In academic writing, adjectives of different sorts are used. The choice of the categories of adjectives depends upon the writer’s necessity in writing. If the writer intends to qualify or describe objects or concepts, s(he) selects qualifying or describing adjectives. And, if s(he) needs to relate a source noun (from which an adjective is derived) and the head noun, s(he) makes use of relational adjectives. This post, has been composed to highlight the difference between describing and qualifying adjectives and relational adjectives.
1. The Status of Relational Adjectives
The relational adjectives are not a broad category of adjectives. They stay as an intersectional part of a big area of adjectives commonly known as denominal adjectives, i.e., adjectives derived from nouns. That is, when a suffix is added to a noun, it converts the noun into an adjective. For example, in, global warming, the adjective global is there with the meaning of globe. While conceptually, it gives relational meaning that links ‘globe’ and ‘warming’. An important point about affixes is that they help introduce a category but are not able to add additional meaning (Rainer, 2013).
The Relational adjectives emerge in the result of trans-categorization of elements from other words. Mostly these words are nouns. These adjectives are named relational because they do not express properties. Their function is to establish a relation between a noun and another nominal concept. However, some relational adjectives, e.g., classificatory adjectives are closer to qualifying or describing adjectives as compared to others (Marchis, 2010). For example:
a. Japanese battery
b. Japanese trade
In example (a), the relational adjective ‘Japanese’ classifies the noun in terms of its material and thus it represents a property of the battery. In this context, ‘Japanese’ is similar to qualifying adjectives. In (b), the same relational adjective does not stay as classifying because it stands for the agent of the activity of trading.
Relational adjectives are a type of adjectives which are mostly derived from nouns. They have no meanings in themselves. They simply express a plausible relation between the base noun (i.e., the noun from which they are derived) and the head noun (Rainer, 2013). On the whole, these adjectives, instead of describing a quality, help establish a specific thematic or categorical relation between the base noun and the head noun (Hacken, 2019).
2. Denominal Adjectives vs Relational Adjectives
Denominal adjectives and relational adjectives are both derived from nouns, i.e., by adding suffixes (e.g., -ish, -ous, -al, -ic, -y). The denominal adjectives are qualitative, i.e., they describe the qualities of the noun before which they are placed. These derived adjectives can stay before head noun as attributive adjectives or after a linking verb as predicative adjectives. For example:
a. I don’t like her childish talks.
b. The sky is cloudy.
On the other hand, relational adjectives do the function of classifying the nouns that follow them. They stay equal to a noun. For example:
a. Solar panels are becoming very costly.
b. Atomic energy can help generate low carbon electricity.
Commonly the young writers cannot differentiate denominal adjectives from relational adjectives. They can do this by using ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ before the respective adjective they are checking. The use of “very” or “extremely” is possible before denominal adjectives (since these are gradable). However, these cannot be used before relational adjectives on account of their non-gradability. For example:
a. Her talks are very childish.
b. He is extremely sensitive.
c. *He is against very child labour.
d. *This is extremely musical instrument.
As it has been expressed in the comparison given above, the denominal and relational adjectives are different concepts, however, sometimes they overlap. That is why, it is said that relational adjectives are an intersectional part of the big area occupied by denominal adjectives. The denominal adjectives that are qualitative (i.e., descriptive), can be graded (e.g., very bright, more beneficial, etc.). Contrarily, some adjectives (relational) that are created by adding suffix (e.g. historic or elementary) function to subclassify a noun category and cannot be graded.
3. Distinguishing Features of Relational Adjectives
There are a number of features of relational adjectives that distinguish them from prototypical adjectives. Relational adjectives cannot take the position of predicative adjectives. Further, these cannot be graded. Furthermore, relational adjectives can be paraphrased with a prepositional phrase (Marchis, 2010). For example, ‘an educational reform’ can be turned into ‘a reform made with respect to education’.
4. Morphological Characterization of Relational Adjectives
The relational adjectives come into being from the other parts of speech through the process of derivation, mostly from nouns. For the execution of the derivation process, derivational suffixes are added, e.g., –al. When the semantic structure of relational adjectives is analysed, it is found that the nominal base carries the referential content of the expression. Along with it, the relational adjective keeps the semantics of the source noun from which the adjective emerges (Marchis, 2010).
5. Contribution of Affixes in Relational Adjectives
It is important to note that an affix in itself does not contribute any meaning to its base noun. In many cases, it brings adjectival form to noun concepts. Since it stays in between its base noun and the head noun in a noun phrase, and establishes a relation between both the nouns. However, some scholars are of the view that the relational adjectives (i.e., noun + affix) provide a conceptual sense of relational meaning. In addition to providing sense of association between the base noun and head noun, a relational adjective also provides an encyclopaedic (vast & comprehensive) knowledge. This it does by establishing a specific domain, classification, or conceptual association between the base noun and the head noun (Rainer, 2013).
6. Syntactic Behaviour of Relational Adjectives
As has been detailed above, the relational adjectives can precede the head noun in a noun phrase. Like other attributive adjectives, these cannot be used in predicative position. Further, they are non-gradable in their nature, i.e. the words ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ cannot be used before them (Rainer, 2013). For example:
a. We are going to arrange linguistic study exhibition in the library.
b. Societal development is an urgent need of our age.
c. Many students were not interested in the today’s political science lecture.
Since relational adjectives are substantival (composed of nouns) in character, they are classified as marginal adjectives. Opposite to the qualifying or descriptive adjectives, they cannot be asked about by using interrogative adverb such as “how”. If “how” is used, it would produce a semantic anomaly, e.g. how was the ‘presentation’. This is so because relational adjectives do not present a property, rather they indicate class affiliation. As a consequence, they respond to interrogative pronouns ‘what type of’ (Marchis, 2010). For example:
a. What type of presentation was?
b. It was a dialogic presentation.
It is also important to note that the relational adjectives when emerge in the result of the trans- categorizational process, they preserve the entire meaning of the nouns from which they are derived.
7. Types of Modification Furnished by Adjectives
There are different types of modifications provided by adjectives. First, absolute modification highlights a condition, state, or quality which is binary (i.e., either something is or is not). It is so because it does not require scaling, comparison or intensification. In other words, the qualitative adjectives that provide absolute modification do not require ‘more’ or ‘most’ with them. For example, the adjective alive is absolute or binary and it cannot be said someone is more alive. Next, synthetic modification is a process in which a qualitative adjective is composed of a number of parts and these parts are hyphenated to create a single, unified meaning. These adjectives are termed as compound adjectives as well. The examples of these adjectives are: ‘time-taking’, ‘well-known’, ‘short-sighted’, etc. Still there is another type of modification that is known as relational modification. This sort of modification is a process which helps classify or relate the noun it modifies to another concept instead of describing a quality or characteristic. The examples of this category of adjectives are: rural development, presidential elections, linguistic study, solar energy, etc.
8. The Role of Relational Adjective in a Noun Phrase
In noun phrases, adjectives commonly stay before the head nouns and play the role of attributive adjectives and thus their position in the phrase is termed as attributive position. However, the relational adjectives play the role of shifting a substantival concept to the attribution position. Simply put, the relational adjectives merely transpose a noun into the position of an adjective Dornseiff (1921) in Rainer, F. (2013). Keeping in view the role of relational adjectives, it is important to note that the relational adjectives are not similar to qualifying or describing adjectives. This so because these adjectives do not present any properties. They can perform two functions, i.e., either they classify the nouns or bring about relation between two nouns. One of these nouns is from which this adjective is derived and the other is whose class is highlighted by it (Marchis, 2010).
In sum, in this post first, the status of relational adjectives has been made clear. Further, the difference between denominal adjectives and relational adjectives has been brought out. It has also been made clear what features make relational adjectives different from qualitative adjectives. Furthermore, morphological characteristics of relational adjectives have been discussed and shown how affixes contribute in the construction of relational adjectives. Lastly, the types of modification that are furnished by various kinds of adjectives have been dealt with and the role that is played by relational adjectives in noun phrases.
Sources Cited
- Dornseiff (1921) in Rainer, F. (2013). Can relational adjectives really express any relation? An onomasiological perspective. SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics, Vol. 10, No. 1
2. Hacken, P. (2019). Relational adjectives between syntax and morphology. SKASE Journal of Translation and Interpretation, Vol. 19, 77-92.
3. Marchis, M. A. (2010) Relational Adjectives at the Syntax/Morphology Interface in Romanian and Spanish. PhD Thesis submitted to Institut für Linguistik: Anglistik, Universität Stuttgart
4. Rainer, F. (2013). Can relational adjectives really express any relation? An onomasiological perspective. SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics, Vol. 10, No. 1
