Seminarski rad Predmet: Morfologija engleskog jezika Tema: Adjectives

Student:

Profesor:

Kristina Mihailovi 179 / 10

Dragana Spasi

Content

1. Definition..................................................................................................... 3.

2. Position of adjectives.................................................................................. 5. 3. The order of adjectives in a series............................................................... 6. 4. Degrees of adjectives................................................................................... 7. 5. Premodifiers with degrees of adjectives...................................................... 8. 6. Capitalizing proper adjectives................................................................... 10. 7. Collective adjectives.................................................................................... 10. 8. Adjectival opposites..................................................................................... 11. 9. References................................................................................................... 12.

1. DEFINITION Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence. An adjective qualifies or describes a noun or pronoun.Adjectives can also be identified by their inflections and position or function in the sentence. For example: - The grey dog barked. (The adjective grey describes the noun "dog".) The form of an adjective does not change. It does not matter if the noun being modified is male or female, singular or plural, subject or object. Some adjectives give us factual information about the noun - age, size, color etc (fact adjectives can't be argued with). everyone may agree). If you are asked questions with which, whose, what kind, or how many, you need an adjective to be able to answer. There are different types of adjectives in the English language: Numeric: six, one hundred and one Quantitative: more, all, some, half, more than enough Qualitative: colour, size, smell etc. Possessive: my, his, their, your Interrogative: which, whose, what Demonstrative: this, that, those, these.
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Some adjectives show what somebody thinks about

something or somebody - nice, horrid, beautiful etc (opinion adjectives - not

The articles a, an, and the and the possessives my, our, your, and their are also adjectives. Adjectives can be used to give your opinion about something.Good, pretty, right, wrong, funny, light, happy, sad, full, soft, hard etc. For example: He was a silly boy. Adjectives can be used to describe size. Big, small, little long, tall, short, same as, etc. For example: "The big man." or "The big woman". Adjectives can be used to describe age. For example: "He was an old man." or "She was an old woman." Adjectives can be used to describe shape. Round, circular, rectangular, square, oval, etc. For example: "It was a square box." or "They were square boxes." Adjectives can be used to describe color. Blue, red, green, yellow, black, white, etc. For example: "The blue bag." or "The blue bags". Adjectives can be used to describe origin. For example:"It was a German flag." or "They were German flags." Adjectives can be used to describe material. For example: "It was a cotton cushion." or "They were cotton
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triangular,

cushions." Adjectives can be used to describe distance. Long, short, far, around, start, high, low, etc. For example: "She went for a long walk." Adjectives can be used to describe temperature. Cold, warm, hot, cool, etc. For example: "The day was hot." or "The days were hot." Adjectives can be used to describe time. Late, early, bed, nap, dinner, lunch, day, morning, night, etc. For example: "She had an early start." Adjectives can be used to describe purpose. (These with "-ing".) For example: "She gave them a sleeping bag." !Note - In each case the adjective stays the same, whether it is describing a masculine, feminine, singular or plural noun. When using more than one adjective to modify a noun, the adjectives may be separated by a conjunction (and) or by commas (,). For example: "Her hair was long and blonde." or "She had long, blonde hair." 2. POSITION OF ADJECTIVES Unlike adverbs, which often seem capable of popping up almost anywhere in a
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adjectives often end

sentence, adjectives nearly always appear immediately before the noun or noun phrase that they modify. Sometimes they appear in a string of adjectives, and when they do, they appear in a set order according to category. When indefinite pronouns such as something, someone, anybody are modified by an adjective, the adjective comes after the pronoun: For example: " Anyone capable of doing something horrible to someone nice should be punished." 3. THE ORDER OF ADJECTIVES IN A SERIES It would take a linguistic philosopher to explain why we say "little brown house" and not "brown little house" or why we say "red Italian sports car" and not "Italian red sports car." The order in which adjectives in a series sort themselves out is perplexing for people learning English as a second language. Most other languages dictate a similar order, but not necessarily the same order. It takes a lot of practice with a language before this order becomes instinctive, because the order often seems quite arbitrary (if not downright capricious). There is, however, a pattern. You will find many exceptions to the pattern in the table below, but it is definitely important to learn the pattern of adjective order if it is not part of what you naturally bring to the language. The categories in the following table can be described as follows: I. Determiners II. Observation articles and other limiters. postdeterminers and limiter adjectives (e.g., a real hero, a

perfect idiot) and adjectives subject to subjective measure (e.g., beautiful,

interesting). III. Size and Shape adjectives subject to objective measure (e.g., wealthy, large, round) IV. VI. Age Origin adjectives denoting age (e.g., young, old, new, ancient) adjectives denoting color (e.g., red, black, pale) denominal adjectives denoting source of noun (e.g. denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of final limiter, often regarded as part of the noun (e.g., V. Color

French, American, Canadian) VII. Material VIII. Qualifier (e.g., woolen, metallic, wooden) rocking chair, hunting cabin, passenger car, book cover).

4. DEGREES OF ADJECTIVES Adjectives can express degrees of modification: For example: "Gladys is a rich woman, but Josie is richer than Gladys, and Sadie is the richest woman in town." The degrees of comparison are known as the positive, the comparative, and the superlative. (Actually, only the comparative and superlative show degrees.) We use the comparative for comparing two things and the superlative for comparing three or more things. Notice that the word than frequently accompanies the comparative and the word the precedes the superlative. The inflected suffixes -er and - est suffice to form most comparatives and superlatives, although we need -ierand -iest when a two-syllable adjective ends in y(happier and happiest);
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otherwise we use more and most when an adjective has more than one syllable. Positive rich lovely beautiful Comparative richer lovelier more beautiful Superlative richest loveliest most beautiful

Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative degrees: Irregular Comparative and Superlative Forms good bad little much man some far better worse less more further best worst least most furthest

5. PREMODIFIERS WITH DEGREES OF ADJECTIVES Both adverbs and adjectives in their comparative and superlative forms can be accompanied by premodifiers, single words and phrases, that intensify the degree. We were a lot more careful this time. He works a lot less carefully than the other jeweler in town. We like his work so much better. You'll get your watch back all the faster.

The same process can be used to downplay the degree:

The weather this week has been somewhat better. He approaches his schoolwork a little less industriously than his brother does.

And sometimes a set phrase, usually an informal noun phrase, is used for this purpose: He arrived a whole lot sooner than we expected. That's a heck of a lot better.

If the intensifier very accompanies the superlative, a determiner is also required: She is wearing her the very finest outfit for the interview. They're doing the very best they can.

Occasionally, the comparative or superlative form appears with adeterminer and the thing being modified is understood: Of all the wines produced in Connecticut, I like this one the most. The quicker you finish this project, the better. Of the two brothers, he is by far the faster.

6. CAPITALIZING PROPER ADJECTIVES

When an adjective owes its origins to a proper noun, it should probably be capitalized. Thus we write about Christian music, French fries, the English Parliament, the Ming Dynasty, a Faulknerian style, Jeffersonian democracy. Some periods of time have taken on the status of proper adjectives: the Nixon era, a Renaissance/Romantic/Victorian poet (but a contemporary novelist and medieval writer). Directional and seasonal adjectives are not capitalized unless they're part of a title: We took the northwest route during the spring thaw. We stayed there until the town's annual Fall Festival of Small Appliances. 7. COLLECTIVE ADJECTIVES When the definite article, the, is combined with an adjective describing a class or group of people, the resulting phrase can act as a noun: the poor, the rich, the oppressed, the homeless, the lonely, the unlettered, the unwashed, the gathered, the dear departed. The difference between a collective noun (which is usually regarded as singular but which can be plural in certain contexts) and a collective adjective is that the latter is always plural and requires a plural verb: The rural poor have been ignored by the media. The rich of Connecticut are responsible. The elderly are beginning to demand their rights. The young at heart are always a joy to be around.

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8. ADJECTIVAL OPPOSITES The opposite or the negative aspect of an adjective can be formed in a number of ways. One way, of course, is to find an adjective to mean the opposite an antonym. The opposite of beautiful is ugly, the opposite of tall is short. A thesaurus can help you find an appropriate opposite. Another way to form the opposite of an adjective is with a number of prefixes. The opposite of fortunate is unfortunate, the opposite of prudent is imprudent, the opposite of considerate is inconsiderate, the opposite of honorable is dishonorable, the opposite of alcoholic is nonalcoholic, the opposite of being properly filed is misfiled. If you are not sure of the spelling of adjectives modified in this way by prefixes (or which is the appropriate prefix), you will have to consult a dictionary, as the rules for the selection of a prefix are complex and too shifty to be trusted. The meaning itself can be tricky; for instance, flammable and inflammable mean the same thing. A third means for creating the opposite of an adjective is to combine it with less or least to create a comparison which points in the opposite direction. Interesting shades of meaning and tone become available with this usage. It is kinder to say that "This is the least beautiful city in the state." than it is to say that "This is the ugliest city in the state." (It also has a slightly different meaning.) A candidate for a job can still be worthy and yet be "less worthy of consideration" than another candidate. It's probably not a good idea to use this construction with an adjective that is already a negative: "He is less unlucky than his brother," although that is not the same thing as saying he is luckier than his brother. Use the comparative less when the comparison is between two things or people; use the superlative least when the comparison is among many things or people. My mother is less patient than my father.

Of all the new sitcoms, this is my least favorite show

9. REFERENCES

1. ENGLISH LANGUAGE Dr.Nadeda Silaski 2. ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN USE Raymond Murphy 3. IMPROVING ENGLISH Katarina Kovaevi, Gordana Markovi 4. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm 5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjective 6. http://www.esldesk.com/vocabulary/adjectives

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