The major role of adjectives is to describe or modify noun. In doing this they indicate static or dynamic characteristics of nouns. Regarding nouns, the adjectives stay as attributive, predicative or post-positive ones. Presence of attributive adjectives makes the text descriptive as well as enticing. On the other hand, predicative adjectives give transitory meanings. Some adjectives help indicate the gradability of the characteristics of nouns. Further, adjectives can be a good resource of variety in meaning since their meaning can go different in different contexts. Such a role of adjectives demands that the learning writers should fully understand the syntactic features of adjectives.
Adjectives carry five syntactic features (Quirk et al.,1985) whose details along with their sub-details are as follows:
1. Attributiveness
The primary syntactic function of an adjective is to pre-modify a noun or pronoun. Doing this, it provides a noun or pronoun’s referent with an additional context, e.g. its condition, placement, size, colour, composition and other attributes. These attributes are clear in the examples, e.g., green leaves, blue dress, delicious fruit, appropriate suggestion, etc. Further, these attributes may be permanent or transient. When adjectives are placed before nouns, they directly describe the objects or things denoted by nouns. In other words, the function of these pre-modifying adjectives is attributional. The attributive function of an adjective commonly gives head noun enduring qualities. In addition, the construction, in which an adjective is placed directly before the head noun, becomes naturally concise (Babasoy, 2024). For example:
- The happy child ate sweets avidly.
- The gracious individuals usually have more chances of success.
In addition, the semantic kinds of adjectives that precede the head noun with the purpose to mark attribution of the noun indicate permanent meaning or quality of the noun head. Their presence makes the text descriptive as well as enticing (Babasoy, 2024).
2. Predicativeness
According to Quirk et al. (1985), when adjectives pre-modify the head of a noun phrase, they are attributive and when they function as subject complement or object complement, they are predicative. Predicative adjectives stay after a linking verb (e.g. be, seem, appear, looks, etc.) and describe or modify the subject. For example:
a. The road is clear.
b. She looked disappointed.
The predicative function of adjectives becomes important in case of lengthy descriptions or in the situation when an adjective requires a complement that follows it. When adjectives stay in predicative position, they give transitory meanings, and the frequency of their occurrence is low. Further, the predicative adjectives can be grammatically subject predicates or object predicates. The subject predicative adjectives stay after linking verbs and describe the subject of the sentence. On the other hand, objective predicative adjectives come after direct object and define or describe it (Babasoy, 2024). For example:
a. The examinees were unhappy on account of the examiner’s attitude.
b. The examiner made the examinees unhappy.
In example (a), the adjective unhappy is the subject predicate and in (b), it is predicate of object.
2.1 Subject Completement Predicative Adjectives
The predicative adjectives that play the role of subject complement not only relate to noun phrases, but also to clauses as well. The constructions in which subject complement adjectives relate to clauses mostly comprise finite or non-finite clauses. When the complement adjectives are employed to describe “the result of the process denoted by the verb…by using the verb to be” these can be used as the object complement of the clauses (Quirk et al., 1985 in Babasoy, 2024). These adjectives sometimes can have postpositive meaning as well.
a. Attributive: critical stage
b. Predicative: this lawn is broad
c. Postpositive: the only option available
2.2 Object Complement Predicative Adjectives
When adjectives do the function of object predicative, they occur after a direct object and make predication (i.e., assert something) about the direct object. For example:
a. He found all of his priorities incorrect.
b. The audience felt his speech utterly boring.
c. The general population considered his narrative fake.
Another point related to adjectives is that when these are with their prepositional or clausal complements, they cannot occur attributively before their head nouns (Crystal, 2008 in Babasoy, 2024). For example:
a. He appeared tall in the basketball team.
b. It is sure that you will pass the test.
3. Modifiability of Adjectives
Adjectives can be modified with the adverbs like very, extremely, etc. They can be modified by post-posed prepositional phrases and infinitives as well. For example: extremely hot, slightly fast, less expensive, afraid of wild animals, ready to set off, etc.
4. Static/Dynamic Characteristics of Indicating Adjectives
Some adjectives indicate static or permanent characteristics of their head nouns, e.g. a tall building. On the other hand, some adjectives indicate dynamic/changeable characteristics of their head nouns, e.g., the growing unrest. These adjectives can be positioned attributively, i.e. before the head noun or predicatively, i.e., after a linking verb. For example:
a. This building is tall.
b. She is being foolish.
5. Gradability/Non-gradability of Indicating Adjectives
The adjectives that are dynamic can be graded from their positive level to comparative or to superlative, e.g., weak –> weaker –> weakest or hard –> harder –> hardest. Thus, it can be said that the adjectives weak, hard, etc. are gradable. On the other hand, the adjectives that are static ones are known as non-gradable, e.g., essential, unique, alive, finished, freezing, etc.
6. Inherent/Non-inherent Characteristics of Adjectives
The adjectives that carry the characteristic of inherence can have physical, essential, intrinsic, state of being properties, e.g., a wooden table, a blue shirt, the fundamental structure, an innate weakness, a dead plan, etc. This characteristic of adjectives can be identified through nominalizability, e.g. the innateness of weakness or the deadness of the plan. On the other hand, the adjectives that carry non-inherent characteristics are the ones that describe a relationship between noun and something else. The types of this relationship include temporal, functional, interpretive, and specifying. These adjectives cannot be used predicatively. The examples of these adjectives are indicated in ‘an old fashion’, ‘a hard worker’, ‘a solid reason’, and ‘a total cost’.
7. Post-positive Adjectives
Some adjectives are such that must go directly after their noun. For example:
- The diagram below indicates a complete knowledge structure.
- He found something special in the result of his effort.
- The president elect was saluted by the members of the organization.
7.1 Adjectives as Postposed Nominals
In addition to their attributive and predicative roles, adjectives also stay as postposed nominals. It means, these adjectives are a part of a noun phrase, but they come after the head noun rather than before it. The postposed adjectives are used with indefinite pronouns, idioms, superlatives, and for stylistic purposes (Babasoy, 2024).
7.1.1 With Indefinite Pronouns
a. The factory needs someone experienced for its restoration.
b. The working in a factory is not something easy going.
7.1.2 Fixed & Institutionalized Phrases
a. Bitterness of Truth has been a proved fact from time immemorial.
b. The Governor General has phenomenal personality.
7.1.3 Superlatives & Absolute Modifiers
a. The only way forward in this situation is reconciliation.
b. The empress regnant has a supreme political power.
7.1.4 Measurements
a. My next-door neighbour is seven foot tall.
b. This building is 200 years old.
7.1.5 Idiomatic & Poetic Expressions
a. The success unmuted is never recognized.
b. The words unsaid always stay in one’s mind.
7.1.6 In the form of participles
a. The bus standing on the roadside is damaged.
b. The criminals detected could not be arrested.
8. Weighty Adjective Phrases
A weighty adjective phrase is the one which is modified by additional words, prepositional phrases or clauses. On account of these complements or modifications, the adjective phrases become extra complex and thus cannot stay before their head noun (Babasoy, 2024). For example:
a. This is the book that is not that comprehensive than the one we read last year.
b. He met the political figures who managed the government officials to impress their supporters.
8.1 Avoiding Weighty Phrases
The postposed weighty phrases can be converted to preposed phrase to avoid heaviness in texts.
Table 1
| Weighty Phrases | Standard Phrases |
| A teacher, experienced in the area of language, has joined our team. | An experienced language teacher has joined our team. |
| The food, too hard for the patient, disturbed his stomach. | Too hard food disturbed the patient’s stomach. |
| She delivered a speech, heavy with words. | She delivered a wordy speech. |
The syntactic functions of adjectives, i.e. premodification, predicativeness, and post-modification help spread semantic categories that include value, age, colour, dimension, physical attribute, and human tendency. Though these semantic categories are found in various constructions, the semantic category value is found more frequently. The words that provide value, i.e., visually appealing words enhance the reader’s curiosity and interests (Babasoy, Y. (2024).
In sum, adjectives are a very valuable resource with multi-faceted role whether it is the description and modification of nouns or the indication of static or dynamic characteristics of nouns. Adjectives can stay as attributive, predicative, or post-positive adjectives. When adjectives are attributive, their function is to indicate permanent traits of nouns and when they are predicative, they bring transitory meanings to nouns. When adjectives are used in post-positive position, they serve the stylistic purposes aimed at by the writer. Adjectives can also stay with nouns as visually appealing words and add to the reader’s curiosity and interests.
Works Cited
1. Babasoy, Y. (2024). Functions of Adjectives. Ancient Land International Online Scientific Journal. Volume: 6 Issue: 6 / 16-22
2. Crystal, 2008 in Babasoy, Y. (2024). Functions of Adjectives. Ancient Land International Online Scientific Journal. Volume: 6 Issue: 6 / 16-22
3. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of
the English Language. New York: Longman.
4. Raskin, V. and Sergei Nirenburg, S. (1995). Lexical Semantics of Adjectives: A Microtheory of Adjectival Meaning. MCCS-95–288
