The Adjective

According to Chervyakova L.D. “An adjective is a word that signifies the quality of any person, place or thing: a good man, a great city”.

According to Khaimovich B.S. “Adjectives are a part of speech characterized by the following typical features:

1. The lexico-grammatical meaning of “attributes (of substances)”. It should be understood that by “attributes” we mean different properties of substances, such as their size, colour, position in space (upper, inner), material (wooden, woolen), psychic state of a person, etc

2. The morphological category of the degrees of comparison

3. The characteristic combinability with nouns, link-verbs (…is clever), adverbs, most those of degree (a very clever man), the so-called “prop-word” one (the grey one)

4. The stem-building affixes -ful, -less, -ish, -ous, -ive, -ic, un-, pre-, in-,

er-, il-, etc

5. Its functions of an attribute and a predicative complement ”.

An adjective can be of two types: relative and qualitative.

An adjective
relative	qualitative
directive related with substance (wooden – is made of the wood)	expresses a quality, which has different degree

Grammatical characteristics of qualitative adjectives

1. They have no certain typical suffixes.

2. They form adverbs with the suffix –ly (dangerous-dangerously). Some qualitative adjectives are homonymous in form with the adverbs (fast).

3. Most qualitative adjectives have degrees of comparison (big-bigger-the biggest, careless-more careless-the most careless). Some qualitative adjectives such as greenish, chief, principal, -incurable don’t have degrees of comparison.

4. Most qualitative adjectives can be used as attributes and predicatives.

- The young man was introduced (attribute)

• He was rich (predicative)

Grammatical characteristics of relative adjectives

1. They have certain typical suffixes, such as –en, -ist, -an, -to, -cal: Italian, socialist, synthetic, analytical.

2. They do not form adverbs with the suffix –ly.

3. They have no degrees of comparison.

4. They are chiefly used as attributes, though can be used as predicatives.

• A monthly group meeting (attribute)

• The morning was windy (predicative)

In English the number of relative adjectives is limited.

A few relative adjectives are formed from nouns by means of the suffix –en (wooden); some relative adjectives are formed from nouns by the suffix –ly (daily); some relative adjectives are converted from nouns (silk, gold). Adjectivized nouns are used with the meaning of relative adjectives: a summer day, the Hanoi’s theatres.

It must be pointed out that no hard and fast line of demarcation exists between relative and qualitative adjectives.

A relative adjective may acquire the meaning of a qualitative one.

- A silver watch (relative). A silver stream (qualitative).

Note the use of the forms in –en when the relative adjectives gold, flax, wax acquire qualitative meanings:

A gold chain (relative)

Golden hair (qualitative)

A wax candle (relative)

Waxen cheeks (qualitative)

A silk dress (relative)

Silken hair (qualitative)