Syntactic Analysis - Adjectives

Syntactic Analysis 

 

Adjectives

English Linguistics Studies:

 

Morphological characteristics

 As with nouns, adjectives can sometimes be identified through certain formal characteristics: adjectives take certain derivational affixes. The suffixes -ful,       -less and-ive are typical adjectival affixes, among others, as is the prefix un- (e.g. doubtful, helpless, contrastive, unhappy). However, some adjectives (such as colour adjectives) do not take any of those affixes.

 Adjectives, especially gradable ones, can be preceded by degree adverbs such as very, extremely, and less. Gradable adjectives refer to properties which can be described in degrees (e.g., very hot, extremely cold, less rich); Exceptions are adjectives denoting material (e.g., *a very wooden door) or nationality (e.g., *a very French suit).

 The main inflectional criterion for adjectives is their ability to have comparative and superlative endings. The comparative adjective form indicates the greater extent to that the normal adjective form, called the absolute form, applies while the superlative form indicates the maximal extent (e.g. nice- nicer-nicest).

 Not all gradable adjectives are able to form comparative and superlative forms with -er and -est. Some adjectives form comparatives and superlatives analytically. That is, the words more and most are used (e.g., interesting, more interesting, most interesting). The general rule is that adjectives with two or more syllables take analytical comparative and superlative forms. (e.g. expensive, difficult, beautiful, systematic, eager, careful, careless, reckless, erratic, pleasant).

 

Distributional characteristics

 Adjectives typically occur in two positions: the attributive position or the predicative position. First, when an adjective precedes a noun in a Noun Phrase, it is said to occur in attributive position. It then supplies more information about the character, nature or state of the noun (e.g., an expensive car, an interesting proposal, a pleasant atmosphere, an unprofessional conduct). In English, some adjectives follow the noun they modify, as shown by the following examples.

 

(1)   He is the president-elect of France.

(2)   The one responsible for this mess will be held accountable.

 

Second, when an adjective follows a so-called linking verb or copula, it is said to occur in predicative position. There is only a small set of linking verbs in English. A selection of them is illustrated by the following examples.

 

(4)   The operation proved a complete success.

(5)    After the earthquake, the city resembled a battlefield.

(6)    The shops stay open until 9 o’clock.

(7)    He has just become a father.

(8)    He grew bored of life under lockdown.

(9)   The weather has suddenly turned cold.

(10) This sauce tastes strange.

 

The adjectives in the preceding sentences are predicated of (i.e., are used to say something about) the referent of constituents functioning as Subjects.

 

Adjective phrase

Like nouns in adjectives function,  Noun Phrases, adjectives function as the Heads of Adjective Phrases (APs). Examples of APs are given given below. In each case the head is italicized.

(11)             a. easy

1. very easy
2. easy to talk to
3. very easy to talk to

 

The sequences in (11) show that an AP can consist of only a Head as in (11a), or of a Head preceded by a modifying word as in (11b), or of a Head followed by a Complement as in (11c), or a combination of the last two possibilities as in (11d).

Adjective Phrases can occur within Noun Phrases. An example of a Noun Phrase is given in (12).

 

(12)    the successful businessman

 

This sequence is an NP since its central element, its Head, is a noun (namely businessman). The word successful is an adjective, but it is also an Adjective Phrase. It is an AP which consists of only an adjective, which modifies the noun businessman. But why is successful considered an Adjective Phrase, and not just an adjective? The reason is that we can substitute what is clearly an Adjective Phrase for the bare adjective in (12) above:

 

(13)    the extremely successful businessman

 

Here successful is preceded by a modifying word, namely extremely. The sequence extremely successful is an AP. The reasoning is that because successful can be replaced by extremely successful, which is clearly an AP, the word successful is also considered an AP.