7.1. What Are Adjectives? ✅
7.1.1. The Main Groups of Adjectives
An adjective is a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun. They give more information about a person, place or thing.
Below are the main categories of adjectives.
1. Descriptive Adjectives
A descriptive adjective is an adjective that describes the qualities or characteristics of the noun it modifies. They provide information about things like their color, shape, size or even an abstract quality (like an opinion).
When we talk about adjectives in common speech, we usually refer to descriptive adjectives.
There are two types of descriptive adjectives.
a. Qualifying Adjectives
A qualifying adjective expresses the perceived qualities of a noun. They may even be called "explicative".
| The blue book |
| The tall man |
| The happy woman |
| An interesting film |
In addition, qualifying adjectives are also gradable, meaning, they can have different degrees.
| Grade | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | Good | The book is good. |
| Comparative | Better | The book is better. |
| Superlative | Best | The book is the best. |
b. Classifying Adjectives
A classifying adjective expresses permanent qualities or absolutes. They can even be considered "specifying".
| The Italian man |
| The married woman |
Note that some adjectives can appear both as a qualifying adjective or as a classifying adjective.
For example, the adjective "old". If one says "The book is old" or "the old book", this is a qualifying adjective, because it is simply describing a perceived quality. In contrast, if one says "The old book is better than the new book", the adjective "old" is a classifying adjective because it puts the book in a different group to distinguish it from other books.
Functions: Attributive and Predicative
Furthermore, descriptive adjectives, be they qualifying adjectives or classifying adjectives, have two main functions.
An attributive adjective is placed next to the noun it modifies and directly describes it.
| The blue book |
| The tall man |
| The happy woman |
A predicative adjective is used as the complement of a copulative verb (verbs of being or change).
| The book is blue. |
| The man is tall. |
| She became happy. |
2. Relational Adjectives
A relational adjective is an adjective that indicates belonging to a certain class or group of things.
| The education system |
| Blue-collar worker |
| Social media |
| French toast |
| The fan club |
At first glance, they can look like descriptive adjectives, or more specifically, classifying adjectives. However, they are not exactly the same. The commonality in these examples is that the adjective is crucial enough for the meaning that the noun phrase or fixed phrase altogether must be understood as one unit, as if one were learning a new word individually.
3. Determining Adjectives
A determining adjective (also known as a "determiner") indicates specific qualities about a noun, such as possession, specificity and quantity. It is worth noting that not everyone considers determiners to be adjectives, but rather, their own lexical category. There are various reasons, like that the sentence often cannot make sense if they are removed, they can refer to previously mentioned things, similarly to pronouns, and that they cannot be used as a subject complement. Nevertheless, information about them is below.
| Type | Words | Example(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Possessive Adjectives | My, Your, His, Her, Our | My book |
| Definite Quantifiers: 1. Cardinal Numerals 2. Ordinal Numerals 3. Multiplicative Numerals 4. Fractions | 1. One, Two, Three 2. First, Second, Third 3. Double, Triple 4. Half, Third | 1. Two books 2. The first day 3. A double room 4. A half liter |
| Demonstrative Adjectives | This, That, These, Those | This book |
| Interrogative Adjectives | What, Which | Which book is your favorite? |
| Exclamatory Adjectives | What, How | What an interesting story! |
| Indefinite Adjectives | Each, Some, Many | Each person |
| Articles (Indefinite Article and Definite Articles) | A, The | A book, The book |
For information on these concepts in Neolatin, consult the corresponding chapters.
7.1.2. Restrictive Adjectives and Non-Restrictive Adjectives
Definitions
In addition, there are two broad types of adjectives that will be important later in the meaning of adjectives and their positions: restrictive adjectives and non-restrictive adjectives.
A restrictive adjective (also known as a "limiting adjective") is an adjective that modifies a noun or pronoun by restricting it rather than describing its qualities or characteristics. A restrictive adjective restricts a noun by identifying it in a specific way or specifying that it belongs to a particular group. A restrictive adjective provides crucial information about the noun such that, otherwise, the meaning of the noun would be too ambiguous or has a different meaning.
A non-restrictive adjective (also known as a "non-limiting adjective") is an adjective that provides extra, non-essential information.
Furthermore, in relation to the main groups of adjectives:
- For descriptive adjectives, qualifying adjectives are non-restrictive, but classifying adjectives are restrictive.
- Relational adjectives are restrictive.
- All determining adjectives are restrictive.
Differences
To illustrate the difference between restrictive adjectives and non-restrictive adjectives, observe the following examples:
Firstly, imagine various books on a table. If someone says "I want a red book", the adjective "red" is non-restrictive in this case because any red book will suffice. In contrast, if all the other books are blue and the person says "I want the red book", the adjective is restrictive, because the person wants a specific book that makes it different from the rest. In this example, the adjective "red" is a classifying adjective, even though if one were talking about a general fact or perception ("a red book"), that would be a qualifying adjective.
Secondly, once more, imagine different books. If someone describes a quality of a book, like "a red book" or "the book is interesting", the adjectives in these cases are non-restrictive because they are not crucial to the understanding of what the book is. In contrast, if someone says "I want a non-fiction book", this use is restrictive, or to be more specific, a classifying adjective, because it is a specific type of book distinguished from other books that the person could want. If this information is omitted or changed, the meaning of the book in context changes.
Lastly, think about food. For example, someone goes to a restaurant in Italy that serves dishes whose origins are from China, such as roasted duck. In a non-restrictive sense, since this food was made in Italy, perhaps even by Italian nationals, one could consider the food to be "Italian food". However, obviously, few people refer to food like this. Despite the fact the food was made in Italy, we still understand that it is Chinese food, where "Chinese" is the restrictive adjective that makes up the noun phrase "Chinese food", a specific type of cuisine. The adjective in this example is so restrictive to the point that it is a relational adjective that results in the distinctive noun phrase.
Whether we are talking about Chinese food (dishes whose origins are from China) or Italian food (dishes whose origins are from Italy, like pizza), in these cases, these are examples of restrictive adjectives that completely change the type of cuisine.
7.1.3. Moving Forward
This chapter will mainly address descriptive adjectives and relational adjectives, especially as they relate to the meaning and position of adjectives.