good enough for him. The bad in the book completely
overshadows the good. --- The long and the short of it ís that ...

■ 2. The strong are more to be pitied than the weak. --- The old are well provided
for nowadays ---  The poor were oppressed by the rich.

1. In the first examples the adjective is used in the neuter, and it hardly ever
denotes a person (unless it is combined with one of the suffixes er and est).
Usually it denotes an abstract notion. It should also be noted that the concept
expressed by the adjectives is in the generic sense; the construction cannot
normally be used to denote specific, individual manifestations of the quality
denoted by the adjective: Don’t expect me to do the impossible.

When we want to connote a specific sense, we have three ways of expression:

■ a. By means of a corresponding noun: The beauty of the existing system

(instead of "the beautiful").
■ b. By means of a combination or adjective + noun such as “thing, part, feature,
aspect ...”: The singular thing of the battle was that no one could say what had
happened (instead of "the singular").

■ c. By means of other exnressions: Do what is right (instead of "the right")

In a number of cases the word is found as a noun in the plural: Training in

fundamentals, greens and potatoes.

Thus, in the same way: sundries, goods, necessaries, theatricals, woollens, ...

2. In the second examples the adjectives are used in the common gender,
and thus usually denotes persons; but it is important to realize that these
persons are viewed as a group. “The strong/ old/ poor/ ...” means “all strong/
old/ poor people”, or at least "all that we are concerned with at the moment".
With a few exceptions the construction cannot indicate a single individual or a
small number of people. The most important exceptions are:

■ If an adjective is preceded by the determiner THE in the nominal position

traditionally known as “apposition" after a proper name, it may refer to a single
person, e.g.: Charles the Bold.

■ If one of the suffixes er or est is added to adjectives, the construction with THE
may indicate a single individual: Which of the two brothers do you like best? -
Oh, the younger without question. This construction may also be used in
reference to inanimate objects: what sort of soap would you like, sir? - Oh, the
cheapest you have got.

■ The adjectives "poor" and "young" and a few others may be used with reference
to individual living beings (with a meaning different from "the whole
group").They are also exceptional in that they may be preceded by other
determiners than THE; indeed "poor" may be used without a determiner: Look,
the sparrow is feeding its young -- I have my poor to attend to. Other adiectives
belonging to this groun are: The Almighty, the accused, the deceased, the
departed, my beloved, my betrothed ..

In addition to the many words that are commonly both noun and adjectives: His
only son was an imbecile (noun), Imbecile conduct (adjective) (ancient,
Christian, male, native, private, untouchable ...), there are others that are
nouns only in a particulartype of language: He is a dear (colloquial), you are a
silly (colloquial).

Among adjectives that can function as nouns an important group is formed by

those denoting nationality. Schibsbye distinguishes the following groups:

■ the largest group of these is formed by words that are commonly both nouns
and adjectives: German, American, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, ...; He
looked an unmistakable German (noun), There were Germans in our front
trench (noun); The German naval challenge was immediate (adjective).
■ In another paragraph the nouns and adjectives are distinct: Dane/ Danish,
Finn/ Finnish, Pole/ Polish, Swede/ Swedish, Turk/ Turkish, Spaniard/
Spanish, ...: Gunnar Franck was a Dane from Copenhagen (noun); The
integrity of the Danish monarchy.

■ A third group comprises a number of adjectives that act unchanged as nouns:

"Swiss", "Cingalese", “Indonese", "Japanese", "Portuguese ...": The
landlady was a blond Swiss (noun), Both the Germans and the Swiss guarded
the frontier (noun), On the walls were pictures of Swiss Lakes (adjective).

■ A fourth group consists of regular adjectives, and can therefore only be used
substantivaly in the common gender plural of the whole nation (or group
representing the nation) and sometimes an indefinite number of individuals; in
the case of a single individual, and certain individuals in the plural a noun is
added; if this is "man (men)” or “woman (women)" it normally forms a compound
with the adjective. In this group we have: "Cornish", "Dutch", "French",
"Irish", "Manx" , "Scotch”, "Welsh": A little old English-woman (a single
individual), Many Englishmen abroad did credit to England (certain individuals),
The English lost at Hastings (the whole nation), The  preponderance of English
and Americans (the whole nation), 7000 men fought on the English side
(adjective).

08. COMPARISON AND DEGREE.

By means of the comparative and the superlative we express that a quality is

present to a higher degree in one entity or group of entities that in one or more
others: John is taller/ more intelligent than his brother, John is the tallest/ most
intelligent boy in class.

The comparative (taller, more intelligent) is used for ocmparison between two
entities or groups of entities, the superlative (tallest, most intelligent) when
more than two entities or groups of entities are compared.

Since the comparative and the superlative express the degree to which a quality
is present they cannot be used with adjectives whose meaning is incompatible
with “the notion of degree”.

Traditionally the comparative and the superlative are referred to as Degrees of

Comparison. the unmarked form of the adjective is often included in the “three
genres of comparison” and referred to as the Positive or absolute degree.

08.1. THREE DEGREES OF COMPARISON.

With gradable adjectives and adverbs three types of Comparison are possible:
to a higher degree, to the same degree, to a lower degree. The three types of
comparison are expressed by the following means:

■ 08.1.1. COMPARISON IN RELATION TO A HIGHER DEGREE. It is expressed

by the “inflected forms” in -er and -est or their “periphrastic equivalents” with
more and most: Anna is cleverer/ more clever than Susan.
■ 08.1.2. COMPARISON IN RELATION TO THE SAME DEGREE. It is
expressed by as (or sometimes so) ... as: Anna is as tall as Bill, Anna is not so
tall as Bill.
■ 08.1.3. COMPARISON IN RELATION TO A LOWER DEGREE. It is expressed
by less and least: this problem is less difficult than the previous one, this is the
least difficult problem of all.

08.2. DEGREES AND INFLECTIONAL CONTRAST.

For higher degree comparisons, English has three-term inflecional contrast

between Absolute, Comparative, and Superlative degrees for many adjectives
and for a few adverbs, the absolute being realized by the base form of the item.
This can be seen in the following table which also gives the parallel periphrastic
constructions:

DEGREES

ABSOLUTE COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE

INFLECTION

adjective high higher highest

adverb soon sooner soonest

PERIPHRASIS

adjective complex more complex most complex

adverb comfortably more most
comfortably comfortably

08.3. IRREGULAR FORMS OF COMPARISON.

■ 08.3.1. good/ bad/ far. A small group of highly frequent adjectives have
comparative and superlative forms with stems which are different from the base:

goo better best

d worse worst
bad further/ furthest/
far farther farthest

The two sets further/ farther, which are both adjectives and adverbs, are used
interchangeably by many speakers to express both physical and abstract. In
fact, however, the use of farther and farthest is chiefly restricted to
expressions of physical distance, and, in all senses, further and furthest are
the usual forms found: Nothing could be further from the house, my house is
furthest from the station.
 Note: the most common uses of further are not as comparative form but in the
sense of “more”, “additional”, “later”: that’s a further reason for deciding now,
any further questions?, the school will close until further notice, we intend to
stay for a further two months.

■ 08.3.2. COMPARISON OF “OLD”. It is regularly inflected as older - oldest. In

attributive position, particularly when referring to the order of birth of members
of a family, the irregular forms elder - eldest are normally substituted
(especially in British English): my elder/ older sister is an artist; his eldest/
oldest son is still at school.

However, elder is not a true comparative in that it cannot be followed by than:

my brother is three years older/ *elder than me.
Elder also requires personal reference: this viola is the older/ *elder.

■ 08.3.3. COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES RELATED TO HEALTH. Well (“in

good health”) & ill (“in bad health”) are inflected like good & bad, respectively,
for the comparative: he feels better/ worse. He is better is ambiguous between
“he is well again” and “he is less ill”. In the first use, we can have intensifiers
expressing absolute degree: he is completely better.

In the second use we can have expressions with a comparative sense: he is a

little/ a bit/ somewhat better.
There is no superlative best in the health sense: *he is best. He is worse
corresponds to the second use (“less well”). There is no positive periphrastic
comparsion corresponding to the negative comparison less well: * he is more
well today.
Compounds with good, well and ill + participle can have either form of
comparison: good-looking (better-looking & more good-looking), (best-
looking & most good-looking).

■ 08.3.4. COMPARISON OF “LITTLE” & “SMALL”. Little shares the

comparative with small (smaller/ smallest) as an adjective modifying count
nouns: Anna is only a little/ small child, she is smaller than Susan, she is the
smallest child in her playgroup.

Lesser is used attributively in the sense of “less important”: to a lesser degree

(extent), lesser men than Churchill.
Least can also be the head of a noun phrase: that is the least we can do.
Note: lesser also denotes “of smaller size” in Geography: the Lesser Antilles.

08.4. CHOICE BETWEEN INFLECTIONAL AND PERIPHRASTIC

COMPARISON.

The choice between inflectional and periphrastic comparison is largely

determined by the length of the adjective.

■ a. Monosyllabic adjectives normally form their comparison by inflection: low,

lower, lowest. Real, right, wrong and the preposition like take only periphrastic
 forms: she is more like (*liker) her mother. However, most other monosyllabic
adjectives can take either inflectional or periphrastic comparison.

■ b. Many disyllabic adjectives can also take inflections, though they have the
alternative ofthe periphrastic forms: her children are politer/ more polite or her
children are (the) politest/ (the) most polite.

Disyllabic adjectives that can most readily take inflected forms are those ending
in an unstressed vowel: 

-y early, easy, funny, happy, noisy, pretty,

-ow healthy
-le mellow, narrow, shallow
-er able, feeble, gentle, noble, simple
-ure clever
mature, obscure

■ c. Trisyllabic or longer adjectives can only take periphrastic forms: beautiful,

more beautiful (*beautifuller), the most beautiful (*beautifullest). Adjectives
with the negative un- prefix, such as unhappy, and untidy are exceptions:
unhappier/ unhappiest, untidier/ untidiest.

■ d. Participle forms which are used as adjectives regularly take only

periphrastic forms: interesting, more interesting, most interesting;
wounded, more wounded, most wounded; worn, more worn, most worn.

Most adjectives that are inflected for comparison can also take the periphrastic
forms with more and most. With more, they seem to do so more easily when
they are predicative and are followed by a than-clause: john is more mad than
Bob is; it’s not easy to find a man more brave than he is; he is more wealthy
than I thought.

APPENDIX I. A FEW WORDS MORE ABOUT ATTRIBUTIVE ADJUNCTS.

By "double attributives" we understand that a noun may be qualified by two

adjectives. Then, what has been said about "two or more attributive adjectives"
is valid here. Nevertheless; we think it is convenient to add here a few words
about what Jespersen calls  "two adjuncts"  in order to see , the relation
between certain determiners functioning attributively. Here are the main points:

1  Adjuncts indicating quantity or number ("quantifiers") precede other adjuncts:

much red wine/ many black hats/ half this army. This explains the tendency to
place numerals before "first", “last", "next": the two first dances (Austen), the
two first books (Stevenson) but there is a conflicting tendency in such cases to
place the numeral last and thus connect it with the substantive: the first three
strollers (Swift), our last four Prime Ministers (Shaw).

2  A similar tendency exists with regard to the relative position of "other" and a
numeral;  the usual order is to place the numeral first: the two others, the
 pleased looks of the tree, others standing round him. But the opposite order is
frequent: to mention the other two (Franklin), one of the other four (Stevenson).

3 - Pronominal adjuncts (i.e. pronouns used attributively) generally precede

other adjuncts, as in: my new dress, this black ball.

4  Finally, in such combinations as "how great a man" the wordorder must be

explained from the fact that "how" must necessarily be placed first (like any
interrogative or relative work), and that the adjective "great" is naturally
attracted to "how" and therefore comes to be placed before "a" in spite of the
general tendency to place these pronominal adjuncts before other adjuncts. A
similar explanation holds for the wordorder in "so great a man"; "too great a
sum" from which the same word-order has spread to other instances in which a
subjunct of degree attracts an adjective and makes it precede the article: how
sincere a friend he was to me, such a lovely morning, so young a woman, no
less remarkable a man

APPENDIX II. ATTRIBUTIVE FUNCTION OF PARTICIPLES, INFINITIVES

AND OTHER WORDS.

Many words or wordgroups belonging to different parts of speech can be used

as adjectives. So they can modify a noun directly and then they are said to have
an attributive function. Here are the most  commonly used:

a. Participles and participial groups: Many participles, both present and past,
have all characteristics of adjectives; thus, they can be used attributively (or
predicatively); they can be modified by adverbs; and some of them may even
take the comparative and superlative forms.

1. Present Participle: the ing form of a verb is perfectly normal in attributive

position: an interesting book, a sleeping child, a charming woman, a hunting
lion.
This construction should not be confused with another in which the ing form is 
used before a noun with which it forms a compound: the hunting season, a
dancing master.

The difference between the first construction ("a hunting lion") and the second
one ("the hunting season") is one of stress and intonation.

Besides, there is a difference in ineaning between these two constructions: "a

lion which is hunting"  and "the season for hunting".

Present participles forming a group with other words are also used with
attributive function:

■ With the other word after the participle (not very common): dining-out snobs, a
going-about body.

■ With the word before the participle. Among the most commonly used we have
such combinations  as "everlasting, everrunning, neverending" and the form
 "looking" preceded by an adjective: slowmoving car, quickdrying ink, a
neverending queue, a goodlooking boy.

2. Past participle: Like the ed form the past participle is often found
attributively: the hunted lion, the broken bottle, the escaped prisoner.

But there are certain restrictions on their use in attributive position so that past
participles from intransitive verbs are rarely used in this function. (We cannot
say: "a swum animal" or "a slept child").

Like the ing form, the past participle is sometimes used preceded or followed by
some other words with which it forms a compound adjectival:

■ Past participles with preceding subjuncts are not very common as attributives;
except when the subjunct is an adverb of degree (including "well"): a
manytimesrepeated kiss, a muchneeded reform, a wellread man, an
airconditioned house, a terrorstricken boy

■ Sometimes the attributive group consists of a pastparticiple followed by=a

subjunct that makes up a necessary part of the verbal idea: a cleanedout
gambler, a walledin maze, a builtout bathroom.

Finally, we must be careful with the use of participles such as "excited,

exciting", "absorbed, absorbing", "bore, boring", "amused, amusing", "annoyed,
annoying". It should be remembered that the past participles describe the
feeling, the present participles the quality: It was a boring lecture, bored
students do not pay  attention.

b. Infinitives: An infinitive may have an attributive function and qualify a noun

or a nominal. It may occur as follows:

■ Attributive infinitives placed before the noun are frequent, but only if they are
preceded by an adverb such as "not" or "never", more rarely another adverb:
this nevertobeforgotten day, His nottobealineated inheritance. We have rare
and hardly natural prenominal groups containing infinitives: Coleridge's
abouttobe published poems, an impossibletoberealised wish.

■ Infinitives with "to" are very often used as attributive adjuncts placed after a
substantive. The infinitive may be active or passive in form, but the former in
some instances has an active, in others a passive signification: she was not the
kind of girls to encourage lovers (active meaning), A black tie was the proper
thing to wear (passive meaning), The next thing to be considered was food
(passive form passive meaning).

An infinitive used attributively in post-nominal position may denot the following

things:

■ The infinitive denotes simple futurity and stands as a kind of future participle.
This is found with few verbs only, most frequently with "to come": That I might
escape the wrath to come, In the older days of travelling, now to return no more.
■ Other infinitives denote "that might, would or should, or what can or may....": He
had been the first to listen and to pity her, we may find something to interest us
in the town.

■ "With" after the infinitive approaches the function of a present participle: that
has nothing to do with me, everything to do with origins.

c. Nouns: Nouns can be  attributive i.e. fill a position in which the adjective is
very oftenfound; the noun used attributively and the principal noun preserve
their stress and are therefore felt as separate units: 'gold 'coin, 'stone 'wall,
'week 'end, 'lady 'friend, ‘London 'papers.

According to Jespersen, these combinations are different from such compounds

in which one part is accentually subordinated to the other so that the first
element has primary stress, while the second has secondary stress. Examples
of this type are: teatime, bedroom, postman, waistcoat.

That the noun works as an attributive adjective is seen in various ways:

■ Both nouns have even stress such as the combination adjective + noun: 'stone
'wall, 'old 'house.

■ The attributive nouns may be coordinated with adjectives by means of "and",

“or", “nor"; or else  without any conjunction. In these cases, the attributive noun
can be placed before or after the adjective with which ít is coordinated: home
and foreign affairs/ London and provincial papers, her Christian and family
name, her gay and butterfly existence, an evening radical newspaper (without
any joining word).

■ The propword "one" may be used with attributive substantives. In this case, the
substantive is felt like an adjective and is no longer simply the first element of a
compound: two gold watches and a silver one, that muslin dress is my best
summer one.

■ The attributive noun may be preceded by an adverb. As long as the

combination of two nouns is felt to be a comnound substantive, it can only be
preceded by an adjective like any other noun. If therefore we find an adverb as
a subjunct before it, this shows that the first element is felt to be analogous to
an adjective: with a somewhat vinegar aspect, on merely business grounds.

■ Another thing that should be noted about attributive nouns is that, like
adjectives, they often occur in the singular form even when they express a
plural concept: a fivepound note, a twohorse  carriage. But they may also occur
in the plural ("a sports car", "a two weeks holiday" ...).

According to Zandvoort, there are two groups of attributive nouns that often
correspond to adjectives in other languages, viz. Place names and material
nouns.
 1. Place names: names of countries usually have adjectives derived from them:
"English, Welsh, German,  Italian ..." By the side ot these, we sometimes find
the name of the country itself used attributively, often with a slight difference of
meaning: a Turkey (or Turkish) carpet, The East India docks (in London), The
East Indian docks (in India).

■ Among names of English counties, those in the four corners ("Cornwall, Kent,
Northumberland and Cumberland") as well as "Lancashire" form adjectives:
“Cornish, Kentish, Northumbrian, Cumbrian, Lancastrian". Of these only
"Cornish" seems to be in regular use; "Kentish" often has an emotional value
absent in the attributive "Kent". The others are substituted by their
corresponding nouns: a Kentish orchard, the Kent Country Council, a
Cumberland cottage.

■ A few names of foreign towns have adjectives derived from them such as
"Parisian, Viennese,  Venetian, Roman ...”; but the names themselves (Paris,
Vienna, Venice, Rome) are often used attributively. As with names of countries,
there may be a slight difference of meaning: our Rome correspondent (Rome
denotes place), the Roman school of painting (Roman denotes connection with
Rome).

2. Material nouns: material nouns are often used attributively: an 'iron 'bar,
‘brick 'houses, 'silver 'wedding. As regards stress, these groups have even
stress. When the material noun is not used in the sense of "made of" (either
literally or figuratively); we usually have uneven stress, and tne two words
practically form a compound: ("ivory dealer", "wool prices"). Finally, like
attributive adjectives, nouns used attributively may also be postpositive.
Example: schools, both voluntary and state.

d. Adverbs: some adverbs can be used as attributive adjuncts before nouns.

This is especially the case with such short and everyday adverbs as have no
corresponding adjective:

■ adverbs of time: the then duke of Norfolk, the once Miss Day, you now mistress

■ adverbs of place: his downward progress, this here boy, the above letter.

e. Group Adjuncts: two or more words belonging to different parts of speech

and forming a group can be used in attributive function. Here are some of them:

■ A (formless) verb plus its object (without any article) may be made into a
substantive. Such substantives like any other substantives may be used as
adjuncts. In recent time, these combinations have become very frequent
indeed: a catchcold weather, delicious donothing days, such a telltale face, a
short and takeleave call.

The power of forming attributive adjuncts of this type is extended to other verbal
phrases, in which there is no object: a standup fight, a regular sitdown supper,
just a pickup lunch, what a goahead nation it is.
In one case it is not the infinitive that enters the combination: a would-be critic.
■ Another  roup is formed by compound substantives or substantival groups takin 
the place of simple substantives: two substantives connected with "and" may
together form an attributive adjunct: a cat and dog life, a horse and cow doctar,
a church and king man.

A substantive plus prepositlon plus substantive may be used as an attributive

adjunct if they form a natural unity: at that endofthecentury time, a
pennyintheslot machine.

■ A preposition with its object may be used as an attributive adjunct: the before
Alfred remain of our language, an offshore wind.

In some cases the preposition in such combinations is preceded by an adverb;

thus especially "out of" and "up to": outofdoors party, outofdate kinsfolk, the
uptotheminute capital of German East Africa.

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QUIRK, GREENBAUM, LEECH and SVARTVIK. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English
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