Adjectives

According to Carter and McCarthy, "Adjectives describe properties, qualities, and states attributed to a noun or a pronoun."[30] As was the case with nouns and verbs, the class of adjectives cannot be identified by the forms of its constituents.[30] However, adjectives are commonly formed by the addition of a suffix to a noun.[30] Examples: "-al" ("habitual," "multidimensional," "visceral"), "-ful" ("blissful," "pitiful," "woeful"), "-ic" ("atomic," "gigantic," "pedantic"), "-ish" ("impish," "peckish," "youngish"), "-ous" ("fabulous," "hazardous"). As with nouns and verbs, there are exceptions: "homosexual" can be a noun, "earful" is a noun, "anesthetic" can be a noun, "brandish" is a verb. Adjectives can also be formed from other adjectives through the addition of a suffix or more commonly a prefix:[30] weakish, implacable, disloyal, irredeemable, unforeseen. A number of adjectives are formed by adding "a" as a prefix to a verb: "adrift," "astride," "awry." Gradability Adjectives come in two varieties: gradable and non-gradable.[31] In a gradable adjective, the properties or qualities associated with it, exist along a scale.[31] In the case of the adjective "hot," for example, we can speak of: not at all hot, ever so slightly hot, only just hot, quite hot, very hot, extremely hot, dangerously hot, and so forth. Consequently, "hot" is a gradable adjective. Gradable adjectives usually have antonyms: hot/cold, hard/soft, smart/dumb, light/heavy.[31] Some adjectives do not have room for qualification or modification. These are the non-gradable adjectives, such as: pregnant, married, incarcerated, condemned, adolescent (as adjective), dead, and so forth. In figurative or literary language, a non-gradable adjective can sometimes be treated as gradable, especially in order to emphasize some aspect:

"When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with a forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room."[32]

A non-gradable adjective might have another connotation in which it is gradable. For example, "dead" when applied to sounds can mean dull, or not vibrant. In this meaning, it has been used as a gradable adjective:

"... the bell seemed to sound more dead than it did when just before it sounded in open air."[33]

Gradable adjectives can occur in comparative and superlative forms.[31] For many common adjectives, these are formed by adding "-er" and "-est" to the base form:[31] cold, colder, coldest; hot, hotter, hottest; dry, drier, driest, and so forth; however, for other adjectives, "more" and "most" are needed to provide the necessary qualification: more apparent, most apparent; more iconic, most iconic; more hazardous, most hazardous. Some gradable adjectives change forms atypically:[31] good, better, best; bad, worse, worst; little, less, least; some/many, more, most. [edit] Adjective phrases Forms An adjective phrase may consist of just one adjective, or a single adjective which has been modified or complemented.[34] Adjectives are usually modified by adverb phrases (adverb in boldface; adjective in italics):[34]

"... placing himself in a dignified and truly imposing attitude, began to draw from his mouth yard after yard of red tape ..."[35] "Families did certainly come, beguiled by representations of impossibly cheap provisions, though the place was in reality very expensive, for every tradesman was a monopolist at heart."[36]

"... of anger frequent but generally silent, ..."[37]

An adjective phrase can also consist of an adjective followed by a complement, usually a prepositional phrase, or by a "that" clause.[34] Different adjectives require different patterns of complementation (adjective in italics; complement in bold face):[34]

"... during that brief time I was proud of myself, and I grew to love the heave and roll of the Ghost ..."[38] "... her bosom angry at his intrusion, ..."[39] "Dr. Drew is especially keen on good congregational singing."[40]

Examples of "that" clause in the adjective phrase (adjective in italics; clause in boldface):

"Was sure that the shrill voice was that of a mana Frenchman."[41] "The longest day that ever was; so she raves, restless and impatient."[42]

An adjective phrase can combine pre-modification by an adverb phrase and post-modification by a complement,[34] as in (adjective in italics; adverb phrase and complement in boldface):

"Few people were ever more proud of civic honours than the Thane of Fife."[43]

Attributive and predicative An adjective phrase is attributive when it modifies a noun or a pronoun (adjective phrase in boldface; noun in italics):[34]

"Truly selfish genes do arise, in the sense that they reproduce themselves at a cost to the other genes in the genome."[44] "Luisa Rosado: a woman proud of being a midwife"[45]

An adjective phrase is predicative when it occurs in the predicate of a sentence (adjective phrase in boldface):[34]

"No, no, I didn't really think so," returned Dora; "but I am a little tired, and it made me silly for a moment ..."[46] "She was ill at ease, and looked more than usually stern and forbidding as she entered the Hales' little drawing room."[47]