Chapter Five

Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives:
1- What is an Adjective?
We cannot tell whether a word is an adjective by looking at it alone; the form of the word doesn't indicate its
"syntactic function" as it will be shown from the following points.
1- Some suffixes ( morphemes added at the end of the word) are found only with adjectives like " –ous" in
"famous" , "-al" in " physical" or "- ant/ - ent" in " pleasant" and " efficient" …. Etc. On the other hand many
common adjectives have no identifying shape, eg. Good, hot, fat, weak, tall, big ….. and so many others;
Also some other suffixes could be found in nouns and in some other adjectives like " –y" ( anxiety is a noun
but healthy / wealthy are adjectives).
2-Another feature for adjective structure is that many, though not all, adjectives can take the "comparative"
and "superlative" form. ( happy/ happier/ the happiest …… or with other long adjectives more beautiful/ the
most beautiful) but it is true also that a few adverbs may also take the comparative suffixes, read the
following examples:
-She ran faster than the others.
"faster" is an adverb describing the verb.
- He worked hard
- He worked harder
And "more" and " most" could be used with different types of nouns, eg.
- I have more books than you.
- They have the most books in our neighborhood.
3- It is also true that many adjectives provide the base from which adverbs are derived by means of an –ly
suffix, eg. Happy ( adj) / happily (adv).Nevertheless, some do not allow this derivational process, eg. there
is no adverb oldly. And there are a few adjectives that are themselves derived from an adjective base in this
way, eg. Kind ( adj)/ kindly (adjective also) , lonely is an adj.

So, What is an adjective???

The simplest definition of an adjective is that it is a word that describes or clarifies a noun. Adjectives
describe nouns by giving some information about size, shape, age, color, origin or material.
 It’s a big table. (size)
 It’s a round table. (shape)
 It’s an old table. (age)
 It’s a brown table. (color)
 It’s an English table. (origin)
 It’s a wooden table. (material)
 It’s a lovely table. (opinion)
  It’s a broken table. (observation)
 It’s a coffee table. (purpose)
And what is an adjective phrase?
It is a phrase with an adjective as a head, eg:
He was so very happy … (adj. ph with a head happy)
He was happy(adj. ph with a head happy)
It's absolutely freezing. (adj.ph with a head freezing)
It's freezing. (adj.ph with a head freezing )

2- Syntactic functions of adjectives: ( Attributive and predicative according to their place in the
sentence)
A- Adjectives are "attributive" when they pre-modify nouns, i.e. the adjective appear between the determiner
and the head of the noun phrase (the adjective phrase here is used dependently) :
The beautiful painting amazes everybody. (beautiful is an adj /its function is attributive adj according to its
place to the noun and it's part of the noun phrase that functions as a subject)
An old man came to visit us. (" old" is an adj /its function is attributive adj (it is used as a modifier) and it's
part of the noun phrase that functions as a subject)
I saw an ugly dog running after a boy. ("Ugly" is an adj /its function is attributive adj (it is used as a
modifier) and it's part of the noun phrase "an ugly dog" that functions as a direct object.

NOTE: you can use more than one adjective attributively in the same noun phrase:
She has such beautiful round eyes.
(both " beautiful" and "round" function as attributive adjectives for the head " eyes") and
(such beautiful round eyes together as a noun phrase function as "a direct object")
.

B- Adjectives are "predicative" ( found as part of the predicate of the sentence) if they are themselves ( as
an adj. phrase which is used independently) ……
B1- Subject complement:
Eg. Your daughter is pretty. ("pretty" is a predicative adjective according to its relation with the noun that
it describes and its place from that noun ,but functions as subject complement according to its relation with
other elements in the sentence )

B2- Object complement:

Eg. He made his wife happy. ("happy" is a predicative adj according to its relation with the noun that it
describes and its place from that noun ,but functions as object complement according to its relation with
other elements in the sentence )
**Important…. Important :
Most adjectives could be used both attributively (i.e. befor the noun ) and predicatively ( as Cs or Co);
Eg.
She is really happy. (happy is predicative here and it is the Cs)
She is a happy girl. (happy is attributive here/ it premodifies the noun) ….. Notice the noun phrase " a
happy girl" together is Cs

On the other hand some adjectives are only used attributively or only predicatively:
:C- Attributive only
Some adjectives are only used in attributive position. Be aware that such adjectives are not used to describe
the noun directly but they are used to describe the relationship between the noun and another identity.
Examples of such adjectives are: elder, eldest, live, old, little, mere ,sheer and former.
Read the following examples carefully:
-His elder son is a pilot.
-My eldest brother lives abroad.
-My eldest brother is six years older than me. (NOT My eldest brother is six years elder than me.)
Elder cannot be used in the predicative (after a verb) position.
They don’t sell live fish.
That fish is still alive. (NOT That fish is still live.)
Live cannot be used in the predicative position.
When old refers to relationships that have lasted a long time, it is only used in the attributive position.
He is an old friend of mine.
Note that an old friend is not the same as a friend who is old.
They have a nice little house in the city.
Their house is very small. (NOT Their house is very little.)
Little cannot be used in the predicative position.
She is a mere child. (BUT NOT That child is mere.)
That is sheer madness. (BUT NOT That madness is sheer.)
She was the former prime minister. (BUT NOT that prime minister was former)

D. Predicative only:
Adjectives that are restricted to predicative positions are: (here are some of them not all of them)
Well/ afraid/ alive/ alone/ fond of/ asleep/ alike.
E.g. The two brothers do not seem alike. ( NOT: The alike brothers *)
- The child was afraid. (NOT: the afraid child* cried for his mother)

E. Head of a noun phrase:

As discussed in chapter 3; an adjective could be used in some situations as a head of a noun phrase:
The rich will help the poor.

Adverbs: (IMPORTANT: read pages 125/ 126/ 127/ 128)

-Most adverbs end with the suffix –ly; but some other adverbs don't end with –ly like " very", "so" ,"such"
"now" , "outside" and "far".
-Adverb phrase is the phrase where the head is an adverb. The adverb phrase could be used independently or
dependently.
E.g. in the adjective phrase " far more easily intelligible" the adjective "intelligible" is modified by the
adverb phrase "far more easily", also the adverb "easily" is modified by the adverb phrase "far more".
- Adverbs have two types of syntactic function:
1- Adverbial ( they don't appear before another phrase they are constituent distinct from subject, verb,
object and complement. That is they are used independently): and in this situation there are three classes
of adverbials:
-Adjunct ( describing time/ place or manner) {read your book for the examples page 126}
They are waiting outside
I can now understand it.
He spoke to me about it briefly.

-Disjunct: such adverbs describes an evaluation of what is being said and what said before ( Frankly/
actually are good examples):
Frankly, I'm tired.
Fortunately, no one complained.
They are probably at home.

- Conjunct: they have connective meaning (yet, though, then) :

( Important: Conjucts are not integrated within the phrase. A conjuct function could be an adverb phrase, a
prepositional phrase or a conjunction, but here we are only interested in adverb phrases when they function as
conjunct.

Examples:
-We have complained several times about the noise, and yet he does nothing about it.
-I have not looked into his qualifications. He seems very intelligent, though.
-If they open all the windows, then I'm leaving.
-There are two good reasons why we can't do it. First, we can't afford it, and second/ secondly, we don't
have time.

2- Adverb as Modifier : ( pages 126, 127, 128, 129):

a- Modifier of adjectives:
That was a very funny film. (" very" modifies the adjective " funny" )
He is really funny. 
(The adverb really modifies the adjective funny.)
The water is hot enough to make a drink.
(The word enough is an adverb and it modifies the adjective hot./ " Enough" is the only adverb that
postmodifies adjectives )
She felt her pulse; it's abnormally fast.
(Adverb abnormally modifies adjective fast.)

b- Modifier of adverb:
An adverb may pre-modify another adverb:
They are smoking very heavily.
I have seen so very many letters like that one.

c- Modifier of a prepositional phrase:

- The nail went RIGHT through the wall.
- His parents are DEAD against the trip

d- Modifier of a pre-determiner.
Intensifying (i.e. they are used to strengthen the meaning) adverbs can premodify indefinite pronouns, pre-
determiners, and cardinal numbers:\
- Nearly everybody came to our party.
- Over two hundred deaths were reported.
- I paid more than ten pounds for it

e- Modifier of a noun phrase:

A few intensifiers may pre- modify noun phrases: quite, rather, and such:
He told such a funny story ( He told such funny stories)
It was rather a mess.
He was quite some player.