An adjective is a content word and furnishes substantive meaning in a sentence. In other words, adjectives are words, e.g., small, alive, critical that describe a thing, person or an idea or give an extra information about them. More specifically, they furnish specific details about nouns or pronouns with the purpose to describe them. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, adjectives are the words that typically serve as modifiers of nouns, i.e. they denote a quality of the entity named. In addition, they indicate the named entity’s quantity or extent or specify it as distinct from other things (Mohlaroyim, 2024).
Keeping in view the above-mentioned features of adjectives, this post has been composed to provide the writers with an organized information about adjectives. This information mostly relates to the structure, exclusiveness, transition, modification and interpretation of adjectives. This is such an information that can help writers understand this resource and produce clear and impactful academic texts.
1. Denominal Adjectives
Some adjectives are made by adding affixes to nouns, e.g., educative, comfortable, playful, academic, fruitful, etc. In these examples, parts in bold have been added to nouns to turn them into adjectives. These adjectives commonly appear before nouns to add descriptive detail such as a scientific method, i.e., a method used in science (Ukpabi, 2014).
2. Compound Adjectives
At times, adjectives are constructed by combining two or more adjectives. The adjectives constructed thus modify the nouns or nominals when they are in the subject position (Mohlaroyim, 2024). The examples of compound adjectives are: ‘long-term plan’, ‘sky-blue dress’, ‘cold-blooded murder’, ‘happy-go-lucky person’, etc.
3. Collective Adjectives
An adjective with the before it can describe a class or group of people and is called collective adjective. The phrases thus formed stay as plural nouns, e.g., the brave, the elderly, the rich, the poor, the homeless, the oppressed, the gathered, etc. However, a collective adjective requires a plural verb since it is always plural. Opposite to it, the collective noun is usually used as singular but it can be used as plural in certain contexts.
| Collective Adjectives | Collective Nouns |
| a. The brave are always honored. b. The elderly usually become isolated. | a. The jury gave its verdict. b. The jury were divided in their opinion. |
4. A-Adjectives
There are a number of adjectives which begin with a, such as aware, asleep, alone, alive, afraid, averse, ashamed, etc. These adjectives mostly appear as predicative adjectives, i.e., they stay after a linking verb. For example:
a. The citizens were afraid of shelling.
b. The house was ablaze.
At times, a-adjectives precede the noun they modify, e.g. the alert policeman, the aloof scholar. When these adjectives stay before the nouns they modify, they are themselves modified, e.g. ‘the almost asleep audience’, ‘the almost alive patient’. These adjectives can be sometimes modified by “very much”: ‘very much averse’, ‘very much afraid’, etc.
5. Absolute Adjectives
Absolute adjectives possess meaning that are non-gradable, i.e., the meanings of these adjectives are of such a nature that cannot be used comparatively or superlative. This is so because they indicate absoluteness or totality in meaning. Their meaning cannot be heightened by using an intensifier with them (Ukpabi, 2014). For example, alive is an absolute or non-gradable adjective as it cannot take -er or -est suffixes or more or most for its comparative or superlative degrees. For example:
a. The president’s visit to the desert area was very crucial.
b. It is an extremely true story.
c. His win is highly unique.
In the examples given above, the use of intensifier (very, extremely, and highly) is not possible because the adjectives that follow them are absolute adjectives.
6. Substantive Adjectives
A substantive is an entity (person, place, thing, action, or concept) that has an exclusive and independent existence. We can call a noun, a substantive that can stay alone in a sentence. At times, adjectives play the role of nouns and are referred to as noun substantives. Further, the position of an adjective as a noun substantive in a sentence is either subject or object. For example:
a. The rich are commonly avaricious.
b. Fortune favors the gracious.
7. Changing Positive Aspect of Adjectives to Negative Aspect
The negative aspect of various adjectives can be realized in a number of ways.
7.1 The use of antonym
The negative aspect of various adjectives can be achieved through their antonyms, e.g. broad <----> narrow, fat <---->thin, bright <----> dull, etc.
7.2 The use of prefixes
The negative aspect of adjectives can also be realized by using prefixes (such as mis-, in-, non-, imp-, dis-, etc.), e.g. informed <—-> misinformed, active <—-> inactive, possible <—-> impossible, interested <—-> disinterested, etc.
7.3 The use of less and least
The use of less and least is another way of obtaining the negative aspects of adjectives, e.g. complicated <—-> less complicated, expected <—-> least expected, etc.
8. Changing Adjectives into Adverbs
Adjectives can be changed into adverbs either by suffix -ly or replacing them with adverb words.
8.1 The use of suffix -ly
The descriptive adjectives are commonly turned into adverbs by adding suffix -ly, without or with dropping or changing the last letter of the adjective. For example:
quick <----> quickly, sudden <----> suddenly, easy <----> easily, happy <----> happily, simple <----> simply, gentle <----> gently, basic <----> basically, automatic <----> automatically.
8.2 Replacing Adjectives Words with Adverb Words
In English language, there are unique pairs of adjectives and adverb, e.g. good <—-> well, little <—-> less, far <—-> farther/further.
9. Changing Adjectives into Nouns
Some adjectives can be turned into nouns with the addition of certain suffices (e.g., -ness -ity/-ty, -ance/-ence, -dom, -th/-t). For example:
dark <—-> darkness, lazy <—-> laziness, happy <—-> happiness, sad <—-> sadness, dense <—-> density, safe <—-> safety, resistant <—-> resistance, free <—-> freedom, strong <—-> strength, etc.
10. Modification of Adjectives
One way of the modification of adjectives is by placing some other adjective before them, such as: ‘bright blue sky’, ‘icy–cold drink’, etc. The other way is by putting adverbs of degree to intensify or soften their meaning, e.g., ‘a very tall try’, ‘slightly cold weather’, etc. Still another way is to modify adjectives through comparison structures, e.g., ‘brighter prospect’, ‘more attractive scene’, ‘nobler question’, ‘most interesting answer’. Lastly, adjectives can be modified by placing present participles before them as ‘dishearteningsituation’, ‘freezing cold’, etc.
11. Interpretation of Degree Adjectives
Degree adjectives can be interpreted on the basis of three factors, i.e., contextual, pragmatic, or linguistic factors. According to Ikeya, A. (1995), the contextual factor is thematic dimension; pragmatic factor is comparative dimension; and linguistic factor is degree dimension. For the determination of the truth condition of a sentence that carries a degree adjective, the specification of these three dimensions is necessary. For example:
a. Idrees is very good at telling stories for small children.
In example (a), at telling stories is thematic dimension, for small children comparative dimension and very is degree dimension.
11.1 Thematic Dimension in Adjectives
Thematic dimensions in adjectives have a number of varieties which have been indicated through the following sentences.
a. Rashid is good at reading.
b. Kabir is smart in terms of social relations.
c. Tehseen was unaware of his brother’s death.
d. Saleem is cautious with respect to the social standards.
The italicized parts of the above sentences indicate that thematic dimensions are expressed by prepositional phrases. These PPs are: ‘in terms of’, ‘with respect to’, ‘as regards’, etc. The other similar prepositional phrases may be headed by in, of, at, about, off, and others. Since adjectives require a semantic specification in a certain respect, e.g., if we say “This worker is quick.”, we need to specify in what respect the worker is quick. Further, the expressions referred to above grammatically correspond to adverbials. When thematic dimension can be contextually understood, the provision of thematic dimension is not obligatory e.g. in “the road is bumpy.”
11.2 Comparison Dimension in Adjectives
Many adjectives inherently carry a dimension of comparison, e.g., rich. The dimension of comparison in this adjective becomes clear either by a linguistic or non-linguistic context (Ikeya, A., 1995). For example:
a. Shabir is rich.
b. For a labourer, Shabir is rich.
In the example (b), a comparison dimension has been specified linguistically, where as, in (a) comparison dimension is there with non-linguistic contextual specification.
11.3 Degree Dimension in Adjectives
In the case of some adjectives, e.g. beautiful, thematic dimension and degree dimensions are not explicitly expressed. However, comparative dimension is implicitly present in the construction. Thus, it can be said that the semantic structure of gradable adjectives is commonly without thematic dimension and comparative dimension. That is why, it is termed as unmarked one (Ikeya, A., 1995).
In sum, adjectives can be produced in a number of ways, i.e., derivation from nouns, by combining two adjectives. Further, a number of classes of adjectives are based on exclusiveness, e.g., collective adjectives, A-adjectives, absolute adjectives and substantive adjectives. Next, the positive aspects of adjective can be changed to negative aspects, adjectives to adverbs or nouns with the help of related affixes. In the end, modification of adjectives and interpretation of degree adjectives have been discussed which is very important for the productive use of adjectives in spoken or written communication.
Sources Cited:
Ikeya, A. (1995) Predicate-Argument Structure of English Adjectives. In Proceedings of the 10th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, City University of Hong Kong.
Mohlaroyim, M. (2024). Adjectives-Definition, Forms, Types, Usage and Examples. Conference on the Role and Importance of Science in the Modern World, Volume 01, Issue 01
Ukpabi, B. O. (2014). Adjectives and Vagueness. A seminar on Adjectives and vagueness presented in partial fulfilment for the requirement of the course: Semantics (EST 802.2)
