ADJECTIVES & ADVERBS

EXPECTATIONS

After the analysis and comprehension on this study guide, we are expected to:

1. Differentiate adjectives from adverbs.2. Distinguishing adjectives and adverbs in a sentence or paragraph.3. Arranging adjectives in proper sequence.4. Identify the different kinds of adjectives and adverbs.5. Using the different adverbs in their appropriate positions in sentences.

INTRODUCTIONLanguage has shaped itself as to history alone surrounds it. Human

language came into its total refinery. It evolved from year over years. It is the mirror of humanity- reflecting races, beliefs; depicting culture as a whole. As Ludwig Wittgenstein, an Austrian philosopher, stressed, “The limit of my language mean the limits of my world”. Utterances were the mainstream of what we think; how we view our purpose can be reflected to how we used modifiers to be effective in sense. Adjectives and adverbs add color and create vivid images in the mind.

Adjectives are words that describe a quality of a nouns and pronouns. Adjectives remain invariant in form, no matter what position they occupy in a sentence.

The moon is full tonight.The full moon shone brightly.

The forms of adjectives in English are not as complicated as they are in some other languages. Although they once did, English adjectives no longer inflect for gender, person, or number. Some adjectives can occur only before a noun; others only after a copular verbs. Many adjectives can occupy more than one position, but depending on where they are placed, they may convey different meanings. Finally, when more than one adjective is used they often must be sequenced a particular way which may cause problems for students, as in:

A spectacular full moon seemed to rise from the sea.

THE FORMS OF ADJECTIVES

Adjectives do not have a typical form; however, derivational affixes commonly associated with adjectives include –al (mental, specific), -able/ible (commendable, possible), -ar (particular, popular), ful/less (hopeful, hopeless), -ic (scientific, basic), -ive (attractive, expensive), -ous (dangerous, delicious), and –y (pretty, dirty).

Adjectives also have two inflectional morphemes: the –er of the comparative (larger) and the –est (largest) of the superlative. The syntax of adjectives is another matter. There are two basic positions for adjectives in a sentence in our phrase structure rules.A. ATTRIBUTIVE POSITION (before a noun)

NP------ (det) (AP) N (-pl) ( PrepP)the funny clownsa perfect match

B. PREDICATIVE POSITION (after be copula and other copular or linking verbs – seem, appear, feel, look, etc.)

VP ------ cop APThe clowns are funny.The weather turned cold.

Sometimes the copular verb is deleted, here in its infinitive form, so that the adjective follows a noun directly; the same string can be directly generated as an object noun predicate:

They considered Stuart to be mad.A pedicative adjective in postnominal position can also result from a reduced relative clause (discussed below):

The news that is available at this time is not good.

In the following sections, we go further detail with regard to the two basic positions of adjectives in English clauses.

ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVESPrenominal or attributive position is most characteristic position for English

adjectives. Although many adjectives can appear in both positions, certain ones called reference adjectives must occur prenominally. The following list details the eight categories of adjectives that occur exclusively in attribute position (based on Bolinger 1967).

Prenominal simply means they occur before the noun. Wherever nouns can occur, so can adjectives. They modify both subject and objects.

REFERENCE ADJECTIVES1. Those adjectives that show the reference of the head noun has already been determined: very

particularThe same man I was seeking

self-sameexact

2. Those adjectives that show us the important or rank of the head noun:

mainprime

Their principal faultsChief

3. Those adjectives that show the head noun is recognized by law or custom:

lawfulThe rightful heir

legal true

4. Those adjectives that identify the reference of a noun itself – that is, they tell us (in part) what the noun means – and that they may not occur after the copula be.

A medical doctor * a doctor is medicalAn atomic physicist *physicist is atomicA reserve officer * an officer is reserve

5. Those adjectives that qualify the time reference of a noun:The future king the former chairpersonThe present monarch the previous occupant

6. Those adjectives that qualify the geographical reference of a noun:A Southern gentleman the urban crisisA rural mail carrier

7. Those adjectives that intensify or emphasize the head noun:A total stranger a mere childSheer fraud

8. Those adjectives that show the uniqueness of the head noun:The sole survivor

The only nomineeThe single individual

PREDICATIVE ADJECTIVES

Three categories of certain adjectives that can only be predicative.1.Adjectives that begin with an a-prefix:

The boy is asleep. The boat is adrift.2. Health adjectives (Chalker 1984)

Larry feels faint. He is not well.3. Adjectives that must be followed by prepositional phrases or infitive.

He is bound for China. Debbie seems inclined to agree.

Two Kinds of Postnominal Adjectives1. Adjectives modifying object noun. These ony occurs with certain verbs.

a. Verbs showing mental assessment or personal preferences such as consider, like, think, prefer, declare, report, believe, imagine, hold, want, and call.

Sandy thought it odd. They held him accountable.They declared him sane.

b. Causative Verbs that permit the adjective to follow the object directly such as make, turn, get, keep.

Hay fever causes me crazy. Hay fever causes me to be crazy.The frost turned the leaves brown. The frost causes the leaves to turn brown.His diet kept him healthy. His diet causes him to keep healthy.

2. Adjectives derived from relative clauses. They follow the noun directly, having lost the relative pronoun and the be verbs of the relative clause.

As with other positions, a few categories of adjectives always in postnominal position (Chalker 1984).

1. Adjectives in phrases of measurement. The entire adjectival measure phrases can appea before a noun, but when they do, the noun is in its singular form, regardless of the cardinal number expressed:

He is six feet tall. *They have a one-year-old child.The ruler is twelve inches long. *He is a six-foot-tall man.

*It is a twelve-inch-long ruler.

2. Adjectives in certain fixed expressions (mostly borrowed from French).Attorney general heir apparentPresident-elect notary public

3. Adjectives following indefinite pronouns, where ajectives derives from a reduced relative clause:

Let’s do something [that is] more exciting.I can’t think of anything [that is] exciting to do.

C. PARTICIPLES (PRESENT VS.PAST)

1. Past participle (-en) can function adjectivally and verbally.Attributive: He has led an interesting life.Predicative: His life has been interesting.Predicative: Arianne has made life interesting. (post-nominal)

Past participles functioning as adjectives can occupy the same positions as many other adjectives:

Attributive: The well-worn book was a favorite of all the children.Predicative: The book was well worn.Predicative: The book, well worn from much use, was a favorite.(postnominal )

2. Present participle serves as adjectival.Let’s do something [that is] more exciting.

I can’t think of anything [that is] exciting to do.3. Both present and past participles can be modified by nouns or adverbs to create compound participial adjectives:

Noun+present participle – a man-eating tigerNoun+past participle – a flea-bitten dogAdverb+present participle – a fast-rising starAdverb(intensifier)+past participle – a much-loved story

Disguishing Adjectival Participles from Verbal Phrase1. Add the intensifier very before the italized forms in the following sentences. Sentences having verbs with intensifiers before them are ungrammatical.

-ing adjective: The magician is amazing.The magician is very amazing.

-ing verb: The magician is amazing us with his magic tricks.The magician is very amazing us with his magic tricks

-en adjective:The security guard was relieved.(stopped worrying)The security guard was very relieved.

-en verb: The security guard was relieved by the night watchman.(replaced)

The security guard was very relieved by the night watchman.

2. Use of intensifiers with a by phrase that would normally mark a passive use of the past participle. Examples: Her behavior shocked all of us.

We were all (very) shocked by her behavior.3. Some adjectives look as if they were past participles, but they actually aren’t.Examples: the one-legged man the crooked lane

The naked truth the wicked witchThe green-eyed monster the bearded irish

D. STATIVE VS. DYNAMIC

Givon (1993) places the major parts of speech on a continum, saying that nouns tends to encode most static lexical meanings, verbs the least, with adjectives (and related adverbs) somewhere in between.Stative adjectives describe fairly permanent inherent qualities.Example: The Earth is round.Dynamic adjectives can be used predicatvely to refer to a temporary state, a change in progress, or something immediate. It gives a more dynamic sense by using copular verb get + adjective to indicate a change of state., as opposed to be+ djective, which indicates a condition or state.Example: He was dry. (It rained.)

He got wet. (He is wet.)

E. RESTRICTIVE VS NONRESTRICTIVE

Restrictive necessary for defining nouns.Ex. I live in a brick house. The house decorated by John is quite unusual.

Non-restrictive adjectives merely add additional information without being essential for identification: Ex. I live in the corner house.

The house, decorated for the holiday’s is quite, usual.

F. POLARITY (POSITIVE VS. NEGATIVE)Polarity refers to positive and negative contrasts in language.

Positive polarity (unmarked) Negative polarity (marked)Big Small; little

Old NewOld Young

Long ShortGood BadHard SoftFast SlowTall Short

Wide NarrowHigh Lowloud quiet

G. GRADABILITY VS. NON-GRADABILTY

Gradable adjectives are those placed on continuum of intensity- increasing or decreasing intensity.Examples: rare, quite rare, very rare, extremely rare Non-gradable adjectives are those that cannot be modified.1. Reference Adjectives:

The very symphonic concertThe very former senator from the state of Washington

2. Adjectives with absolute meaning.A very alternative way of looking at the matter

3. Adjectives of NationalityShe is very Scottish. (refering to her pronunciation or behavior)

THE ROYAL ORDER OF ADJECTIVES: ADJECTIVES IN SERIES

1. As a rule, limiting adjectives should come first before descriptive adjectives when they are in series.2. Ordinal numbers come before cardinal numbers.3. Descriptive Adjectives:

a. Quality/ Characteristicsb. Size/Shapec. Color

4. When two descriptive adjectives used are of the same category in the royal order, use comma between them. Limiting adjectives comes in various forms. They are the following.

NOUN DETERMINERSArticles a, an, the The furry pink shawl belongs to me.Possessives my, our, his, her, their, your

Their beautiful flowers were all sold out.

Demonstratives this, these, that, those These cute Barbie dolls will be given away.

Distributives each, either, neither Each pink long gown costs a thousand peso.

Indefinites some, many, all, another, few, both, much, one, same, several, such

Many high ranking government officials forget the poor.

Interrogative whose Whose beautiful art works are these?

NUMERALS

Ordinals first, second, etc. My first formal dress was bought by my mother when I was eight years old.

Cardinals one, two, etc. My first three close friends were my classmates in grade six.

DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES

Quality/Characteristic Size/Shape Color

New, pretty Round, square, ect. Red, blue, etc.

Adverbs are like adjectives. They modify verbs, adjectives, or another adverb. They answer the questions when, where, how, how much, how often, or to what degree.

KINDS OF ADVERBS1. Adverbs of degree or intensityTeddy’s presentation was very interesting.2. Adverb of timeWe will explore the topic Mars tomorrow.3. Adverb of mannerThe gymnast gracefully perfumed her floor exercise.4. Adverb of placeThey parked their new car nearby.5. Adverb of affirmationHe surely believes in you.6. Adverb of negationHe never fails to visit his brother regularly.

POSITIONS OF ADVERBS IN A SENTENCE1. Adverbs that modify adjectives or other adverbs usually come before the word or words they modify. When an adverb modifies a verb, its position is not fixed.He is quite irritable. He gets annoyed easily.

2. Adverbs of time, place, and manner are usually placed at the beginning, at the end of the sentence, or right after the word they modify.Last night, he slept late. He worked hard.He works here.3. Adverbs of time which answers the question, “how often”, are usually placed just before the words that they modify.They usually come on time.They are seldom late for class.

4. Adverbs of affirmation or negation are usually placed at the beginning of the sentence or just before the main verb that they modify.Yes, you need that. I never kept it from you.You surely deserve it!

5. Adverbs of degree are placed just before the main verbs, the adjective, or another adverb they modify.My father is rather busy these days.You have extremely bothered your opponent.

6. Adverbs of manner, time, and place when used in a series usually follow this order: place, manner, time.They arrive here safely yesterday.

THREE DEGREES OF COMPARISON1. Positive Degree-they compare only one verb, adjective, or another adverb.2. Comparative Degree-making equal or unequal comparisons of two verbs, adjective or another adverb.3. Superlative Degree-compares three or more actions, adjectives, or adverbs.

RULES in Forming Adverbs in Three Degrees to Make Comparisons:1. Use the base form for the positive degree.Example: Carlo runs fast.

2. Add –er to the adverb in the comparative degree and –est in the superlative degree.Examples: Carlo runs faster than Chi.

Carlo runs fastest among his teammates.

3. Add more or most to the positive forms of adverbs with two or more syllables in the comparative and superlative degrees.Examples: She walks quietly.

Her partner walks more quietly.Their team leader walks the most quietly.

4. Change the spelling of irregular adverbs.Examples: The boy behaves badly.

The other boy behaves worse.The third boy behaves the worst.

5. Use the expression as + adverb + as; not as + adverb + as to show equal or unequal comparison.Examples: She is as quick as her mother.

Rio Lei is not as quick as Leamze Leiz.

6. Do not duplicate the comparative and the superlative forms in sentences.Incorrect: He speaks more louder than the other guy.Correct: He speaks louder than the other guy.Incorrect: They worked the most fastest of all.Correct: They worked the fastest of all.

7. Avoid nonsensical comparisons.Incorrect: Ann likes bananas better than oranges.Correct: Ann likes bananas better than she likes oranges.

REFERENCE: wikipediahttp://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/a/adjadv.htm(Hurford, James R. Grammar: A Student's Guide. Cambridge University Press, 1994)

Riggenbach, H., and V. Samuda. (1997). Grammar Dimensions. Book 2 (2nd ed.) Boston, Mass.: Heinle & Heile.

Thorne, Sara. Mastering Advanced Language, 2nd ed. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008