5.1-Adjectives, function, use, comparision

Question 1

Adjective

Answer 1

Modify nouns and pronouns.

Clarify, describe, delimit, expand, qualify

Question 2

Attributive adjectives

Answer 2

can be placed before or after the word they modify.
In English, attributive adjectives typically come before the noun—but not always.
Let’s have a look at some examples:
In ‘the part-time teacher’ or the ‘happy goblin’, ‘part-time’ and ‘happy’ are attributive adjectives that come before the noun;
in ‘proof positive’ or ‘the body corporate’, ‘positive’ and ‘corporate’ are attributive adjectives that come after the nouns that they are modifying.

Question 3

Predicative adjectives

Answer 3

Predicative adjectives come after linking verbs, such as the verbs ‘to be’, ‘to become’, ‘to seem’, or to ‘appear’. They function as complements that qualify the subject of a sentence. They are, as their name suggests, in the predicate of the sentence.
Were I to say ‘the goblin seemed happy’ or ‘the teacher was part time’,
‘happy’ and ‘part time’ are predicative adjectives, preceded by the linking verbs ‘seemed’ and ‘was’.

Question 4

Function of adjectives

Answer 4

Answer questions. Which?, What kind of?, how many?

Question 5

Dates

Answer 5

Dates can function as adjectives too, such as in ‘the June 2014 financial statement’ and ‘the May 18, 2015, graduation ceremony’

Question 6

Numbers

Answer 6

So do numbers: ‘Four times’, ‘the fifth column’, ‘all the students’. ‘Cardinal’ numbers are the written form of numbers, such as ‘four’, whereas ‘ordinal’ numbers put them in sequence, such as ‘fifth’.

Question 7

Participles and infinitives sometimes function as adjectives.

Answer 7

Consider the sentence ‘the delighted children and the smirking gruffalo could not decide which ice-cream flavours to choose’, where ‘delighted’, a past participle, ‘smirking’, a present participle, and ‘to choose’, an infinitive, are adjectives.

Question 8

Degrees of comparation

Answer 8

Adjectives can be ‘marked’ to indicate a degree. This means that they can take a
positive, comparative, or superlative form.
Let’s look at the sentence ‘she is bright’, in which ‘bright’ is a positive form.
‘Bright’ is a quality, and, of course, an adjective, but one that can take on varying degrees. ‘She is brighter than he is’ employs the adjective ‘brighter’, allowing for a degree of comparison.
In the sentence ‘she is the brightest student’ we use the word ‘brightest’ in the superlative degree. The comparative form is often made by adding ‘e-r’ to the root word, the superlative is often made by adding ‘e-s-t’.

Question 9

Absolute adjectives

Answer 9

Eternal, fatal, impossible, maximum, minimum, perfect, unique, entire, infinite.

Question 10

Using adjectives

Answer 10

Adjectives which, while they may enrich the text, don’t contribute to the meaning of a sentence.
Adjectives leave less to the imagination.
Take the sentence ‘the sun went down over the sea’. No adjectival description is necessary.
While a writer could write half a page about the sun, the sea, their interpersonal relationship, the light blinking off the crests of waves, the gleaming aureole of the last light,
and the aurous luminescence of the foam, their reader already knows about the sun and the sea. They can imagine the scene for themselves, and will only be tired by too much further description.

Question 11

Suggestions using adjectives

Answer 11

Avoid cliches.

Use adjectives thoughtfully and deliberately, not automatically.